December 15, 2009 at 5:34 pm

Steps for Sandcarving Glass

Here are some basic steps to sandcarving glass with a two stage sandcarving method.  It is just one way to etch glass.  You can see some of the popular ways by going to the main glass etching page.  If you have read my ebook or read through the site, it discusses this as the major reason to use a pressure pot sandblaster.

Sandcarving

Through a series of sandblasting stages, you can carve a 3 dimensional shape into the glass.  This is very basic and can get more advanced.  If you would like to know more about the advanced ways, please leave a comment below.

So here are the basic steps to sandcarve glass with a sandblaster.  It is a simple 2 stage sandcarving.

First, place your stencil on the glass and cut out the pattern with a knife by following the lines.  This example is with a flower that you can download for free at the glass etching pattern page.  You will need to observe the stencil design.  As you can see, I marked areas of the cut stencil with numbers.  the number 1 means its the first blasting and the deepest to be carved.  The number 2 means its the second blasting and is a light etch.  Remove the number one areas of the stencil or the areas that would be closer to the observer when looking at.  The picture below shows the first sandcarving stage ready to be blasted:

First stage ready to be sandblasted.

Below is a picture of the first stage deeply sandcarved with a pressure pot sandblaster:

1st stage done

After you have sandcarved the glass deep, then you can begin peeling back the stencil for the number 2 stage.  Remember, you can mark the areas with a sharpe marker like I did.  I marked the stencil areas with the number 2.  As you can see, I pulled the areas and its ready to be lightly sandblasted below:

Weeding vinyl stage two

Then, for the final step after the second stage was lightly etched you can remove the stencil resist and clean up.  Since I did a reverse etching which is the best way to sandcarve glass, you will need to flip the piece around as shown below:

Here is the final glass carving with some light

If you liked this simple sandcarving, please bookmark this page with the buttons below.  I will have more for you soon.

Update: Some people have been having problems with photo resists and stencils coming off so I made a post about fixing photoresist blowout problems.  I hope these tips will help.  Feedback would be great, just leave me a comment!

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15 comments so far

  1. Glen morris

    April 18th, 2010 at 2:44 pm

    Nice job on the flower Eric. Keep the beginner projects coming. Another tip on the 3 mil photoresist is to keep the nozzle moving. Never linger in one spot as the resist heats up quickly and will fail.

  2. Eric Robert

    April 18th, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    I appreciate the comment Glen and thanks for the good tip. I think in the other blog post, I explained how you can sandcarve with 3 mil stencils. The key is to use a finer grit. The stencil used above was a 3 mil resist made from my cutter. I used 180 grit on it and I can cut fairly deep. I know it sounds ridiculous and maybe unsafe or unprofessional, but it works. Thats one way to get around the expensive thick sandmasks. And since I was going to use the finer grit no matter what, it works out. A finer grit makes nicer etchings.

  3. John A James

    April 18th, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    I appreciate your info on adv. sandcarving-glass.. WOW & WOW this is great stuff you have sent us, my wife (Peggy) and I do want to thank you. we have looked on line (E-Bay) for the vinyl, is this always so expensive?? we need to get some fine grit:: and where do we get this from ????

    John & Peggy James

  4. Edward

    April 19th, 2010 at 2:09 am

    Hi Eric, thank you for this free tutorial, I appreciate it indeed. I have learned something new and can only benefit from it, hope to see more of these in future!
    Regard
    ED

  5. Eric Robert

    April 19th, 2010 at 7:08 pm

    Thanks John and Ed. I appreciate your comments as this does take alot of time to put these out there for you, even if it doesn’t look like. And sorry its not the best pictures; I kind of took them with my cell phone.

  6. Roy

    April 19th, 2010 at 7:41 pm

    Thanks for the tips and info on 2 stage sandblasting. Was great for me to understand how it was done. Will led to some interesting work in the future . Keep them coming please.

  7. Sally Whitehair

    August 16th, 2010 at 3:18 pm

    I WOWLD LIKE TO KNOW A LOT MORE ABOUT SANDCARVING AND SHADING

  8. shane

    October 11th, 2010 at 9:39 pm

    Thanks very much for the info. with stages on this site. hope people don’t take your info. for granted. I’ve looked around and a lot of folks are vague at best when explaining the process. protected they art..I understand..but fore someone like me. I’m not in it for gains. its peaceful and almost meditative. Therapeutic I guess I’m saying..Thanks again and keep it coming..

  9. Eric Robert

    October 11th, 2010 at 11:12 pm

    Thanks Shane. I first started the site because I wanted to offer information that I didn’t see elsewhere. Its a slow and time consuming process but I’ll try and update the site with more info. Any topics or questions then let me know.

  10. Charlie Svoboda

    December 9th, 2011 at 6:01 pm

    I want to know more. Why do you use a photoresist instead of vinyl stencil? What pressure do you use? What size nozzle do you recommend? software for designing artwork?

    Thanks you
    Charlie

  11. Eric Robert

    December 12th, 2011 at 6:30 pm

    Photoresist is better if you have a very intricate pattern. It does more detailed work.

    For sandcarving you usually want to blast at about 60 PSI or more. See what works best for you. A good nozzle size is 3/32″.

    Sorry, I didn’t check, but did you get a hold of the Glass Etching Secrets manual? It talks about software in there. There is too many software to list.

  12. Charlie Svoboda

    December 13th, 2011 at 10:30 am

    yes I did get a copy of the manual. Thanks looks to me like the photoresist is better for detail but limited to size.

  13. Charlie Svoboda

    December 13th, 2011 at 10:33 am

    Is there any kind of light tape that you can put on the edge of glass to highlight the etching?

  14. Eric Robert

    December 13th, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    Thanks Charlie!

    Yes, photoresist is better for very fine detail. Stencil cutters can cut fairly fine too but its harder to weed out intricate parts. They do have fairly large photoresist also but the cost is ridiculously high compared to using a stencil cutter for it.

    Most people use LED strips to light up the glass.

  15. Ernie Robinson

    January 2nd, 2012 at 9:15 am

    I have found on etching mirror on the face of the glass to enhance the picture, I Clean the etched area leaving the stencil in place. Dry with a hair dryer to ensure it is dry. Spray with clear spay paint. You don’t need a high dollars paint, the cheap stuff works fine. Peel the stencil shortly after spraying to prevent the clear from peeling back. The clear helps define the multi stage carving. It really makes the project pop.

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