Etched Glass Coasters - How Does He Do That? - Part Two

You can see that each glass piece has been peeled in a different order.  The vinyl resist on the left shows the center as the negative image to the image shown on the right.  All four in the set will have one element that is changed to give a subtle unique appearance to each coaster.

After the artwork has been peeled for the first stage it goes to the sandblasting booth or cabinet.  The coasters are a good fit for doing them here to keep the abrasive (aluminum oxide 220 grit) contained and directly reusable.

The picture on the left above shows me holding the glass, but in most instances I have it against the back easel wall like the image on the right above.  The sand drops through a mesh underneath and is recycled through the siphon feed blaster.  The pressure is set higher for carving and lower when I do more detailed shading effects or I need to go slower.  there are always adjustment variables to each project depending on the details.

The next stage is back to weeding or peeling the area that I want to sandblast.  In this instance it is a light shading to offset the deeper carving in contrast, but still give the surrounding area a solid look by not leaving it clear.  The technique in shading is more like airbrushing.  You can control it to make faded effects or you can make it a flat frosted area.

Once the layers of vinyl are removed, it goes back into the sandblasting cabinet for it's final etching stage.  It will then get brushed off to remove excess grit, rinsed and peeled completely to reveal the entire image.

The last step is then to give it a final cleaning from fingerprints or residues from the adhesives and look it over completely while also viewing the alignment of the 3d layered effect.  I can then add the 3M Bumpon furniture protector pads to the bottom of the glass, and again clean it if necessary.

If it's new work, the glass coaster will go to the photography stage.  For this I have photographed each individually and put them side by side.  The end results are what are now online for sale in my ImaginedGlass.

View > Etched Glass Coasters - How Does He Do That? - Part One

To shop my premade items please go to www.imaginedglass.com.  To visit other works and to "like" my page, you can go to www.facebook.com/imaginedglass.  Email me for custom glass:  imaginedglass@hotmail.com.  These links will open in a new window.