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Glassware comes in all different shapes and sizes. Whether engraved, etched or sand blasted, it is as pleasant to the touch as it is beautiful for the eye to behold. If there is a limitation as to what can be achieved, we haven’t found it yet. One would be hard pressed to find a drawing, design or picture that can’t be turned into a work of art. If it can be drawn or printed it can be etched, engraved or sandblasted. Glass is an artist’s blank canvas.

The exclusive old art of hand engraving is the same today as it has been for over 100 years; the glass is literally cut into or chiseled away, by hand using a diamond wheel. Most glassware, even fine crystal is quite durable and can be cut. Engraved glass personalization is most often requested in the way of champagne flutes used for wedding toasts, bridesmaid gifts, groomsmen gifts, and birthday and graduation gifts, Valentine gifts, with names, monogram initials, birth dates, wedding dates, etc. applied. Tiny, delicate icons such as hearts, doves and more masculine wheat stalks are often also used to enhance the gifts. Plain glass window-type panes are also popular. The unique thing about engraving freehand is that any number of seemingly insignificant cuts can be put together to be turned into a work of breathtaking beauty. Engraving is appreciated for its design, beauty and practicality. Laser cutting is a fairly new technique that forfeits the hand crafted look, but turns out an end product with cuts that are exceptional in precision, and once set up, is actually less expensive to perform.

Glass etching, or acid etch, is done by applying an acid solution to an unprotected area of the glass, which in turn eats away at the surface of the glass, leaving bare areas where there once was a high-polish area. Because the etching is not deep, the chosen design that is left has somewhat of a matte appearance. Because designs can be hand drawn, computer generated or even taken from nature, they are limited only by one’s imagination. Another nice thing about acid etching is that the simplicity of the process requires only a small corner of any room, anywhere, and very few tools are needed to render gorgeous works of art. Acid etch tools can also be easily carted from place to place, allowing the artist to have a mobile business, which is needed to work on things like large office panel or mall windows, any pre-installed glass that cannot be removed.

Sand blasting is a technique that is used to accomplish a multi-layer effect in a design on a piece of glass. Because of the flexibility of control of pressure and time in blasting, the depth of the area removed can range from a shadow to cutting all the way through the glass.