Free Butterfly Prints
Mariela Coxon
A symbol of change and growth, butterfly art seems to resonate with a soft spot in us all. Whether you opt for a stylised print or a realistic depiction, vibrant colours and dancing movement capture the essence of these mesmorizing creatures in all their beauty.
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Overall, given the technical difficulty of the prints, I was really happy with the final prints, and I feel that the design is strong. I was pleased that I have also been able to demonstrate a variety of cutting marks and use of the soldering iron.
Across the four prints, I wanted to demonstrate a narrative of butterfly collecting, so decided to use the other two prints to firstly portray the insects in among meadow flowers, as I usually enjoy seeing them; and secondly caught in a jar before mounting. I made a quick cut using a softcut alternative to lino in order to try out a design idea, and experimented with chine colle. I had done some preliminary work in my sketchbook on the best material to use for the collage, and ended up working with the same as for the print above. I also thought this helped keeping the four prints loosely together.
Next, I worked on how the linocut butterflies would look, a made one with all cut marks, and one with a large proportion of marks made with a pyrography tool. The entire lower half of the wings on the red butterfly were marked in this way with a mixture of different toolheads. This was my favorite of the two, and I felt the veiny marks were particularly successful.
I made a cut of three butterflies to use on the final print, and tried to leave some clearing marks around the insects inked to convey movement. I planned the exact composition before cutting by printing individual butterflies onto tracing paper laid over the cut shapes.
For the last print of butterflies in a jar, I decided to combine a lino print of a jar with a monoprint of the butterflies. I thought that this would help to portray the hard solid glass jar with the delicate flitting insects within. I thought that backdrawing would be the most appropriate way of doing this, as the lines needed to be strong in order to sit harmoniously with the linocut print. I had considered using partially sheer chine colle over the monoprint to mimic light catching the jar, partially obscuring the contents, but decided that this was not necessary. I had two attempts at cutting the jar, using a sketch in my sketchbook of a Kilner jar as a reference. I also practiced the backdrawing using various colours in a rainbow rolled fashion. I initially used contrasting colours, and then worked with various shades of blue. I thought that this worked well in creating the illusion of light and shade on the jar. I played with different thicknesses of ink on the plate until I arrived at the optimum shading on the print.
Of all four prints, this was the simplest in terms of execution, but I think the end result is strong. I am happy that the characteristics of the subject have been portrayed in the way I intended in my selection of printing technique, marks and tones.
It's been over 4 years and still no solution for printing Jewelry labels. I would think this would be added by now! Has it not been done because the barcode doesn't scale so small and still work with the scanner? We did have that issue with another POS. But we want to stay with Square and our primary sales are jewelry. We do still print on regular labels and fold them over the barbell or butterfly label end once looped around the jewelry. This is a waste of labels and I an still anxiously awaiting square's tech team to figure this one out. I can't be the only one!!
We make handmade Jewelry along with our candles, and I have been using my printers settings to make my own barcodes that fit on a Barbell Label. Basically I bought a Direct Thermal Printer and use that software and have created my own labels. I can print 1D or 2D barcodes since I use 2D scanner at checkout. The 2D barcodes fit nicely on a Barbell Label and can contain 30 characters. I think the main problem with Square and Barbell labels is what you touched on, with the Length of a 1D barcode that is both Letters and Numbers. Squares auto generated SKU is both numbers and Letters which makes barcodes longer. I avoided this by using 2D barcodes and now all my barcodes are about 3/8" square in size. Both Dymo and Zebra software can make barcodes for labels and have more choices of label size. Dymo software can import CSV information in to make labels, where as Zebra software you need to buy the Professional version to do this. Now I did not make this with Square, all I did was copy the SKU from Square and put it in my printers software, then assigned the Barcode font I wanted. Code 39, Code 128, and UPC-A are 1D barcodes and I also tried different 2D barcodes like QR, Aztec, and a few others and found I like the Aztec ones the best for my barcode reader to read and for sizing. The Aztec code is a little smaller than a QR code and can hold more data. The Micro 2D codes got too small or my Scanner could not read that style. Meaning a 1D Scanner could not read my Aztec code and neither can an Ipad. but the Ipad can read the QR barcodes in Square. That is my work around for using Barbell labels with Square POS for Retail.
You cannot print barbell labels from the square dashboard. For whatever reason barbell labels can only be printed from POS. We have Square register and have a Zebra connected to that and are able to print barbells & that is how we print. Take a look at the following:
Thank you, thank you! Keith, you are awesome for taking the time to give such a complete explanation of how you do the work around! So grateful for your explanation! I will have to see what our our scanner is capable of scanning. I will also have to figure out the 2d conversion. I am guessing the sku numbers used in square can be converted to 2d. I've had these barbell labels in the drawer waiting to be used for many many years! Lots to think about, and lots to do likely to make this work, but I so appreciate your explanation and will try it out and let you know!!
You're welcome. Depending on which printer you have and their software, changing barcodes could be very easy. With the Zebra and Dymo, you select the barcode on your label and then choose the type of barcode you want. When I tested my Barcodes, I made one sample label and for text I would put the name of the font on a regular cheap label or piece of paper. Hit print and then tried the scanner. If it worked I did nothing, if it did not read I put a black line through it. Then I started playing with Size of the ones that read. I found with my scanner printer setup the minimum I can go is .010 mils, but for guaranteed results .015 mils is the smallest I want to go. .010 mils is about 1/4 inch where as the .015 mils is about 5/16 inch square with the Aztec code. QR codes are about 3/8 inch square in size for good read ability for me. You can also try the size with 1D barcodes like Code 39 or Code 128. Just remember that if a barcode does not read with a scanner there is no way to tell what it is especially for a 2D barcode, so label them with text size and type of barcode before printing. The label below was testing the Aztec code at both .010 and .015 mils, this is what what my label software uses for size. I was going to show the list of Barcode fonts I can use but the computer screen image looks terrible and unreadable.one of my test labels for reference
Excellent! So helpful!! I am using a Zebra label printer. Not sure about my barcode scanner reading Aztec or QR codes, nor how small the barcode can get before it won't read. Will check when I am in the shop on Tuesday and start experimenting!!! Can't wait, actually. We are an artist coop and have 15 artists, 2 of which are jewelers (myself included) and some others that might be able to use these labels for their small items or tags. I hadn't known about the Aztec codes before you mentioned them and may have thought they were just different QR codes. Very interesting! My butterfly labels are the standard 1/2" wide for the Zebra printer, so the larger of the Aztec codes would fit. I may use CUPS to print if it seems to make sense. Zebra seems to not support older free Zebra label designer software. Their $325 label designer may be a stretch for our shop!
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