If you aren’t aware, I have been wanting to make this blog a place for people to show off their etching or sandcarving work so I have been allowing people to guest post here. That way it can inspire us all, establish an updated source of great work, and get free exposure to your business.
So here is a guest post by Kyle Hunter Goodwin. I have been looking at some of his sand carvings for awhile and recently he was nice enough to share his amazing glass work. He has to be one of the most artistic sandcarvers I have seen around.
Its a very impressive multi-stage glass sandcarving of a T-rex dinosaur and the details he shares are below:
- Glass is 21″ wide and 3/8″ thick.
- Its a hand drawn and cut design.
- With a mix of multiple carving techniques as seen below.
The detail and amount of work put into this is amazing. He has a whole site dedicated to etching and carving at Hunter Glass. Check out his other excellent carvings and if your looking for some art, give him a call. You won’t be disappointed, just check out his work.
Also, please leave Kyle comments, questions, or compliments below. It would mean a lot and his work is amazing so why wouldn’t you! Thanks a bunch Kyle.
Recently, I was looking at some other glass crafts. After wondering around, I discovered the glass art known as mosaic glass tile art. I haven’t actually worked with this but it looks very interesting and promising.
Basically it is similar to creating stained glass but your actually working with color glass tiles. Slightly different but can be used in a similar way, which is to make a creative combination of colors.
The mosaic tiles can be used for flooring in the kitchen, shower area, or bathtub. Some other applications are around a fireplace, furniture, and for creative art pieces like you would for stained glass. the beautiful and flashy colors can really spice up a room in your house and make it very unique, something that I find astonishing.
Some of the mosaic glass tiles are very psychedelic also. There are many combination of patterns and gradients available. I would like to someday get into this. So then you can mix and match colored tiles with etched glass techniques.
If you got a question about the free glass etching stencils that I give away, just ask me. On the other hand, this might help answer some questions. Here is an message that I got about the service and my response:
“I’m looking to do a really cool etched glass of a mural of a semi, preferably a Peterbilt or a Kenworth old a older style vintage or something like the custom trucks they do on Trick-My-Truck and others like their designs. I can send pictures of what I’m looking to get but I would like to get them in a little of a bigger size and this is because I wanna fill most of my back window on my 80′ Chevy k-10 and its for an art class I have and since I’m in high school my job I hardly ever work at and I don’t get paid that great so money is kinda tight and I thought maybe you could help me out! Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon! I heard you do a lot of good work!”
That sounds like a great idea for doing custom truck etchings. If you do need a bigger size, then I might be able to help if you have a great site with a great article about it. I like helping people out with this but I am just a one man guy, so I try to help those that link out to my site first. I get a lot of messages from people looking for the service.
This pressure pot sandblaster system I have used and reviewed is the brand “Central Pneumatic” bought through Harbor Freight Tools. The 40 lb pressure pot sandblaster was purchased for $80 from a Harbor Freight Tools store on sale with a regular price of around $100.
If you have a Harbor Freight Store near you, I recommend going to it instead of their website because the physical stores usually have better deals, more chances for sales on products, and you won’t have to pay for shipping costs. Shipping itself can add on to the cost and is usually about an extra $10-$40. For instance, the sandblaster I am explaining was $80 on sale with a regular sale price of $100 in the store. Online, this same one is priced at $120 plus the shipping fee. I probably saved at least $50 on the sandblaster by going to the physical store nearby.
The website has different inexpensive pressure pot and siphon sandblasters:
The Central Pneumatic’s 40 lb pressure pot sandblaster is a pretty good size for a hobbyist or a small business that allows a fairly decent capacity at a relatively smaller size so it won’t take up a lot of room when you create your etched glass masterpieces. If you’re looking to just do small objects inside your sandblaster cabinet, then the 20 lb will be more than large enough. The 40 lb just allows more abrasive in the holding tank so you don’t have to refill it as often. This is only needed for big projects or multiple smaller projects with out having to stop and refill.
I might start making videos to show how all this software is used because some people are having problems using it. So I included a video which shows how to convert a raster graphic into a vector .eps graphic. That way you can resize the pattern and cut it out with a vinyl cutter.
The video below shows someone using Inkscape to convert a graphic except is being used for a color graphic. You don’t want to convert a color graphic so leave the Trace Bitmap settings alone. Everything illustrates how to import the raster graphic and convert it into a .eps graphic. Then you just need to save it to your computer.
Watch the video below and if you have any questions, leave a comment. Make sure you check mark the Notify me of followup comments via e-mail box so you get updates by email when I answered your question. (The video may take some time to load. Just press pause and let it load.)
I also made a post about this which may help also about etching graphic conversion tips. It includes a picture snapshot and explains some things in more detail. Thanks and I hope this helps.
