Glass etching
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:30 am
I had a couple of questions about this, so I thought I'd just start a new thread, rather than continue to hijack Farley's wallet card thread.
So the glass etching is going reasonably well. The results don't look anything close to professional, but they're probably good enough for someone to buy. Every single piece of glass that I purchased was $1. I didn't want to risk major losses if I screwed up or if things didn't sell.
The process is pretty simple, but there are plenty of gotchas. I chose designs to cut out with my cricut, then I pulled off the positive image and actually transferred the negative image to the glass. Then it's just a matter of glopping plenty of etching cream into the exposed space, and leaving it sit and rinsing it off.
Here are my lessons learned:
1. leave plenty of vinyl around the image - otherwise you'll spend a lot of time masking off the rest of the glass.
2. Don't choose anything too intricate. The positive image likes to bring the intricate little bits with it when you pull that off the vinyl, and you need those to stay and get transferred to the glass. Completely solid/open images are easier to work with.
3. Make sure the glass is absolutely clean before sticking the vinyl to it. The etching cream won't burn through a fingerprint.
4. Leave the cream on for longer than recommended. I doubled the time, and the etch is still very light on most items.
5. Etching spherical shaped things is a PITA. It took me longer to do four of the "The Queen" wine glasses than it did to do 20 candle holders. Transferring vinyl to a curve is still not something I've figured out how to be good at.
So the bottom line is, it's simple, but not easy. The up shot is that my cricut is getting tons of use, and it's prompted me to look at the newest design software, and I've pretty much decided I want an upgrade for Christmas.
Here are some of the completed items. There are two square candle holders (totally easy), a really cool bottle (couldn't believe it was just a $1) with a witch and the word "Potion", which is really tough to see, but it's there; and a wine glass with "The Queen" on one side and a crown on the other. The crown and the blackletter font are examples of images that were tough to transfer in the first place, then transferring them to a curve was just plain painful. I'd like to sell those for $50 a piece just because of the PITA factor. I've got a dozen stemless wine glasses that were donated, and two vases yet to do, and then I'm declaring myself done for the craft fair.
So the glass etching is going reasonably well. The results don't look anything close to professional, but they're probably good enough for someone to buy. Every single piece of glass that I purchased was $1. I didn't want to risk major losses if I screwed up or if things didn't sell.
The process is pretty simple, but there are plenty of gotchas. I chose designs to cut out with my cricut, then I pulled off the positive image and actually transferred the negative image to the glass. Then it's just a matter of glopping plenty of etching cream into the exposed space, and leaving it sit and rinsing it off.
Here are my lessons learned:
1. leave plenty of vinyl around the image - otherwise you'll spend a lot of time masking off the rest of the glass.
2. Don't choose anything too intricate. The positive image likes to bring the intricate little bits with it when you pull that off the vinyl, and you need those to stay and get transferred to the glass. Completely solid/open images are easier to work with.
3. Make sure the glass is absolutely clean before sticking the vinyl to it. The etching cream won't burn through a fingerprint.
4. Leave the cream on for longer than recommended. I doubled the time, and the etch is still very light on most items.
5. Etching spherical shaped things is a PITA. It took me longer to do four of the "The Queen" wine glasses than it did to do 20 candle holders. Transferring vinyl to a curve is still not something I've figured out how to be good at.
So the bottom line is, it's simple, but not easy. The up shot is that my cricut is getting tons of use, and it's prompted me to look at the newest design software, and I've pretty much decided I want an upgrade for Christmas.
Here are some of the completed items. There are two square candle holders (totally easy), a really cool bottle (couldn't believe it was just a $1) with a witch and the word "Potion", which is really tough to see, but it's there; and a wine glass with "The Queen" on one side and a crown on the other. The crown and the blackletter font are examples of images that were tough to transfer in the first place, then transferring them to a curve was just plain painful. I'd like to sell those for $50 a piece just because of the PITA factor. I've got a dozen stemless wine glasses that were donated, and two vases yet to do, and then I'm declaring myself done for the craft fair.