Don’t Embed These Items in Lucite – We Tried.

What Should (and Should Not) be Embedded in Lucite.

When it comes to embedding items into Lucite, there aren’t many things we haven’t tried. We are always willing to put something in at the end of a channel to see if it will work before proceeding with an order for a client. When it comes out of the autoclave and it works, we are thrilled. When it doesn’t work, we are ready to put in the effort to come up with solutions that help resolve not only the immediate problem for our clients, but also for the next project that comes along.

What Not to Embed in Lucite

Over the years, we have embedded so many items, we can tell almost by looking at an item what will and will not embed. Some of the characteristics of items likely to not embed well:

• Soft,

• Moist,

• Food,

• Oily,

• Large sharp metal edges,

• Most plastics,

• Certain inks,

• Paper that is too thin.

Again, we never say never to trying to embed an object. A large cookie company wanted to embed one of its famous cookies as an award. It was moist, full of sugar, had a soft centre – generally unsuitable for a Lucite embedment. But, we were willing to try! We tried and it did what we predicted it would do after being mixed with Lucite, and put under pressure and heat. It came out crushed, browned and not looking like a cookie anymore. However, we did not just give up. We brainstormed solutions so the client could still achieve their vision for the award. The solution we offered was to create a cookie made out of other materials to mimic the famous cookie. The client had the custom Lucite award that they wanted and we were able to recreate their famous cookie in a way that stayed true to their brand.

Lucite embedments are so much fun to work with. It is a creative medium that allows everyone the opportunity to design and conceive an original Lucite award using either their product or replicating their product with another medium. We love the opportunity to embed unique items that represent a piece of history, culture or innovation that will capture the moment forever.

It is sometimes even better when we can’t embed a client’s product and have to be creative to come up with a solution that looks like we did. This happened recently for a project we were working on with a distributor. Her client wanted their salt embedded as a custom Lucite VIP Gift. We couldn’t embed the salt as it would dissolve. We had to create a way of having it look like it was embedded, the first solution didn’t take into account that the salt was quite thick and the end client did not want us to crush it. So, we came up with a creative way of making it look as if the salt was embedded. The front piece of the paperweight was embedded with their logo cut out of red cast Lucite and a printed acetate with the company info. We then created a back piece that had a cavity that allowed us to fill it with the client’s own salt product. This was where it got a little tricky as you could not over fill or you could not glue the two pieces together as the client did not want the salt to be crushed. They also wanted a little bit of room inside the cavity to allow the salt to move around, but not too much room. It was an exercise of patience and detail that made the job delicate to do, but it was worth it in the end as the end client was happy. All involved were thrilled with the solution. For the first time, the client had their product “embedded” in a custom Lucite award that they could give to visiting VIP guests.

Ideal Items to Embed in Lucite

So often we are asked: “What can you embed in Lucite?” If we listed all the items, it would be endless, but here are a few of the fun ones:

• Fresh dung balls from famous race horse Secretariat – we had to ask the client to take them home and dry them out in her oven

• Gall stones

• Blue Jay tickets

• Dinosaur fossils for museums

• A piece of Hitler’s marble desk

• Cancelled cheques

• Gold bars

• Rat’s bones used for pharmaceutical teaching aids

• A piece of the Berlin Wall

• Real maple leafs

• Butterflies

• Donovan Bailey’s Olympic Medals

• Army Challenge coins

• Resin skull and bones for sculpture awards

We could go on and on. It is never the same and never boring to see what goes through the factory. We love what we do because it is so unique and challenging to create one-of-a-kind, custom Lucite awards for all types of organizations who are recognizing employees, milestones, or designing corporate gifts. We are thrilled when they think of using Lucite as their medium of choice. It is always a fun challenge to see what we can embed next…