Impressions - March 2014 - 44

machine. The transfer paper is
placed on a platen that moves
as stones are placed using a vacuum wand in accordance with
a programmed pattern. An external air compressor enables
the vacuum. Suppliers report
that their customers keep the
machines so busy that a high percentage of
owners return for additional units.

Users for automated bling machines
range from small one-person operations to large suppliers that sell stock
and custom transfers to apparel decorators. A Dalco Athletic Lettering spokesperson reports that the company added
rhinestone transfers to its product lineup
about five years ago. One of its most popular products is a combination of a bold
dye-sublimated fabric appliqué that can

Fully automatic "bling" machines
but users report that it can be satisfying
and versatile. On the positive side, it allows stones to be applied to items that
are difficult or impossible to put under a
heat press, such as tennis shoes and flipflops. Many decorators who use more
automated equipment keep a wand on
hand for small applications and repairs.
Smith, who has more than 1,500 different stock and custom transfer designs,
also creates originals one stone at a time.
She makes a pattern, lays the transfer material over it and places each stone on the
sticky surface with a pair of tweezers. It
can take up to an hour and a half to make
a single transfer.
Time consuming? Certainly. "[But]
there are moments that make it worthwhile," she says. "For instance, you touch
someone with a personal design like the
cancer ribbons or a design that takes
them back to their childhood."
Another application is the softwarebased template method, which uses an
engraving machine or vinyl cutter to cut
round holes in a substrate that serves as a
template. Stones are then "brushed" into
the holes. A piece of sticky transfer plastic
is applied over the template to pick up the
stones. The transfer can then be applied
to the garment or other item using a heat
press. If the transfer will not be used immediately, another piece of plastic covers
the stones, protecting them until the transfer is applied. The template method may
be a good option for those who already
own a vinyl cutter or engraving machine
because the equipment can be repurposed
for another profitable product line.
Finally, there are fully automatic machines that make stone transfers, operating
in much the same way as an embroidery
44

Impressions | March 2014

Booster clubs love bling products. The fresh look of crystals allows
these groups to buy a shirt for $15 and resell it for $30. This is a "winwin-win" formula because the decorator makes a nice profit, the
booster club has a larger-than-normal profit and the buyer is thrilled to
have something more exciting than a candle.
Like an embroidery machine, the production capabilities of automatic
crystal machines are time based. Unlike embroidery machines, rhinestone setting machines are quite simple, don't require delicate tension
balance and never experience thread breaks. This greatly reduces the
learning curve and makes production output and costs easy to calculate.
After the program is created in specialized software, the number of
stones is known. This allows a rather simple calculation to account for
machine time, stone cost and transfer material.
For instance, let's say you have a two-color heart measuring 3½" x 3",
containing 283 clear crystals and 31 Siam-colored crystals. The cost for
the stones and transfer material combined is $0.51. The bling machine
places all the stones on the transfer material in just two minutes and 10
seconds, for a yield of 25 pieces per hour. Here's the equation:
Price of shirt for the customer: $17.95 or more
The shirt cost to the decorator and heat press labor time: $4.44
Transfer cost: $0.51
$13.00 gross profit X 25 per hour
Per-hour gross profit: $325
Like large embroidered pieces, larger transfers take longer to produce
and bring a higher price. More expensive items, like blinged jackets, have
a very high perceived value. Multimedia also adds to the price point,
even though the added media, such as printing, may actually reduce the
production cost.
Here's another example: Let's say a larger logo than the previous example measures 7" x 6½", containing 536 clear crystals and 377 pink
studs. The combined cost of the hot-fix decorations and transfer material
is $1.03. The run time on the bling machine is six minutes and 32 seconds
for a yield of nine pieces per hour. The shirt sells for about $19.95, so the
machine is still producing a gross profit of about $135 per hour.

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Impressions - March 2014

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