Painting Sintered Nylon with Enamel

I was working on a commissioned piece and was trying to figure out how to get the aesthetics she was asking for.  Then I remembered the enamel paints I had bought while I was interning at Hasbro.  I thought I'd just give them a try on the Shapeways WSF material, and they worked great!

 These are the paints I used.  They soak right into the material and are completely opaque.  I painted them on right after I had dyed the piece black and had no issues.

You need to apply a few coats to mask the rough texture of the material and get a really great shine.  Two works fine, but I did three or four on the commissioned piece.

 These two are future earrings.

 This is the commissioned piece.  The black had quite a few coats so it took about a week to completely dry, without any tackiness.  One coat dries within an hour.  I leave two to sit over night but I'm sure it only takes a few hours.  It's great because it doesn't need to be coated afterwards like dying does.  You can get shine or matte, depending on the number of layers.  This is definitely my method of choice for coloring WSF prints from now on.

The commissioned piece is a secret container with a hidden twist-open mechanism in the center.  I was even able to paint the inside of the mechanism and it held up against opening and closing multiple times, without scraping off.

Here's the finished piece on a chain I made by dissecting two pre-made sterling silver chains.  Shipping it out tomorrow!

New Stainless Rings

My Shapeways orders are in!  I made my new design in three different sizes (6,7,8) and in stainless.  Take a look!