How Do I Lay Out Words In Rivets On A Belt Nicely?

[LilyLambda]

Say I'd like to have a belt that says "LILY LAMBDA" all written in rivets. (In fact, I would like that very much)

How do I lay out the letters nicely so I know where to put the rivets? I could draw a grid and try to handwrite my own LED-looking font, but I'm wondering if there's a better way.

It would be real magic if there was a program where I could put in the dimensions of the leather, the dimensions of the rivet heads, and kaboom — it makes a printable guide for you.

What have you tried?

[TomG]

There are a number of programs and/or macros to programs that do that. Primarily used for Rhinestones or LED's.

The primary drawback is the cost. $200 and up. The Macros go into things like CorelDraw and start around $50.

You would have to measure the particular rivet heads that you wanted to use and pick an appropriate crystal size.

[billybopp]

A program would be great, but otherwise, I'd start with a piece of graph paper. Let each square represent the size of your rivet head, stud or whatever. Figure out the length and width of the space on your leather in terms of number of squares, an mark it on the graph. Write what you want in the space .. I'd suspect that capital block letters are easiest, and voila there it is. You may have to scale the graph up or down to suit the space, but that should now be relatively easy; Particularly if you have access to a copier that can resize.

Hope that helps.

[TomG]

Well, I ran it through my programs and the issue is the rivet size.

Figuring a 1" tall x 7" long name, using the Tandy Small rivets, they just don't fit. The heads are a tad over 7mm. Most rhinestones are in the 2-3mm range.

Here's what it comes up with. Even moving and adding rivets, you still have spots that they just don't fit.

Now, you could use the small crystal rivets, or even heat press stones and manually place the stones on the adhesive transfer paper. I have done that before and it's OK for 1 or 2 items of small to moderate size.

[LilyLambda]

Well, I ran it through my programs and the issue is the rivet size.

Figuring a 1" tall x 7" long name, using the Tandy Small rivets, they just don't fit. The heads are a tad over 7mm. Most rhinestones are in the 2-3mm range.

Here's what it comes up with. Even moving and adding rivets, you still have spots that they just don't fit.

Now, you could use the small crystal rivets, or even heat press stones and manually place the stones on the adhesive transfer paper. I have done that before and it's OK for 1 or 2 items of small to moderate size.

Very cool! What's the name of that program/macro? I may get it.

I'm using the Tandy small rivets and have a full 2" height, so there ought to be plenty of room!

[TomG]

I used CorelDraw X6 with a Macro called DrawStone3. We mainly use it in our Embroidery/Screen Printing business.

I have thought of heat pressing some rhinestones onto a belt, but haven't gotten time to do it yet. One of these days....

[TomG]

Here are a few other samples. I stretched it out to about 10" long and 1-3/4" tall. Using the Small rivets (7.3mm) for the first one. Still looks bad, especially when I remove the black lettering. That's the second photo. The M is the main problem

I set it for a standard rhinestone pattern using SS6 (2.3mm) stones and center line.. Same problem but not as bad.. Still not usable..

The last one, is SS6 stones using outline. Looks nice.

But unless you can find some extra small rivets, you may just have to use the graph paper idea that Billy suggested once you see the actual rivet size.

Edited October 31, 2014 by TomG

[silverwingit]

I use Adobe Illustrator but you could do it with graph paper as billybopp suggested; the idea is the same.

If I were to use graph paper, I would select a font and print your title at the desired size. Then superimpose the printout over the graph paper, maybe over a light table or the equivalent, and proceed as billy outlined. Another thing worth trying would be to obtain a handful of round objects the size of the rivets to be used (why not the rivet caps themselves?) and physically lay them out over the printed title. Painstaking but it would work.

That's basically what I do in Illustrator. Display the title in the desired font and then place circles of the correct diameter over the letters. If you want to get fancy you can create a stroke that has the circles in it and just start painting or use the stroke to display the characters.

One key is to choose very simple fonts.

Good luck,

Michelle