Latest Newbie Etching

[PiscesGlass]

Now that this has been received by the gift recipient I can finally post my latest foray into the etching world.  It was fun to do, but I'm still learning how to address black vs textured areas..so any feedback will be much appreciated.  I'm still working dry, although it is my understanding that I can achieve greater depth by using a water drip method.

I do work with safety glasses and a mask while doing this, as powdery glass goes everywhere during this process.

I also invested in the extension for my dremel tool and I'm sooo happy that I did, talk about making my etching easier.  This is great fun to do, and I understand that success is better if using crystal vs regular glass, but my pocketbook being what it is at the moment..bevels have been my victim of choice.

This pup is Malinda's new little boy Bandit..and after 2 weeks in transit from my house in Maine to her home in Illinois it finally arrived at it's destination..phew, talk about relief.

De

[nansea121]

That looks great from where I'm sitting! What a nice keepsake!

[Audrey]

Oh how cool. She will LOVE that. How nice of you to make that. It came out great.

[Tom]

     very nice De!!!!

[PiscesGlass]

Well thanks guys, I know she liked it.  I'm doing my best to figure out what I should be doing with the black areas...don't feel that I've gotten the hang of it quite right..but I'm working on it.

I appreciate your comments!  Hugs to you all, De

[Glassic]

Bow, WOW, Bow! I don't have that sort of patience.
"Black versus textured" ??? do you mean etched and clear background?
If you do, does your photo software have a Negative command?

[Becki]

Nice work, De!  How cool is that?!

[gws732]

That look sooo good from here. She will have a special keepsake.  You have inspired me to try my hand at this. Thank you.     Martha

[Barbara]

Looks fantastic De.  You did a really great piece for her

[Kev]

Looks fantastic De! You did a really nice job with it.

Yvonne, I was thinking the exact same thing, turn the subject photo into a negative, until I thought about it further.That won't work.Turning it into a negative would make black appear white and vise versa, so ...if you wanted to leave clear areas where the dark is to be you would not be etching the white areas, and etch the dark areas to appear as the white areas. This would no more functional the the original photo itself, and probably more confusing.

What might be of more benefit would be to turn the photograph into a B&W photo and one would just have to remember, black areas on the pic do not get etched. It can be very confusing keeping it straight in your head, especially while doing it.

Kev

[AglassAct]

So glad you are continuing with the engraving. Love the dog. I have always wanted to try engraving, but I have no free time to add another aspect to my glass hobby. I think you posted this link previously, if so thanks, it is a really neat site. If not ,here is the link again.  (glass engraving)

http://www.lesleypyke.com/

Deb in Ohio

[annabelle]

There is a process called by some "polishing back".....I have not tried it....I still just leave unetched glass....but you etch the whole image, then go back with a rubber type burr to polish back portions for shadow.....I belong to a discussion group for glass engravers, and most of them do their work by hand like I do....Some fantastic work is shown there....  I have it in my favorites, but I think if you google glassengravers.com....that may get you there.....The owner is a lady in England named Sue...Nice, helpful, quite knowledgeable folks....annabelle

[ct4mom]

What a cool piece and a great likeness to Bandit. I'm sure Malinda will cherish it forever.

[Kev]

Good tip Alan! Why not post that in the tips and hints section....hint hint..lol

[Alan]

Good tip Alan! Why not post that in the tips and hints section....hint hint..lol

Not too subtle now are we?
 

Done

[Anne]

oh what a sweetie.  Looks like a good job to me De, guess we're always just our own worst critics eh?

[Judy K]

Awesome!

[JoanFrances]

Oh, De, you did a wonderful job on that.  Bet she loved it

[PiscesGlass]

That look sooo good from here. She will have a special keepsake.  You have inspired me to try my hand at this. Thank you.     Martha

Go Martha Go!  It's addicting..and make sure that you find the Lesley Pyke site, fabulous amount of info on there and she's been doing this for years.  I love, love, love looking at her work.  And I'm embarrassed to say that mine will NEVER look that good, but I'm willing to work on it. 

