# Holographic Mylar



## goolies

I picked up some Mylar sheets at a craft store and decided to try covering my 2nd crankbait. I cut it into strips before applying it to the lure with a spray adhesive. This was also my 1st attempt with Envirotex. The lure body is my version of a stretched out HJ-14.


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## RiverRunner88

now thats some flash! it looks great andy..cant wait to see it in action!


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## TIGGER

Thats really neat Andy! That looks hard to do!!!!!!!!!


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## peple of the perch

Thats neat. im in the process of foiling now. It is harder that it looks.


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## goolies

It wasn't to hard to do . I don't think I will do an entire lure again, but I will look to add pieces of mylar to add some flash here and there.


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## vc1111

Many craft stores offer a material commonly called "gold leaf" but it is really a very thin metal foil. It is extremely easy to apply and is another alternative to mylar and silver furnace-tape or the kitchen type aluminum foil.

To apply the "leaf" material, you simply spray the bait with a quality all-purpose spray adhesive and stick the stuff on. Wipe off any loose pieces with a soft paint brush and stick more on in any areas you missed.

Here's a shot of a bait done with leaf foil in golds and oranges and yellows. These colors are not done separately; they are all from one sheet from this particular package. In other words, it comes in a variety of colors:










The leaf material is pretty cheap to purchase also.


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## hazmail

Goolies - this looks like it came out of a pyramid (please take that as a compliment). Great colors, the red and mauve go really well with that gold, bet you can't wait to get it in the water. Vince - never tried leaf on lures (used to be a picture framer) I will have to go hunting the craft shops. pete


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## TIGGER

The craft store has some neat things that can be used with the lures. I was in a party store a couple of months with the family. I ventured down the gift bag ribbon isle and found a really neat bow. I got it for 90 cents and have made 4 lures so far with it. I bet I can make another 20 also. I glued a strip on each side of the lure and coated it a couple of times to smooth it out. Then I took some paint and shaded the back and the belly to blend it out. It gave a neat shimmer to the bait. If the over spray was to much I just took some naptha and wiped the side off a bit untill I was happy

Here is a pic.


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## hazmail

Yes Tigger , and I have been searching high and low for that ribbon, ever since you first posted it - still looking.pete


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## fugarwi7

I have spent my lunch hour every day this past week (and half of today) scouring the craft stores. I found all kinds of cool stuff for some different looking finishes. Since I am still in my infancy with lure builiding and finishing, I figured I would have better success with more unconventional looking finishes rather than more life-like finishes...that being said, my next couple weeks will be spent shaping and working with the stuff I found. I also built a dual drying wheel today but I need to get a motor for it. If I finish shaping before I find one, I can use my drill. I will post them when I finish, but I guess it will be few weeks.

By the way, does anybody have a source for slow turning electric motor?


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## vc1111

Goolies, those purple stripes show great contrast against that gold. That thing should catch some fish for you for sure. 

Fug, Walmart sells a rotisserie motor for about $20. A lot of guys use it.


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## hazmail

Fugarwi- I have also been out shopping this morning, found 3 nice gift bags at the $ Shop, cost me $6 - wait thats $2 ea, ripped off.










For the drying wheel, someone came up with using Microwave oven motor, you can buy them on ebay (can here anyway) usually about $5- 

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb290/hazmail/uploads/P1000868.jpg

I have 3 and am using a 5-6 R.P.M model at the moment, plenty of torque and they seem to last O.K. pete


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## goolies

fugarwi7 - I ordered my motor from www.mcmaster-carr.com. Search for AC gearmotors.

I'm headed back out to the craft store with my imagination.


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## vc1111

Don't forget to look for closeouts in the way of fancy Christmas wrapping paper. I used it for this bait in 2005:

















Also you can take actual photographs of fish and resize them to fit your lure. Glue them on and clear over them:









You can also make your own patterns using a computer "paint" program and then stretch them to fit the bait:


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## peple of the perch

I would of never of thought of that. Good thinking.


