I was fortunate enough to pickup a set of these cups on eBay for $35. I really like them but I wanted the design on the cups to pop out a bit more. I used an old trick of rubbing them down with shoe polish to replicate grime. Once they had dried overnight and the polish had gassed off I polished them with a clean cloth. The rubdown removes the grime from the surface but leaves it embedded in the design grooves.

I really enjoy the effect and like the way the cups look even more now.

Wow.

Wow indeed!

I picked up a set of these and also the standard sized embossed FT cups a couple of months ago. The shoe polish aintiquing definitely enhances the look of these cups.

Thanks for sharing this Todd! Great photos as well.

Nice job Lint!

How do they stack?

I have never heard of using shoe polish to antique cups.
It looks good.

Yes, really nice. And only $35. Very cool!

Shoe polish (the kind that comes in a puck shaped container) is used heavily in the movie prop world to add age and grime to things with small grooves, engravings, etc. It works fantastic for fake aging coins and the like.

Todd

Nicely done, Todd. I know you've been experimenting with this for a while so it's good to see you've made a real artistic breakthrough.

Sean

Nice job, Todd. It's amazing how those cups have been transformed. Fantastic look.

How dare you showing ingenuity and resourcefulness!

Glad this thread is small right now, all of us will have a chance to get a set before depleting the supply.
Thanks for sharing this great discovery!

Oh wow.

I was just showing my wife the auction for the silver and gold cups and explaining that I was more than happy with my $20 set of cups. Now I'm not so happy with the $20 set, knowing this is just a few dollars more.

Excellent work.

Todd… I am late to this post; you made those Cups look fantastic, your fantastic photos just blew me away.

Bruce

Thanks for all the kind words. I should have also noted that when the shoe polish is dry there is virtually no smell from it and it is hardened enough to not leave any residue on your hands. You could of course remove it all from the grooves with a bit of scrubbing to get the cups back to their normal appearance as well.

-todd

You don't happen to have any "before" shots, would you Todd? Would be interesting to compare the two!

Here's what mine looked like before Todd did his...



Come to think of it, mine still looked like that after Todd did his??????

Bri

For 35 bucks?? Sign me up.

I got them for a steal. they are normally priced over $100 on magic sites. I just happened to get them at a buy it now price for a song...

I've used a similar technique (not on embossed C&B) using permanent marker pen and wiping clean the raised areas with solvent. Your boot polish method leaves residue behind deep in the recesses which looks more like genuine aging. I like it!

Eh, I'll just steal Bri's whenever I see him. Far cheaper and saves on shipping.

I thought that a set of those Fun Time Cups would look great on a bookshelf with Todd’s treatment; I just check the bidding site and they are now “buy now” for $59.99 a set.