Mat Stylus Head

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Merlin
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Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

I have now installed the new Stylus head using V4.6.2 software.

Initial results are quite impressive. It is now down to trialling various pens.
At the moment I am using a PILOT Drawing Pen 0.7mm that uses Pigmented Ink. So far there is no bleed and no start & stop splodges.

What results have other users found and what pens are you using.

One tip when looking for a pen. Find one that has a metal pen tip holder. These do not flex as much as the plastic holders.
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by China shop »

After I made a mess of installing the new software ( lost connection half way through download ) I phoned Joe at D & J Simons who in turn got in touch with Valiani. Luca was on the phone within an hour and was fantastic, he remotely took over my computer and sorted the download out and showed me the new features of the upgrade. Brilliant service !!!!

So far we haven't had much time to experiment but the small amount we have done is with the pens that came with it, ie the pilot ones. Like you say John seems pretty impressive and with a bit more time and thought i'm sure we will make good use of it.

The only problem we have had so far is with the smaller pen not gripping in the collar tightly enough thus half way through a design it pushed the pen up and stopped contact with the board.
Roger
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Merlin
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

Good to see another happy Stylus user.

With regards to the Collets, they have not been finalised yet as R&D is still ongoing.

However, we have found a good use for the dreaded Masking tape. On the thinner pens, just wrap some around the shaft to build it up. That way you will be no slippage.
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Gary »

which pens are more suitable for crescent rag mat?
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Im not a framer but a visualization Artist...
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Merlin
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

Watch this space.

Valiani are testing felt tip pens and fibre tip pens on Crescent Rag boards and will reply when complete.
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Merlin
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

This is a reply from Stevie McKee who asked me to post this whilst he looks for his username and password to this forum
****************************************************************************************************
On Monday of this week, Luca from Valiani contacted me regarding pens for Cresent Cotton rag board. I personally do not use Cresent board, but very regularly use Arqadia's Cotton Mountboard, and also Colourmount Cotton board, so I can quantify an answer for you with these board only.

The problem with using any pen on any type of board is one of board quality and board density. Cotton board is less dense than other wood pulps boards (i.e Conservation, White Core, Standard boards) as it made from one product, 'Cotton' a soft substance Any type of excess pressure on Cotton boards can create an indentation, which if using a wet pen with inks or paints, could fill up and 'bleed' over the edges. Using the Valiani Mat Stylus on Cotton Board, my first thought was either bleed or drag, because the board is so much softer.

After experimenting at length with, TomBow pens, supplied by Lion Picture Framing Supplies, Birmingham, I was very pleasantly surprised that none of my fears materialised. There was definitely no bleed, and no drag, just good quality, crisp lines. I used three colours, Black, Forest Green and Burnt Sienna, all with the same results. One thing I did have to do is wrap a little piece of pH7-70 around the shaft of the pen, to create a tighter grip with the collet once I solved that minor problem, the pen fitted well into the holder and was very stable.

I have one / two doubts though! 'Light fastness and longevity' of the lines, so I contacted Lion's boffin today and he is going to contact the manufacturer for me and report back. I would not go and buy 'cheap' felt pens here, not if I was trying to make an impression on a customer, good quality pens are a 'must'
Funnily enough I have the same doubts when drawing wet lines, so I use acrylic inks / paints which are light fast, and weak acrylic washes.

In The Lion catalogue, Page 54, there are 3 TomBow Pen kits, Kit A Brown Tones, Kit B Grey/Blue tones and Kit C Green/ Peach tones, for me the best colours would be Kits A and C, with the Black from Kit B, they are £2.31 each or the whole set of 18 for £40.12.

There is also on Page 59 Pilot Parallel Pens for Ruling, coming in 4 widths, there could be some problems with nib direction, nib width, drag, etc. but, there may not be, I cant answer that I have never used them, but they could also be a good addition to the Mat Stylus??????? (Maybe someone could let us all know if these pens work with Mat Stylus or not)

As Merlin has stated, Valiani are always testing pens and boards, but it is hard to test every board, pen on the market. My best advice to anyone with the Mat Stylus is this, enjoy it, experiment with different pens with it, and most of all have a bit of fun creating mount designs for your customers. I hope this post has gone a little way to helping you?