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## eyesman_01

Vince, what type of paper are you printing your computer graphics on? I'd think the regular printer paper (20 lb.) would be tough to shape to the bait. Hmmm, might have to experiment a bit more. Thanks for the tip. Just goes to show the options are endless.


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## vc1111

Eyes, good question. I learned this from a guy who goes by "Husky" on another board.

He created a lot of great techniques and some were innovative variations of foiling.

He uses foil (without netting) as a base. Next he prints pictures of fish on tissue paper. To do this, he takes Elmer's glue stick and glues a piece of tissue paper to an page of ordinary printing paper (you know, the standard 8 1/2 x 11 stuff)

He then prints the image of the fish on the tissue paper by running the standard page (with the tissue paper glued to it) through the printer. 

Next he glues the picture of the fish onto the foil. The foil "shines" through any light spots or clearer spots on the image of the fish and gives a somewhat realistic, radiant look to the image of the fish on the bait.

However, the long blue "shad" looking bait shown in my post above was made by gluing an actual standard photograph to the bait. I placed the photo only on the sides of the bait; I did not try to wrap it over the top and the bottom of the bait. Next I simply blended the colors above and below the actual photography. Of course, I had to resize and "stretch" the photo a bit to fit the longish bait.

The tissue paper molds easily to the shape of the bait because it is so thin.

I used tissue paper when making the "paint" program finish shown above. You're welcome to use that one if you wish. I may be able to email to you if you'd like, so you can try it.

Using mylar, ribbon, wrapping paper, foil, tissue paper, and/or photographs, along with a few computer skills, could allow you to make an awful lot of nice baits without ever touching a drop of paint.


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## TIGGER

Vince didn't you do a lure that had pcs of tissue paper pasted on it? That was a really neat one.


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## vc1111

I made a few like that, John. Here's one that is tissue paper with computer-made pattern over foil over netting:


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## vc1111

If you try the tissue paper trick with computer-made graphics, make the colors darker than you think they need to be because they usually print and show up a bit lighter when you actually apply them to the bait.


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## goolies

Very informative discussion on alternatives to painting.


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## walleyevision

Now I have a reason to go to the craft store with my wife!


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## eyesman_01

I was thinking of using tissue paper when I asked the question, but wanted to hear how you did it before I suggested it. Great idea. Will have to play around some with the graphics, if for nothing else than to get the really fine detail I've been striving for on these smaller baits. I still believe the airbrush will get the nod for most of my work though. Until I started baitbuilding, I only played around with the airbrushes without a real goal in mind. Now they give me an option to do some real pieces of art without a tattoo machine in my hand. But the graphics will be fun to play with too. Thanks again for the tip.


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## All Eyes

You guys are killing me over here. I'm gonna have to get into this hobby of making cranks. You make it look so easy! Amazing work guys!


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## hazmail

Vince - great effect here, with the tissue/foil, do the inks fade much or does the D2T filter the UV? pete


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## vc1111

Pete, I've had no problems with them fading, but I've only used them for two years. They might fade a bit, but so far I've seen no signs of that.

My problem (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) is that I am constantly trying new things. I'm often changing one element or more on any given bait pattern.

I've spent hours trying new lip configurations and new weighting options. Its a big part of the fun for me. As I've mentioned before, I have failures occasionally as a result of going too far with any given variable, but I've also contrived some productive baits too.

The tissue thing is fun, but I really enjoy letting the paint fly, so I didn't spend much time on tissue really. Same thing with foil..l love the look of it and I still use it, but its usually some variation of what I've already done.

I often find myself thinking of stuff I could try, when I'm waiting in line somewhere or even taking a shower. For example, in the shower the other day, I came up with a way to make rattles for larger baits that could be installed perpindicular to the lateral line of the bait. I tried it and it worked great. I make the rattle tubes from the leftover handles of the acid brushes that I use for applying epoxy. Boy, are they ever loud too, which sort of surprised me.

