cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
20974
A trick of light to the eye
Andrew and Melvin,
Your conversation reminded me of a technique I learned from my icon-painting class. This icon's edges appear beveled,
but they are not. As you can see, the board is flat. 
We rub the gold leaf with a cotton ball in one direction using a template of thin plastic to contain the strokes, much like the Geneva Stripe process. 
People often touch it to convince themselves that it is flat.
Mike aka Cazalea
The application of Geneva stripes (video inside)
Geneva stripes, also known as Cotes de Geneve and damaskeening, are parallel bars etched with a wave pattern into a polished surface. This traditional movement decoration possibly originated to catch debris within the movement, but more likely to provide ...
Still trying to understand one of your statements
" The perfect Geneva stripes give three-dimensional appearance but actually hardly penetrate the surface . When viewed from the side the surface still looks flat ." If sandpaper is used and stripes can be seen, why is the surface still flat and hardly pen...
Perhaps we should adjourn the discussion ....
... to the WatchTech Forum to get some real experiences from the watchmakers. But my understanding was that the stripes do not penetrate deeply into the surface, at least using the traditional method with a hard boxwood dowel and polishing paste. The surf...
A trick of light to the eye
Andrew and Melvin, Your conversation reminded me of a technique I learned from my icon-painting class. This icon\'s edges appear beveled, but they are not. As you can see, the board is flat. We rub the gold leaf with a cotton ball in one direction using a...
Fascinating, Mike ...
Thanks for adding this art analogy. I do think that is what the description of the Geneva Stripes is getting at - they are not deeply etched, but the surface change gives the impression of depth when it catches the light. Appreciated. Andrew