Water and color for art might make you think of watercolor painting, but Andrew Fore of Deluge Concepts in Nicholasville utilizes the artistic mediums in a new way.
At his production shop in Nicholasville, Fore uses his creative abilities and mechanical skills to decorate items with a film of liquid in a big tank. The process is called hydrodipping, or water transfer printing. He added the Deluge Concepts venture to his versatile business portfolio in June last year.
Fore is still employed at Adcolor, the commercial printing company in Lexington he joined in 2003, and he continues to operate Andrew Fore Photography, which he started in 2006. He also is a photographer and Arctic ambassador for Polar Bears International.
Having the freedom to build a new business is “worth the risks, long hours, stressful times, great times and everything else that goes along with starting something brand new,” he said. “But the most important thing I lean on is to make sure that at the end of the day things are kept in perspective and everyone around the business is having fun.”
The hydrographics industry itself is fairly new. Fore was intrigued by the concept enough to start his own business and have the opportunity to serve just about any industry imaginable. He has thousands of hydrographic patterns available that can be changed even more by painting an object in another color as a base coat under the hydrographic film.
“Most film patterns have a transparent component to them, which is where the base coat color comes in,” he said. The film can also be custom-printed with a design brought in by an individual or company.
The dipping tank at Deluge Concepts is 10 feet by 4 feet and can hold multiple items at the same time being submerged through the film liquid, with no two coming out identical. From tumblers to golf clubs, car wheels to firearms, commercial orders to one-off custom pieces, Fore can dip pretty much any solid object (no clothing at this point yet).
After the design is ready to go, the next step is an intensive prep of the item, followed by “activating” the hydro film to liquefy it properly in the tank, then dipping the item, rinsing and drying it. The final step is applying a durable clear coat in either a high gloss or matte finish.
“The options for how the item can look are literally limitless and everything that comes out of our tank is a unique, unable to be exactly duplicated item,” Fore said.
Born in Louisville, Fore has lived in Central Kentucky since childhood. He earned a degree in integrated strategic communication from University of Kentucky, with a double minor in marketing and psychology.
“I am fortunate to have been brought up in a household that encouraged me to dream big and then go after those dreams,” he said. “That mindset, along with my faith, has brought me through several personal challenges and has taught me persistence, patience, discernment, joy and not to give up.”
For more information, visit delugeconcepts.com.
— Kathie Stamps
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