Acid Etching

Acid Etching, is a fun way you can put your designs permanently into windows, mirrors, vases, glasses.. oh the possibilities of what you can create!!!  Birthday, new baby, weddings...family gifts...

A few years back, ok ok, closer to 20 years ago, I found in a craft store some glass, their rendition of vinyl etching stencils and the etching paste.  Took it home, read the directions many times and thought, sure, sounds easy enough.. attempted to do 3 glass shapes, then packed it all up and put in on a shelf and basically forgot about it.  Well, in the last 7 years that I've been doing vinyl, I found that box with the acid etching paste, and the glass pieces and decided, why not try again.... but this time, why can't I utilize my vinyl?  So I tried it and to my excited shock, it worked.
So I've been creating my designs for the many weddings of my friends, for friends of those friends, and the list continues to grow.  I've lost track of how many wedding's I've done the etching for and enjoy that each one that I do, has it's individual touch, and no two are the same.
I also enjoy with these weddings, even though the general idea may be the same, the design, the glasses, the colors all this, makes it unique & shares the love.

I'll have to post pictures of some past glasses I've done but here are some that I've done in the last month.

Emily & Peter 

 The Center vase they found with the "B" already on it, I found a font similar to it for the 2 side pitchers to pour their colored sand.

I have the stecil on it and ready to apply the acid etching paste.

Tracie & Chris
Tracie tells me her soon-to-be hubby did the design for their Unity Sand Candle- I just re-created it to do the etching
T & C on each of their sand vases.

 Center Unity Sand Candle

Tracie & Chris

Together Forever

from

'Just a Kiss'

September 29, 2012



Acid etching paste on silver stem glasses.

Andrew & Kara

These glasses are going to be labeled as my arch enemy.  In all the glasses, mirrors, beer mugs, plates that I've etched with no issues....this lovely pair of glasses schooled me.
They are gorgeous glasses, Sterling Silver stems... found out that since they were silver stemed, the factory sprayed a varnish on them to prevent the silver from tarnishing....

****Please Note -  acid etching paste
                                will NOT etch thru varnish.****

After attempting to acid etch.... 3 different times, I opted to use Krylon Frosting Paint.  supposed to be permanent... ummm well, it scratches off or with a little acetone.. the paint will come off. 
But for glasses that will be used for 1 day and then become a
center piece in the hutch for many many years, it will work and looks nice.

STENCILS!

How do I even express how excited I am!!!  I have discovered with my vinyl cutter, that if I apply a little time, patience & perserverance, I can create re-usable stencils.

Now I won't tell you how much thinking goes into creating a stencil, but just remember this,  there has to be a bridge or connection between the furthest outside of the design to the inside of the stencil, or it won't work... you'll have a cookie cut-out for a lack of a better description.
Some designs are fairly easy and the most complications is actually the text itself, so it's a good thing someone already thought of creating a stencil font... granted most of them are very similar, so if you have some time & patience you can turn just about any font into a stencil font. 


Soooooooo for My first stencil, let's do one for Sawdust & Embroys!!!
They gave me a couple drawings and some ideas and I rolled with it, gave them some options using different font, different borders, they narrowed it down and then I gave them a few more ideas and they loved this one so much, this will be their 'Brand' on their furniture they re-do.  Wonder if we could get the previous furniture back to brand...hmmm road trip?

First run through on the cutting of ' S&E's stencil

Here's the design I was contacted about - to see if I was able to create a stencil.
Cool design!!  Then my mind kicked in with all those solid lines, at first glance, there's my cookie cutter, need to do some more thinking to get this to work for them.

I think I figured it out so now, it's cutting on my machine....

Here it is!!!!  It worked!!! 

 Granted in order to get the border lines, I did hash marks- this way the stencil is sturdy and should last. I used the normal stencil font for their lettering, and I changed a little on the field crop rows but I think I kept it pretty close to original AND retaining a sturdy stencil.

Now I'm on the hunt for larger material to do larger stencils.... ohhhh creativity is a wonderful thing!