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NICK: Hi, I'm Nick Regine, the Professor of Crystal. Welcome to the fourth episode of
Ask the Professor. I'm here in Wattens, Austria, with my colleague, Ralph Schweger. Ralph,
welcome.
RALPH: Thank you, Nick. Glad you could do it. I'm happy to be here.
NICK: Ralph, do you mind telling me a little bit about what you do for our customers?
RALPH: Of course. I'm in Technical Customer Support Department, and we do application
trainings for our customers worldwide.
NICK: So just to let our customers know that we do have technicians located all around
the world that can service our customers.
RALPH: We do have technicians in Asia, we do have technicians in America, and we do
have a few technicians here at the headquarters in Wattens, going out wherever you need us.
NICK: Perfect, thank you so much. Today on the episode, we're going to learn how to work
with the hotfix flatback crystals where we're going to learn to decorate, whether it be
a shoe or a textile or working with the flatbacks for jewelry. So Ralph, I'm going to need your
help to explain to our customers how this is actually done.
RALPH: Glad I can be of help. It's an honor for me.
NICK: Thank you so much. So Ralph, we have some of the flatback SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS laid
out in front; would you mind explaining to our customers exactly what they're looking
at?
RALPH: Yes, of course, I'll show you. Here we have the cut sides, the shiny side, and
on the back side you can see the hotfix glue.
NICK: Can you tell me what the melting temperatures would be of the hotfix adhesive on the back
of the crystal?
RALPH: Our temperature range is between 120 to 170 degrees Celsius, which means 250 to
340 degrees Fahrenheit. We do have the lowest melting temperatures on market.
NICK: Ralph, is this hotfix material, is this good for the washing machine and also for
dry cleaning?
RALPH: Yes, of course it is.
NICK: Ralph, we've got two different types of equipment here to apply the SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS
hotfix crystals. I'd like to turn around and maybe I'll show you one, and then you can
show me the other way of placing on the hotfix crystals. This one here is known as a crystal
applicator or robostick. Basically you would have different size tips that are here for
the different size crystals. My favorite one to use is really the flat tip on here, because
it works well with the larger ones, also the smaller crystals, and also the different shapes
that we have.
So what I would do is I would heat this wand up, and then once I have it heated, I would
place it on top of the crystal and maybe place it here for, oh, I don't know; it could be
10 to 12 seconds. Once the heat radiated through the top of the crystal, it would melt the
adhesive on the back. And then I don't have to go through where I'm changing a larger
tip to a smaller one; I could come over to my pattern and place it on the star, and then
it would do the same exact thing. It would radiate through the top and melt the adhesive.
So it's really, really a great tool to use.
RALPH: The other possibility is using a simple iron you put on the highest temperature, press
on the hotfix crystal, keep it there 10 to 15 seconds, and that's it.
NICK: So Ralph, the one thing that I do notice about the iron that you're using is that it's
completely flat. You don't have any steam holes. Most irons that are inside the U.S.
have steam holes. Could you tell me if somebody could use one of these irons, and how they
would go about doing it?
RALPH: Of course, you can also use this kind of iron. You just have to switch off the steam
function, drain the water, and make sure you have not the hole on the crystal.
NICK: Ralph, when you're saying about making sure that one of the crystals doesn't end
up inside of the steam hole, I think it's really important that our customers know that
they really just place the iron on top of the crystals, and really they don't iron.
They're just putting a little bit of pressure. I would say if they were ironing like a cotton
shirt, just a little bit to make connection on the crystal, wait that 10 to 12 seconds
where the heat would radiate through the top of the crystal and melt the adhesive. Do you
agree with that statement?
RALPH: Yes, Nick, I totally do agree. We just need to transfer the heat.
NICK: Ralph, I guess with some of the information that we've given to the customer, talking
about some of the temperatures, some of the time, and some of the pressure, is there a
way -- is this written down somewhere inside of a book or a manual for our customers?
RALPH: Yes, of course it is. We do have our application manual for this purpose. So here
we have our application manual, with one chapter on hotfix technology, with a lot of information
about tools, about crystals, and also about the temperatures depending on the kind of
fabric and crystal.
