SWTFYW Hints and Hauls!!!

It's a thing. I wish we could just export this entire thread and it's participants and host ourselves on our own server.

 

SWTFYW Advocate

 

That's so freakin' sexy.

 

Maybe he could etch your goldfish bowl?

Yuengling truck, eastbound...nevermind

 

BRB showering.

 

I think all my hints will involve a shower beer picture...

 

up the ante. "things you do in the bathroom" pictures.


Major EDIT: Rated G things you do in the bathroom Pictures

 

Do you hand engrave? Are these stencil etched with cream? They look pretty awesome.

 

Probably a good edit...

 

Can someone else please re-post this picture. None of his pics are showing up at my desk or on my phone.

 

I use etching cream but I create a "stencil" by hand; I layer the surface of the glass with masking tape careful to remove any air pockets or bubbles (on the bowl, you have to sometimes tear the tape in half length wise or else it just becomes a wrinkled mess). Then I draw my concept art onto the tape using pencil (it erases easily on the masking tape if you make mistakes). Once I have the image down, I go back over the pencil in a red pen; the pencil tends to rub off if you accidentally brush it with your hand, the red pen is a little more permanent. Then, I take a black pen and color in only the areas that need to be cut out; there's a learning curve here because drawing layered lines is easy, but transposing those lines into a different medium doesn't translate directly. Then I take an exacto knife and carefully cut out the sections I've marked. It's kind of a "figure it out as you cut" kind of thing because I never get all the proper areas colored in on the first try. Then I just layer the cream on and let it do its job. Depending on how intricate the design is, the whole process takes anywhere from 3-6 hours (the Cthulhu glass took every bit of 6 hours). I've only got 4 glasses under my belt but as I get better, I want to experiment with more texture in the images and different shades of etch (I was going to do a subtle kind of mirror image under the serpent to simulate a reflection on the water by carving a vague duplicate of the serpent underneath and only leaving the cream on for a few minutes instead of the full 15 I normally do, but I liked it so much as it was that I just left it). What I've really started to appreciate is how masking tape leaves behind just a little bit of adhesive residue that prevents the cream from etching uniformly. At first, I tried to clean the surface, but I started to look at other etched glasses and the uniformity of it just looks so boring. The residual adhesive residue creates random gradients in the etch that are really cool.

TL;DR - No. Kind of. I know right?

 

Now I can say it....DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Proud owner of glass #1 here; think about a signature for these, maybe on the back of the glass.
Could you cut out your initials and etch through a piece of masking tape, then remove it whole and reuse it
on the next glass?

 

That's actually a pretty good idea, I was thinking of putting these on Etsy to see if they'd sell, although I like them too much to actually want to part with them lol. I can't reuse the masking tape, you only get one shot and then that's it, but I might come up with something simple enough to reproduce each time. I'm wondering if an etch would act as a nucleation point in the base of a bowl....

 

Very cool, I've been eyeing a Dremel for awhile and a good set went on sale at Lowe's. I'm gonna try my hand at engraving, and the tool is also usable for other household projects. Once I get something done, I will throw pictures up here.

 

That's awesome, I'd like to see how it fares.

 

First freehand messing around.

 

that beer looks good

 

@pimpinmidget had a similar math problem today when he sent too many beers, and the extra ones were wants. Thanks Zach! Next time we swap your porch is gonna get ruined.