I'm also going to check out the engravers site that Annabelle recommends!  That would be informative and fun to post stuff too I'll bet.  Annabelle, I've read about the polishing back process, and watched it being done in some of Lesley's vid's on Youtube.  I think I finally found the hard rubber burrs on a site that sells tons of items for the Dremel.  I'm planning on ordering some to see how they work.  She gets a great deal of detail in her work, and her shading is done with the rubber burrs.


@Kev, when I did this one, I did make a B & W copy of the photo I used.  I can use the photo for outlining the head, ears, placement of the eyes and nose, but very little else.  Most of the work has to be done just by eyeballing the photo and trying to translate that onto the glass, because the dust tends to obliterate the view of what may be under the glass you're working on.  Or at least that's how it seems to me.

Thanks for all the kind comments!

De

[Kev]

I understand exactly what your talking about. You can try coloring in the areas to be left clear with a black marker before you start etching, then you won't need the photo underneath it .

[PiscesGlass]

That is a great tip, thanks Kev!! I'll give that a try on the next one I do and see if it works better for me.

Thanks!

De

[Rebecca]

I wonder if you could cover the picture on both sides with clear Contact paper, with a margin all around with just the Contact paper stuck to itself.  Then work under water?

Rebecca

[PiscesGlass]

Now that's another cool idea Rebecca, and if it didn't work, well you can always re-print the picture.  But I suspect, since it doesn't usually take me too long to create one of these, that you could get the job done the way you've suggested.  I know that on Lesley's site, she uses something similar to the water bubbler that you'd use for a fish tank to supply water to her project.  But I'd think that keeping it consistantly wet would be even better.

I'll give that a go and let everyone know how it worked for me.  Maybe a not too deep pan of water...I know that the little I've used of water..has definitely allowed me to make deeper grooves in the glass for highlighting certain aspects of the design.  This idea might be workable!

De

[Kev]

Using a high speed dremmel bit in water really obscures what your doing. I suspect you will find a drip apparatus might make it easier to see what your doing. At least that is my experience when I drill a hole under water.

[Glassic]

Have you thought of working in a shallow tray with hole, over a reservoir and a tiny water pump they cost a few bucks but only have a head of 8"-10", some of them have a waterproof light. I use the light in my Gemini saw it's useful to be sawing over a light box!

De, what is it you want to do with the photo?





 

[PiscesGlass]

I am going to check out a drip feed system and see how much one can be had for..I still need to set up a proper workstation for this...I'd been thinking that an old wooden easel I have might work well and I could attach a light to the top or side of it.
I still need to come up with a workable solution to holding glass in place so that I won't have to hold it with one hand and work on it with the dremel with the other.  I'm going to check around this weekend for something relatively dark colored that would be a non-skid surface.  Plus it will have to be in a very shallow pan or something that water won't bother, and be able to be held in place.  I think I also read somewhere about taking styrofoam and cutting out a spot the size of whatever project I'm working on.

LOL...with the cute squirrel pics, I like the bottom one I think.  On that pic I'd probably draw his outline, where the whitest portions of his body are (and I might even use an etching cream on those really white spots), then using what I have on hand for burrs, I'd start trying to sketch in the hair direction of the darker part of his body.  It's an interesting process with darker hair color, you need to show that there's hair, but you also need to leave enough un-etched areas so that you know that it's dark hair..the lighter areas are much easier..etch more of the glass.  But then you get to his whiskers....which would definitely have to be etched in.  So (I think) that the general way of looking at etching is that it's not really a 'negative' you're looking for, maybe just a black and white image, however I do think that depending on how you view the project and what is easiest for you, the bottom photo could work.  Usually the black areas are not etched, unless you must show hair direction, even depressions in the body of an animal are usually left unetched.  I.E. where legs are joined or to show ribs, or veins, thinking of a horse head..

Usually I use the photo only for outlining, and some animals or items you wouldn't want an outline on..thinking of an animal with curly or long hair.  Most of the detail work I do is from sight or just trying to achieve the best way or showing off features, whtaever works in my head.

De