Cowboy Etched on Jar with Rope
Doug Kelly is our first etcher to be featured on the blog in quite a while. He shared these four jar etchings that he did which seems to depict the old west or country feel. This can be an interesting theme to etch and the jars is another idea I’ve never etched!
He also shared this information about his setup and what settings he uses:
I like etching glass canisters. I use a 230 grit that can be used about 60 times and gets sharper with use. I can get most everything done in one slow pass. Built my own booth out of a large plastic bin from Home Depot ($15), cut top for viewing, have heavy duty gloves, positive air flow, light weight vacuum and a 3 gallon pancake air compressor. I use about 70 Psi. I find the most difficult thing is getting the vinyl on straight.
Cowboy Riding a Horse Etched on Jar
A Horse Etched on Jar- it looks like he etched in layers here to show some contrast with the head turned
Western Boots Etched on Jar
Share this on social media or email by clicking below!
Very nice ! I am new at working with glass and have tried several different operations to leave my mark on glass. I find that the photography of your projects can be one of the biggest challenges of displaying my projects.
ola Amigo eu sou do Brasil, e também tenho o meu hobby que é espelhos construo gravuras de city antigas eu uso bocas diamantadas de varios tamanhos elas também dão um acabamento muito real e o espelho ajúda a fazer o resto da arte qualquer tempo eu postarei um trabalho ok abraços .
jose E. dos samtos
The visibility in your unit must be a real challenge. I started out with a desktop cabinet from harbor freight, using a shop vac as my filtration, also! Visibility in the unit was miserable, but after 2 1/2 years of playing with that sort of unit, and using mostly cut vinyl for stencils I did a MAJOR upgrade to a cabinet that has 700 CFM air filtration. I don’t even see the grit in the air, because it’s GONE. Looks like you’ve made a nice start at getting the process of using stencils accomplished.
I agree, photography of finished products can be a real challenge. As a photographer, even!
Beautiful Craftsmanship. I love the Cowboy style theme of the work as I am a Country Gilr myself. I am a Glass Etcher as well only I used chemicals. One day I hope to have a sandblasting booth and learn the technique, it allows so much depth in the pieces compared to Chemical Etching. Keep up the creativity and thank you for featuring Doug Kelly in your blog.
Congratulations for your creations. Liked them very much.
Very nice work. I also do etching on beer mugs and mirrors. I use a piece of colored material inside the mug to show off the designs. I find that this really shows off all the hard work and effort that I put into making these. I also etch colored flask sets, these make for great Christmas gifts. When I have a chance I will submit some of my samples. Getting busy around here from all the Christmas orders coming in.
Regards,
Rick
I moved from Illinois to Wyoming 8 years ago.
Its been 10 years since I’ve etched, due to etching area restrictions.
I purchased a large Harbor Freight cabinet 3 years ago.
Recently, I purchased a dental desk 2 canister micro-blaster that will store 180 and 220 grit – dual blasting at same time.
I cannot wait to start back to etching in January!
Will keep you posted.
Doug! I love your western them now! I’ve started engraving Western Theme on wine glasses recently, per client’s request. Cannot wait to etch instead – a lot cleaner!
Also, per everyone’s comments.. cannot wait to see additional etching glassware.
Have a very good Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday everyone!
Bob
On my homemade cabinet, I used 2 sets of bar lights. There are 3 swivewl heads on each bar and each head contains 9 LEDS. I put Velcro on the back and I put one set on the left side and the other on the back. The vacuum clean hole is all the way at the top and it collects all the fine dust and having the other hole at the top of the far right creates a positive air flow, which allows the heavier particles (the solid medium) to drop to the floor of the bin.
I use fine grit because I am lazy. I want to experiment with using 80 grit to do an initial single run and then switch to the fine grit and etch where I want detail.
The little 3 lb. pancake compressor works great. If I could add a 10 lb. holding tank to it everything would be perfect.
as for the Western Theme, I vary from one end of the spectrum to the other. I am now going to try something a little different: I collected glass over the summer, clear and blue of all shapes and sizes. I am going to sell the glass and provide a no cost etching with it, rather than force my designs on the potential client.