Part 3 : Art Decoration of UV Ice Flower Glass

Although there are many varieties and colors of glass decoration, they can be summarized into five development trends: artistic, metallized, three-dimensional, fashionable and personalized.

1) The art of UV ice glass

Glass products used for decoration must first be beautiful, that is, they must be artistic. The reason why ice flower glass is so popular is that people like the natural beauty of UV ice flower patterns. This kind of beauty is not designed by designers using computers or printed with precision printing machines, but because the ice flower ink is exposed to ultraviolet light. It is naturally formed by chemical reaction due to exposure to sunlight. This kind of beauty cannot be copied or repeated, and it also has high anti-counterfeiting characteristics. The natural beauty of UV ice flowers, only through design can the decorative art of glass products be made to meet people's higher-level needs. The earliest ice flower glass was printed full-page, as shown in Figure 15 , which not only wastes ink, but also looks unsightly. Although the ice flower pattern in Figure 16 is only partial, it plays a finishing touch and becomes the highlight of the product.

      Figure 15 Full-page printing of UV ice flower glass      Figure 16    Partially printed UV glass ice flower glass

2) Metallization of UV ice glass

The UV ice flower pattern itself is transparent. Only when printed on mirror metal substrate can its decorative effect be highlighted and the product have a metallic texture. Therefore, UV ice flower ink was first printed on mirror gold and silver cardboard for the production of cigarette packs and wine. boxes, or screen printing on mirror stainless steel or mirror aluminum plates to make ice flower signs and other products. When transparent UV ice flowers are printed on a transparent glass substrate, the decorative effect is greatly reduced. This is the fifth time that Kewang has participated in the glass exhibition. At the first exhibition, a transparent ice flower glass sample was displayed. Many people felt that It was very novel, but when I scratched it with something hard, the ice flakes were very hard and brittle, so I shook my head and walked away. Until the end of 2011 , someone combined the transparent ice flower glass with the vacuum coating process to metallize the UV ice flower glass, which not only highlights the natural texture effect of the ice flower, but also gives the glass product a metallic texture. Metalizing plastic films such as acrylic, PET film, glass and other non-metallic products is a major trend in decoration. There are three commonly used methods for metallizing glass products, as shown in Table 3. Figures 17 , 18 and 19 are vacuum coating, screen printing mirror silver and screen printing UV three-dimensional hot stamping glass samples respectively.

table 3    Glass product metallization methods

Figure 17 Vacuum coating UV ice flower      Figure 18 Silk screen mirror silver ink      Figure 19 UV silk screen three-dimensional hot stamping

3) Three-dimensionalization of UV ice flower glass

The incident light first enters the ice flower layer and is reflected by the mirror metal coating. After the reflected light is refracted by countless tiny ice filaments, it enters people's eyes from different angles and forms a three-dimensional decorative glass product. This is why ice flower glass has a strong three-dimensional effect. The reason is shown in Figure 20 .

Figure 20 UV three-dimensional ice flowers and relief glass

4) Fashionable UV ice glass

Ice flower glass decoration is like fashion, with fashionable characteristics. The new style of glass sliding doors that was popular last year has now been discounted because people like the new and dislike the old (except for antiques). Although ice flowers are beautiful to look at, they can become boring if you look at them for a long time , and there are also days when they are outdated. The earliest ice flower glass produced was fully printed with ice flower ink and then vacuum coated, as shown in Figure 21. Later, there were partial printing of ice flowers and then coating; we can Change any of the ice flower color, the type / color of coated metal, or the printed flower shape to increase the variety of products, so that the ice flower glass can continue to innovate and meet the needs of fashionable decorative products. Currently commonly used mirror coating metals include aluminum, copper, titanium, stainless steel, etc. Among them, aluminum plating is the most common and the price is the lowest.

                          Figure 21 UV art glass becomes fashionable

5) Personalization of UV ice glass

The 21st century is an era of personalized needs. People no longer like products mass-produced on assembly lines. The reason why 3D printing technology is so popular is that it can meet people's personalized needs to the greatest extent. The same is true for glass decoration. People want to buy unique and preferably unique glass products to decorate their new homes.

                        Figure 22 Personalized UV ice glass sample

How can we combine the beauty of UV ice flowers with the personalization of glass art decoration? Personalized decoration must rely on personalized production technology and innovative materials for technical support. Only by combining different processes to improve the technical and artistic content of the product can the purpose of personalized decoration be achieved.

1 ) Combination of large and small ice flowers - on the same piece of glass, use two different types of ice flower inks UV-GI-880NI and N2 to print different parts of the picture respectively. Large ice flowers are suitable for printing large-area patterns, while small ice flowers are suitable for printing thin borders and lines, see Figure 6 .

2 ) Combination of ice flowers of different colors - production of multi-color UV ice flower patterns.

3 ) Changing the color of the back paint can also increase the personality of the product, as shown in Figure 22 .

4 ) Artistic combination of UV ice flowers and other UV special effect inks.