How to Glass Etch a Large Design

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Small designs tend to be easy to do. But sometimes you work with something bigger. Here’s how to glass etch a large design.

I’ve done my fair share of glass etching. I’ve done wine glasses, bakeware and Christmas ornaments. But this particular wine glass had me beat – or so I thought.

Many thanks to the good people of Etchall for providing the etching cream. They provided me with the Bee-ginner kit to do glass etching projects.

The Challenges with Glass Etching a Large Design

Now size is relative. In this particular case, I was glass etching a design that contained 3 lines. It wasn’t large in terms of surface area, but it was large in the sense that there was a lot to etch.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have had my fair share of crafting fails. In my first 2 attempts, I simply could not get it to etch nicely. I had etching cream leaking through and it was a mess. The first time, I could chalk it up to user error. Maybe I was careless in applying the stencil. But the second time – well, this clearly wasn’t working.

The way to get a good, clean etch is a stencil that is perfectly adhered to the glass. There should be no air bubbles or pockets which would result in etching cream seeping through and causing bleeding.

Part of my issue was that I was etching a stemless wine glass. So the surface was not flat. Working with a curved surface literally feels 10 times harder. Getting a stencil to sit perfectly flat on a curved surface is tricky for smaller designs (but doable). Getting a larger design to sit perfectly flat was pretty much impossible for me.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, it was time to try a different strategy. I remembered how I applied a large vinyl wall decal and applied the same strategy.

Tips for Your Graphic Design

One of my problems was that my letters were too close together. The design was too tight. This could be easily fixed by adjusting the spacing between the letters.

You want to spread the letters out so that there is more space in between each of the letters. By doing this your stencil can lay flat in between each letter and you will have less leaking of the etching cream. More space in between each letter acts as a barrier.

I also had to break up my design into more manageable pieces. Etching smaller parts at a time would yield a clean etch.

So 3 lines meant 3 different etching applications. I know it sounded like a lot, but what was I to do? So in Cricut Design Space, I had to separate my graphic.

How to Glass Etch a Large Design

In order to etch the glass 3 times, I had to separate the graphic into 3 pieces. I applied one line of the stencil. Put on the etching cream and waited. Then I washed the glass clean. Then I put on another line of the stencil. I put on the etching cream and waited. Then I washed again.

When working with a larger design, you need to work from the centre out. So with 3 lines on my design, I started with the middle line.

Once that line was done, I did the top line. Applying the next stencil was a little tricky as it is hard to see the etched middle line. Putting something inside the glass helped a bit. Finding the centre and lining it up with the centre of the middle line and then working your way out helped.

Finally, I applied the last line of the stencil, put the etching cream on and then waited. The glass was completely washed clean after the final etching.

So the downside is that this glass literally took 3 times longer to etch because I literally etched it 3 times. However, the final product turned out perfect so it was worth it to take the extra time.

Now since my design was only 3 lines of text, it was easier to divide up into parts. If it were one large design that would definitely prove challenging. I would divide the design up as much as possible. It may not be 3 equal lines, it may be odd-shaped chunks. Regardless, you’d need to find a way to make smaller parts so that you can control the etching process better.

I am so happy, as well as relieved, as to how this glass turned out. I always tell my students that when tackling something big you need to break it down into more manageable chunks and tackle those one at a time. This was no different.

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