What Is Glass Etching?
What is glass etching?
By Ruth Dobbins of Professional Glass Consultants
Glass etching is the abrading or roughening of a piece of glass in selected areas in order to produce a design. It is a way to produce a “frosted” design on the surface of a piece of glass, but it is much more than that! It can also be used to carve a design deep into the glass or to produce a shaded design that looks like delicate airbrushing but is permanently etched in the glass. Using the same equipment and techniques, it is also possible to etch or carve on stone, ceramic or wood, and even to etch designs on metal!
The kind of etching we are talking about here is abrasive, or sandblast etching - by far the most widely used method of glass etching and the one with the biggest variety of effects. But how do you learn to etch glass? After all, you can’t just go down to your local hobby shop and find a class on etching. And chances are your local book store or library won’t even have one how-to book on etching on their shelf, because these books are few and far between!
More articles on etching glass available at www.etchmaster.com
Copyright Norm Dobbins 2008
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