Saturday, August 31, 2013

My absolute favorite etching project...

My absolute favorite etching project so far is this frame.  I've been making things for a craft show in December, but this may just have to stay at my house.

The frame was found at a local discount store.  It was a piece of framed "art".  I fell in love with the scroll work and decided to risk disassembling it, hoping I could either put vinyl lettering on the reverse side of the glass or etch the front.  It came apart quite easily and was ready to embellish.

Let me tell you, this was not as easy as I thought it would be.  This project has been a good learning experience for me this afternoon.

Here's what I learned--- the hard way of course.

Determine that your frame is deep enough to accommodate a wine cork.

You really can't cut wine corks with a kitchen knife. I tried.  Thinking I might wind up amputating a finger with a chef's knife, I used a band saw to slice off a narrow strip to flatten the back of the corks and make them thin enough to fit between the glass and the paper backing in the frame.

Always, always, be sure that you have the hanger at the top of the frame. Otherwise, you  have to find the tiniest drill bit known to man and reposition it where it should be.

When you're blasting with glass beads, cover the back side of the open frame. It took me at least half an hour to remove all the dust from the etching process that attached itself to the scroll work inside the frame.  After using a dry cloth, paint brush, and a damp cloth, a can of compressed air rescued me.

The font used is Lobster 1.4.  The stencil was cut on my Cameo using Make The Cut software.  The outside dimension of the frame is 9" x 14". I know there's a perfect spot for a piece this size it in my dining area!




7 comments:

  1. this is so pretty. i can't find a floating frame that deep. you got lucky. i'll be keeping my eyes open for many of these as they're expensive to buy new. i love anything with 'wine' on it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice- did you etch the front of the glass or the back?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful. I really like this. Your getting pretty good at using that blaster.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well after all that work you should definitely keep this for yourself!!! I like you love it and it is the best thing yet! lol I read a tip about cutting cork, to soak it in water first, but your way sounds better and easier to me!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I etched the front of the glass because of the scroll work in the corners.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fabulous work! I think I would keep that one too.

    ReplyDelete