On this Clash, the purple splash is bleeding red. (Purple is made of red + blue) All those little silver specks and lighter patches… could be that it’s intentional, but those are also exactly what ano flaws look like. Many anodizers incorporate imperfect backgrounds for both artistic use as well as to hide ano flaws. This is why acid washed colorways have a very low b-grade rate… you can’t tell what is an ano flaw and what was ‘intentional’.
The most difficult colorways to execute are smooth, clean, gradual multicolor fadesplashes on a solid (not silver) background and heavily stenciled designs on solids. These are hardest because they have many difficult steps which increase handling and have no margin for error due to the solid background.
The black Skittles yoyo below is an example of this:
Now it’s certainly possible that YYR is pioneering a new artistic direction, one which uses bleed creatively to give a more watercolor/organic look. While these particular examples may not be to my taste, I can see why others might like it and I commend YYR for trying something new.
It is nice to hear from someone who is an actual expert in the area. Unfortunately, I removed all the photos of the YYR splash-jobs I was referring to. The ones that you cited are clearly ano-bleed; that is obvious. But the Acrophobia’s (I think…?) that are above (pink/green/yellow, white/green etc…); do they have appreciable bleed? Those are much better than the ugly one’s you cite.
My Benson Fok edition Sleipnir has no ano-bleed at all. Even the smallest drip is perfectly outlined. Click the photos for a close-up. The anodizing is perfect. That leads me to believe that perhaps some of the bleed is intentional.
I quite like the look of that Sleipnir and Re Clash. I thought the look was intentional and they really stand out from most of the other colorways on the market.
But while I do like YYR’s splashes I’m quite surprised they didn’t stick with solids as the clean aesthetic really fitted their “all about performance” image.
It might be that we’ve all been so ‘trained’ to look for ‘perfect’ anodizing that it’s hard for some of us to see past what we instinctively recognize as flaws. You’re right, these YYRs may just have a new and different aesthetic.
It is funny they didn’t stick with their clean,solid,no nonsense look though.
Since I have the attention of someone much more knowledgeable than myself, I would like to know whether YYR is cutting any new ground when it comes to 7075 anodizing? I thought that anodizing 7075 was relatively difficult and that doing it well was something of a trade secret. Doing something like splashes is even more difficult; Is that right?
If so, perhaps these early attempts reflect the anodizer perfecting their processes?
I may be way off on this… could you help clue me in on this?
I don’t think they’re really cutting any new ground. 7075 anodizing is harder in that flaws are more likely, colors are harder to get richer and bleeding can be more prevalent, but it’s something that has already been tackled by many anodizers.
7075 does require some adjustments to the process if you’re used to working with 6061… In fact, I encountered similar initial problems with bleeding on my first few YYRs. I think you maybe right… it could be YYR’s anodizer is learning how to work with this alloy type.
Indeed! From the beginning YYR developed a strong identity with their minimalist design. It is part of what made them unique. Now other makers have come out with YYR-esque designs and YYR themselves are using familiar looking splash and speckle ano flavors. They are blending with the crowd.