NICK: As you're flipping the pages, we definitely don't want to scare our customers, but we
do have the information there if somebody was running into a problem, so it's just great
that we have this book that really explains all the hotfix technology.
RALPH: All the information is here in this book, yes.
NICK: Thank you. Okay, Ralph, I guess the next thing that we need to explain is -- we
talked about the loose hotfix stones -- some of the other products that we have that are
also used with hotfix, whether it be the Metallize or some crystal mesh or maybe some of the
flatback bandings that are here. But next, we also have to show them how we've taken
some of the loose hotfix stones and actually created a motif or a design using these flatback
crystals. Ralph, if you would, would you please separate one of these so that they can see
how it was attached to the foil?
RALPH: Of course, I would like to. I do have a motif here. We can make almost every motif
you would like to. We just take off the back foil, place it on the fabric, just fix it
by lightly pressing it.
NICK: And then the next step would be is we would bring this into the heat press. So now
the next thing that we need to do is we need to cover this with the Teflon paper. Ralph,
if you would cover this with the Teflon paper and explain to me what the Teflon paper is
used for.
RALPH: The Teflon paper we use for protecting the heat press if there is additional glue
coming out. Here, it's easy to clean it.
NICK: Now we need to bring the press over.
RALPH: Then we are closing the heat press. In our case here, we need approximately eight
seconds. Opening it, and now we just have to let it cool down.
NICK: So the glue is really wet right now, a little bit. It really needs to kind of cool
off just a bit.
RALPH: It is, yes. It is.
NICK: And the time would be 30, 35 seconds or so?
RALPH: 30, 35 seconds is just okay.
NICK: So really just kind of cool to the touch. Then you would take the foil and slowly start
to remove the foil. If a crystal didn't stick, you can always place the foil back over the
motif, maybe make a little change on the heat, time, or pressure, and re-hit it again. Would
that do anything to damage the crystal or the motif?
RALPH: No, not at all. You're absolutely right; you can redo it if necessary.
NICK: Perfect. Just remove that. Great job; we got it on the first shot.
RALPH: Perfect application, Nick.
NICK: Thank you, Ralph. Also to you. It looks fantastic. This is really creating your style.
So Ralph, we did one transfer on a small piece of fabric; let's make a t-shirt, where we're
going to take a piece of the crystal fabric, and it's another hotfix product. We're going
to take a piece of crystal fabric.
RALPH: Of course. You will see how good it will look like.
NICK: So we're going to place that crystal fabric on the top of the t-shirt. I am going
to place a piece of the Teflon paper on the inside, just in case any glue was to leak
through, that it wouldn't stick both sides of the fabric together. We're going to again
take the top side of the Teflon paper to cover it, just in case any glue gets on the top.
Again, we'll come over with the press. I'm going to give that about eight seconds or
so.
RALPH: I think it's okay.
NICK: I think it's going to work. We're going to do the same process as we did before; we're
going to allow it to cool off for about 30 or 35 seconds, just cool to the touch. Once
that's happened, we're going to slowly, again... So look at this, Ralph. It looks fantastic.
RALPH: It's great, but sorry, it's not your size, Professor.
NICK: It's not, but we definitely did create our style.
RALPH: We did.
NICK: I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Ralph for coming on the fourth episode
of Ask the Professor, working with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS and hotfix. Ralph, thank you so much
for helping our customers see how easy that it is to work with hotfix. Thank you.
RALPH: Thank you, Nick. Always a pleasure working with the Professor, and next time
you're here, we're doing it in German language.
NICK: This would be quite interesting. Thank you.
RALPH: Danke schön.
NICK: Bitte schön. Again, I'm Nick Regine, the Professor of Crystal, answering all your
crystal application questions.
We look forward to bringing you new episodes featuring fun, creative, and easy ways to
use SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS. Remember to visit our website at www.createyourstyle.com, and
please share your designs on our Facebook fan page and follow us on Pinterest. We also
welcome your postings, comments, and questions.