Stevie McKee GCF, GCF Adv
Valiani Accredited CMC Trainer & Demonstrator
John GCF
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by birdman »

We have just received our new Mat Stylus head and installed it yesterday. The three pens that came with it work very well and we're very pleased with it so far.

It would be useful if those with more experience were able to recommend any pens that they have discovered and had success with and vice versa. It would save everyone making the same mistakes and for us newbies let us try different pens that we can then report back on.

Another useful thing would be if everyone could recommend any successful designs they have used or adapted for use with the mat stylus. We shall certainly be experimenting over the comings weeks and will report back soon.

Rolf
Rolf Lawson GCF
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by birdman »

Just bringing this back up to the top to see if anyone has any recommendations on pens for the Mat Stylus head? I particularly like the plotter pen that we received with the head and I intend to buy some more. If anyone else has already found a reliable supply I'd be interested to hear.

On a separate note where does one get extra collets for holding the pens? Do they have to be sourced from Simons?

And there's more .... the fonts that are used by the MS are outline, ie hollow letters. Are there any single line or script fonts available for the MS?
Rolf Lawson GCF
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Merlin
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

Rolf
The pen that we are currently using with good effect is the PILOT V7 Hi-Tec.
It is an ink Rollerball.

Another pen that is very useful is the PILOT drawing pens. [PILOT SW-DR3-B]. These use archival inks. I have only managed to find the 0.3mm pen nib though. Looking for the 0.8mm nib.

The Rollerball pen needs to be used with a slow speed, especially when using textured board. This stops the pen skipping across the tops of the textures.

There are two types of collets available. Ones with two rubber 'O' rings and ones with a grub screw. both are 12mm and 15mm.
Are you saying you want more of the same size or you want different sizes pen holes?

At the moment D & J Simons are the UK distribution agents, so I guess you order through them.

Single Line Fonts (SLF) are being worked on at the moment and I am trialling quite a few myself.

I have rebuilt Palace Script myself, yet it is only available as Capital letters so far.
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by birdman »

John, thanks for the answers to my ever growing list of questions. As you know the more you do the more you need to find out.

I take it from your answer that you don't use the plotter type pens, which I have to say I like. I'll have a look and see if I can find the pilot pens and give them a go. I managed to destroy one yesterday when the Valiani went independent in the middle of cutting and drawing and hit one of the clamps.

If I remember tomorrow I'll have to ask Steve McKee how his trial is getting on.
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by birdman »

Rolf Lawson GCF
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Merlin
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

Rolf
Yes those are the pens.
I recommend the first one. I am using the 0.8mm. gives a wider line, especially for the Single Line Fonts.
As described this uses the pigmented inks.
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Merlin
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Re: Mat Stylus Head

Post by Merlin »

Following are some images of the MatSylus Pen Head.
Being out of focus is my fault, not the CMC.
All work was carried on Corel Draw 9 and drawn Free Hand from a JPEG image.

Due to there being so many elements involved in the creation, I had to split it into two seperate .PLT formats. This did entail two runs of the Pen Head. Time taken to complete both images was in the order of 2 hours. Time to print each .PLT was 3 minutes. Aligning the two was very criticle.

They are from 'First Run Only' so will need some rework.
crestext1.jpg
crestext1.jpg (201.91 KiB) Viewed 20066 times
The external crest above and the internal logo below. In hindsight this will help in future as it is the internal Logos which will change with requirements. Whilst the External Crest is standard.
crestint1.jpg
crestint1.jpg (196.08 KiB) Viewed 20066 times
Below the first run image of the two combined.
As you can see this image is only 50mm (2 inches) in height.
The pen used for drawing was the PILOT 0.5mm. In future I will use the 0.5mm for the external Crest, yet step down to a 0.3mm for the internal Logos.
crest31.jpg
crest31.jpg (199.07 KiB) Viewed 20066 times
John GCF
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