Want to upgrade from the common wooden plaques. Try our Dazzling Plaques? The shimmering silver and gold gives a stark contract to the deep black and all your text is engraved in grayish silver color. We carry both silver and gold color. One for the winner and one for the [...]

Want to upgrade from the common wooden plaques. Try our Dazzling Plaques? The shimmering silver and gold gives a stark contract to the deep black and all your text is engraved in grayish silver color. We carry both silver and gold color. One for the winner and one for the runner’s up.

Until recently the only way to get color printing directly on a wooden plaque was through screen printing and if you wanted a full color picture on it lets say for an aircraft than forget it. No chance. But now with our direct digital printing service you can get any [...]

Until recently the only way to get color printing directly on a wooden plaque was through screen printing and if you wanted a full color picture on it lets say for an aircraft than forget it. No chance. But now with our direct digital printing service you can get any picture on your wooden plaque actually we can print on many more surfaces like acrylic & laser sheets. Don’t settle for less…. Click here to get this plaque customized for your company or view our entire collections of plaques.

No. Sorry this is not possible. One of my earlier blogs I talked in detail about how images are actually engraved inside crystal. You can read this blog to build a complete understanding on this process but if you want a real quick explanation than here it goes. These images [...]

No. Sorry this is not possible. One of my earlier blogs I talked in detail about how images are actually engraved inside crystal. You can read this blog to build a complete understanding on this process but if you want a real quick explanation than here it goes.

These images are engraved inside crystal through a laser beam. The laser beam penetrated through the surface of the crystal and starts rupturing the crystal in forms of tinny dots to create the image you want. Since technically no material enters a solid block of crystal we cannot put color inside 3D engraved crystal.

Hope this was helpful. As always do leave me a feedback below.

Plating is commonly used as short form for ‘Electro Plating’. Technically speaking it is a chemical process in which a product, typically metal is coated with tiny ions of another metal through a process of electrolysis. I am not getting into the technical or more specifically chemical details of electrolysis [...]

Plating is commonly used as short form for ‘Electro Plating’. Technically speaking it is a chemical process in which a product, typically metal is coated with tiny ions of another metal through a process of electrolysis. I am not getting into the technical or more specifically chemical details of electrolysis but certainly would like to talk a little more about the application of plating. Electroplating plays a huge role in our awards and promotional industry.

Almost always awards and gifts are casted in bare metal and than plated with the desired metallic colors such as silver, chrome, gold, copper, black just to name a few. There are many many variations within each color as well, such as matt gold, bright gold, champagne gold etc. Besides the fact that platting makes the object look very impressive it also plays an important role of protecting the award or the gift from rusting.

Many times plating is also done to bring down the cost. For example many awards and gifts are casted in metal and than plated with real 24 karat gold or real silver. If platting is well done than once finished the awards and gifts look as if they are made entirely of real gold and real silver. This is used extensively to make artificial jewelry.

Now a days some very unusual substances are also electro plated. For example real flowers. Yes you heard it right. Real flowers. In fact rose flower plated in 24 karat gold is a very popular gift, especially as a romantic gift or a perfect gift for valentine. At Pinnacle how ever we have used it as an award, as a Thank you gesture gift to special employees and customers also as a long service award.

Hope now the term plating is absolutely clear if I could be of any additional help feel free to leave a comment below.

Article talks about an interesting story about the invention of glass.

Recently I bought this beautiful book ‘The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. This book has one complete chapter dedicated to Glass. The book effortlessly transported me into a time when we humans lived in sync with earth and not as the most powerful creatures who’s hunger for resources never seems to slow down.

The book talks about the origins of glass; this is no ordinary story of invention where a scientist had his eureka moment. Instead its a story which can easily qualify to be in a children’s bed time story book. It goes like this…

“Once a ship belonging to some traders in natural soda (nitrum) put ashore here ( near the river Belus) and that they scattered along the shore to prepare a meal. Since, however, no stones for supporting their cauldrons were forthcoming, they rested them on lumps of soda from their cargo. When these became heated and were completely mingled with the sand on the beach a strange liquid flowed in steams; and this, it is said, was the origin of glass. (Pliny the Elder, 1st century AD). So the origin of glass is some what obscure but long predates the account given by Pliny the Elder.” (The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. Page 49)

Honestly up till now I always thought that glass was invented some where during the industrial revolution and of course I was wrong by hundreds and thousands of years. Well so much for my history knowledge. I found few other interesting notes which I found interesting.

* The first known objects in glass were beads and amulets dating to 2500 BC from Mesopotamia region.
* The first glass vessels was probably made before 1500 BC around western asia.
* Glass Blowing, a technique use to produce our artistic awards such as Regency Crystal Award and Signature Crystal Award was discovered sometime around 1st century BC on teh coast of Syria.
* Float glass or window glass which we use for awards was a roman invention used in Italy around 1st century AD.
(The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. Page 49-51)

As I mentioned all the above information is from the above mentioned book if this information is not correct please leave me a note and I would correct it here for every ones reference.