Next I thought of a way to hollow the bait out using a forstner bit to facilitate the installation of a very long rattle tube in my longer jerkbaits, like the ********** and Stogie Jerks. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Last night I spend about an hour and a half making a jig to find the centers of dowel rods for the jointed cranks, I've been building. It was a lot of trial and error, but I figured it out. I made the jig from Lexan and two pieces of maple. 

Now, I just shove the dowel into the jig, strike a line, spin the dowel 90 degrees and strike another line and I have the exact center scribed before placing the dowel on the lathe for turning.


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## hazmail

vc1111 said:


> Pete, I've had no problems with them fading, but I've only used them for two years. They might fade a bit, but so far I've seen no signs of that.
> 
> My problem (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) is that I am constantly trying new things. I'm often changing one element or more on any given bait pattern.
> 
> I've spent hours trying new lip configurations and new weighting options. Its a big part of the fun for me. As I've mentioned before, I have failures occasionally as a result of going too far with any given variable, but I've also contrived some productive baits too.
> 
> The tissue thing is fun, but I really enjoy letting the paint fly, so I didn't spend much time on tissue really. Same thing with foil..l love the look of it and I still use it, but its usually some variation of what I've already done.
> 
> I often find myself thinking of stuff I could try, when I'm waiting in line somewhere or even taking a shower. For example, in the shower the other day, I came up with a way to make rattles for larger baits that could be installed perpindicular to the lateral line of the bait. I tried it and it worked great. I make the rattle tubes from the leftover handles of the acid brushes that I use for applying epoxy. Boy, are they ever loud too, which sort of surprised me.
> 
> Next I thought of a way to hollow the bait out using a forstner bit to facilitate the installation of a very long rattle tube in my longer jerkbaits, like the ********** and Stogie Jerks. Haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
> 
> Last night I spend about an hour and a half making a jig to find the centers of dowel rods for the jointed cranks, I've been building. It was a lot of trial and error, but I figured it out. I made the jig from Lexan and two pieces of maple.
> 
> Now, I just shove the dowel into the jig, strike a line, spin the dowel 90 degrees and strike another line and I have the exact center scribed before placing the dowel on the lathe for turning.


Gee Vince , that's where I do all my 'deep thinking', in the shower- I suspect we are not the only ones, maybe we could all go down to Bondi beach and get under the showers and do a bit of 'Brain storming'. 
I have also found the need to come up with the centering device for doweling furniture, not exact but pretty close, it's made of aluminum, but I think lexan would be better. I have a new user friendly way of 'hot' bending Poly (lexan), no hot oil here, so maybe no good for compound bending (still have to try this) , but for straight bends, it's a breeze. I only have one shower a day (generally), but have come to realize why my power bill is so high.
In years past I played around with rattles and was trying to get a click rather than a loud rattle, I was trying to replicate the click of a fleeing yabby (craw dad??) and was using small metal 'mercury switches' ( 6mm long and no environmental thoughts then), mounted across the body and closer to the head to slow the frequency of the clicks down. These switches have a dull click with the mercury slamming from end to end, rather the loud and I figured with sound travelling miles under water, who needs loud. It worked, although I do not know if it was better than a normal glass/metal/ball rattle, any way I went away from it because of the mercury. I also tried larger mercury switches for front to back weighting, with interesting results, depending on where the mercury was. Every lure I lost (not many) eventually got to me and I gave it away because of the pollution issues. It's a shame mercury is such a pollutant, its such a good weight.
I don't do much lure weighting these days, so do not have an opinion- but I am about to find out, as I feel I will have to do something with this new profile, I have been fiddling with, it is swimming too erratic, some are OK, the next one is psycho, there is too much buoyancy, so your bit on weight and placement will be very usefully. pete


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