Planning to make your own custom lapel pin. Great Idea! Confused which finish is right for you? Worry no more. I have explained 6 of the most popular finishes below. Choose the one which fits your artwork the best. Still have doubts and questions write to us us at customerservice@pinnacleworks.com [...]

Planning to make your own custom lapel pin. Great Idea! Confused which finish is right for you? Worry no more. I have explained 6 of the most popular finishes below. Choose the one which fits your artwork the best. Still have doubts and questions write to us us at customerservice@pinnacleworks.com and we would be happy to help you.

1. Dye Struck Enamel Color Lapel Pins :

Each piece of lapel pin is casted in metal from a mould. Once casted all pins are individually polished, plated in gold or silver color and finally sent for color filling. Vibrant enamel colors are filled as per your artwork in the lapel pin one color at a time. Finally your perfect lapel pins are ready for you.

When your lapel pins are dye struck your artwork appears as high relief. That is if you run your finger over the pin you can feel all the lines of the artwork in metal quite distinctly.

2. Photo Etched Enamel Color Lapel Pin :
Lapel pins made from this process look almost similar to the Dye struck enamel color pins the only difference being the metal pin is not made from a dye. Your artwork is etched on metal. All your lines in your artwork look much finer in metal. If you run your finger over the pins you cannot feel the lines if your artwork clearly.

3. Dye Struck Copper lapel pin without coloring :
Rustic, macho, different. You can call this finish anything. Different people have different reasons to go for this finish. This pin is casted from a mould and platted with copper. No additional colors are filled in this pin.

4. Printing on Metal with lamination :
Make no mistake this is no ordinary printing. Your artwork is printed through a special process directly on metal and than laminated for that perfect gloss finish. Many times an artwork cannot be casted in metal from a dye. For example our Lapel pin for the Indian Flag. There was no way we could make a perfect chakra with 24 spikes in the Indian Flag Pin using the casting process and than filling in enamel colors.

5. 3D Model Lapel Pins;
Yes, we can make 3D or a 2D design for a lapel pin. In this process first a perfect clay model is made by an artist for the object looking at various pictures from different angle and than a master mould is prepared from which the pieces are casted. Once casted each piece is polished and perfected before plating in silver or gold color. This method needs detail and precision working especially in you are making a scaled down model of aircrafts.

6. Custom Cut acrylic pins and badges :
Made from acrylic sheets this is the fastest way to get two color Lapel. Any custom shape is possible. However no additional color can be added. We can ship these pins in 3 days after artwork approval.

Hope this information was helpful. If you have questions do feel free to leave me a comment.

This question has come up many times especially since we started selling hand crafted crystal and art glass awards so I decided to make this my this weeks blog topic. Yes ! even a good quality crystal can have fine lines and bubbles. However a good quality Optic Crystal should [...]

This question has come up many times especially since we started selling hand crafted crystal and art glass awards so I decided to make this my this weeks blog topic.
Yes ! even a good quality crystal can have fine lines and bubbles. However a good quality Optic Crystal should not have any fine lines or bubbles. But remember despite having bubbles and fine lines many times crystal can be more expensive than optic crystal and things made from art glass even more expensive. Having fine lines or bubbles is not the only deciding factor for either price or quality of a product. Confused. Don’t worry. Just read on and in a matter of minutes you will have more clarity on what is Optic Crystal, Crystal and Art Glass?
Firstly all crystal or optic crystal or art glass or lead glass or float glass belong to one family Glass. Yes you have read it right even crystal is fundamentally glass.
Glass is turned into crystal by adding lead oxide. Lead oxide makes the glass clear, heavier, softer and more refractive. There are many different grades of crystal depending on how much lead is added to glass. Again content of lead alone may not qualify for a better quality of crystal. A number of other factors such as final application the process of making are equally important.
Many of the crystal items are made directly from molten glass either by hand or by machines and this is the reason why fine lines and tiny bubbles can come while making pieces as air tries to escape hot molten glass. But with advance techniques and using better quality raw material and workmanship this can be avoided in a machine controlled environment like when drinking glasses are made but when it comes to handcrafting each piece which is especially the case in our awards industry this is is not possible and fine lines and bubbles are bound to come in lead crystal pieces. Click here to see an Example of Lead Crystal Award, Hand crafted Crystal Award.

Optic Crystal on the other hand is 100% lead free crystal. This type of crystal is very hard and perfect for engraving. 90% of our crystal awards are made of Optic Crystal. Within Optic Crystal also there are various varieties the best among the lot is K9 A grade crystal. This is the crystal which does not have a yellowish tinge or turn yellow with time. In this crystal having fine lines and even small bubbles inside the crystal is a poor sign of quality. Click here to see our range of Optic Crystal Awards.
Hope this help. As always please share your comments below and if there is some new knowledge you can share I would be happy to learn.

This Blogs explains in a very basic way how do we get beautiful 3D engraved images inside crystal while the top surface remains plain.

Any one who looks at 3D engraved crystals for the first time is bound to ask this question. How did we do it? How come nothing has happened to the surface of the crystal? Seems quite impossible. The first time I saw this, I asked the exactly same question. But I was lucky as I saw it in a store in Las vegas in 2003. The machine was installed in the store and I could see everything in action They even had a 3D camera. People could get their pictures clicked and get their entire 3D face inside crystal. It was beautiful. Quality was impeccable.

Sure at that time this technology was quite ahead of time in India. In fact first I saw these pieces in India was not before 2005 and machines came much later. Now there should be about 40-50 machines in India but sadly most people are not concentrating on quality work.

These 3D engraved crystals or 3D laser crystal as they are popularly called are made through lasers. The crystal piece is placed inside a big box like laser machine which is than closed. All machines are controlled by their own proprietary softwares which can work with 2D or 3D images.

Once the command is given the sharp laser beam penetrates through the crystal and starts to rupture the crystal from inside leaving the outer surface untouched. Images is formed using hundreds and thousands of dots. They vary in side and density. Minutes later you have your perfect piece. Take your piece out from the machine and your get a perfectly finished piece.

In this process artwork and settings can make all the difference between a poor piece and a high quality piece. Of course ! machines and crystals matter. But they are of little use if the artwork is not made correctly or the density of the dots is compromised. Every small details adds to the final finish.

I had a chance to see this machine in action in china as well. A big difference. I was shocked to see that chinese had invented a new way to increase their production. They had opened the machine from all 4 sides, added multiple laser heads and made the engraving bed closer to the floor. It was a fairly large machine. Now 4 people sitting on 4 sides of the machine could sit comfortably on the floor and keep changing the pieces. No need to open the machine. Even when the laser was working the machine was open from all 4 sides. It was shocking to see things in action. I am no expert on the harmful effects of lasers but common sense says there are bound to be harmful side effects.

Still have some questions on 3D laser engraving ? Don’t hesitate to ask me.

This blog talks about a type of crystal trophies one should not buy.

Many times we get award image’s like these. Customers want some similar looking trophies. Multiple small pieces stuck on top of each other to make a slim tall trophy. A great recipe for disaster.

The reason is deep rooted in the quality of the awards and how long such an award will last. Ten years of working in this line I have seen enough awards like these come apart, some take few days or months but many come apart at production stage itself. Awards should last forever and not wither with time.

All these awards are made from small pieces which are stuck on each other to make a tall award. However the contact area ( the area between two pieces where we apply glue) is quite small. In these awards you have multiple weak joints which make the over all award quite delicate and weak.

A part of the problem could be addressed if a strong glue is used. It would make the joints very strong but typically these designs are done for low budget trophies. They cannot afford to use a good glue which usually costs Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 17,000 a kg. End result you get a trophy which is fragile and may not stand the test of time.

I still remember in 2005 I got an requirement from a new customers in Bangalore for 500 pieces for a tall slim crystal trophy in a low budget. It looked somewhat liked the one above. I explained them that this would not work but for what ever reasons they did not agree. I must admit that for a moment I did want to take up the business as I knew who stocked these trophies ( at Pinnacle we only stock our own crystal awards and trophies ). All I had to do was pick up 500 pieces and engrave personalize and supply. It would have been good business especially during 2005 when we were in our struggling years. But thankfully that thought stayed only for a few moments. They went ahead and bought these trophies from some other supplier. To their bad luck what the supplier gave was really bad and many pieces came apart during the event itself. Avoid this disaster for your own awards and trophies. Next time if you are given these designs as an option until and unless you are very confidant of your vendor do not select this style.

Hope this was helpful. Do leave me a comment below as I would love to hear from you.

This post talks about the disadvantages of using LED bases for awards.

Quite often we get a request to supply awards which have a LED base to light up the award or to engrave on such awards which our customers have sourced else where. Unfortunately we have to turn down both requests. We explain our reasons and most customers understand. So I thought about writing a Blog Post for this. Following are my 3 compelling reasons why you must never use LED bases for Awards and Corporate Gifts.

1. Short Life: Most LED basis have few months of life or in very few cases 2-3 years. It is electrical and is bound to get spoiled. Once LED is spoiled the awards looks quite bad.
2. Dependent on electricity or battery: LED basis either need electricity or battery cells and both are not a practical option when it comes to awards. We must
3. Keep the recipient in mind: Though I am mentioning this in the last. This is a very crucial point. We don’t know where the awards will finally be kept whether there will be electricity or a person who will change the battery regularly or not.

Considering all these points, its quite worthless to invest on LED bases. Hope this post was helpful and I look forward to your comments. My due apologies to people who love LED bases and promote them.