Sunday, May 22, 2011

Glass Etching, The New Label-Maker

by Erin

I like to have my flour and sugar easily accessible and out on the counter.  So it is important to me to have them in a pretty vessel.  I love the old tin canisters that are easily found at thrift stores, garage sales, and estate sales, but I don't like that they are usually on the smaller side, and often times they are also starting to rust on the inside (bummer), so I opted for something different.  Here are the jars that I have had my flour and sugar in for quite a while.  My mom and I purchased them at Crate and Barrel.


I was inspired by a ReadyMade article about etching words and letters into jars such as these for identifying purposes and, you know, because it looked cool.  So I decided to give it a try.

I purchased some 2" and 3" vinyl letters and Armour Etch, a glass etching cream.  If you live in Chicago you may already know you can't by this toxic stuff in stores, since taggers use it on windows.  I don't get to the 'burbs much so I ordered it from amazon at $18.  If you decide to take on a project like this one, you will probably need masking tape as well. 

  
So I made sure my jars were really clean and dry.  This proved to be a problem for me, because every time I turned around my fat cat Penny was on the table getting in my work space (she really likes to sit on paper bags).  I eventually had to lock her out. 

After I got my surface clean and cat hair free, I taped off the top and bottom of the jars.  This was kind of hairy for me, but if the ends of the masking tape matched up in the back, I figured it was "straight enough."  Then I used my seam gage to center the F (for Flour).  The letters were fairly forgiving when it came to having to restick them, which I did often. 


I used 3" letters for the F and S and 2" letters for the rest of the word.  I don't know that I like it quite as well on the sugar jar since it is smaller, but that is what I had, so that is what I did.


At this point you really want to go over the edges of all of your letters and masking tape.   Make sure there are no bubbles where the glass etching cream can creep in, because once it is in there it is etching. 

Next, the fun part.  Using the etching cream.  This stuff is majorly toxic, so be careful.  It smells potent, and I imagine if it came in contact with your skin it would burn a bit.  Brush a thick layer of it on, brushing in one direction.  Then get your brush full of the cream and do it the other way.  Make sure every part you want covered is covered. 


Let it sit for 5 minutes and then rinse off the cream.  At this point you can remove your letters and masking tape.  Use a rag to make sure all of the cream is off the jar and ta da, you have something new and exciting for your counter-top or pantry.  Cool, eh?

They look better in person, please feel free to come over and see them.  Any other ideas of what you could glass etch?  Leave a comment with your ideas!

2 comments:

  1. That is really awesome. It makes me want to etch bottles for all kinds of organizing. Does 10oz of the cream go quite a ways?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh yes, I did those two big jars and a glass and I still have about a half of a bottle left. Let me know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete

Leave us a message! Tell us what you think!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Glass Etching, The New Label-Maker

by Erin

I like to have my flour and sugar easily accessible and out on the counter.  So it is important to me to have them in a pretty vessel.  I love the old tin canisters that are easily found at thrift stores, garage sales, and estate sales, but I don't like that they are usually on the smaller side, and often times they are also starting to rust on the inside (bummer), so I opted for something different.  Here are the jars that I have had my flour and sugar in for quite a while.  My mom and I purchased them at Crate and Barrel.


I was inspired by a ReadyMade article about etching words and letters into jars such as these for identifying purposes and, you know, because it looked cool.  So I decided to give it a try.

I purchased some 2" and 3" vinyl letters and Armour Etch, a glass etching cream.  If you live in Chicago you may already know you can't by this toxic stuff in stores, since taggers use it on windows.  I don't get to the 'burbs much so I ordered it from amazon at $18.  If you decide to take on a project like this one, you will probably need masking tape as well. 

  
So I made sure my jars were really clean and dry.  This proved to be a problem for me, because every time I turned around my fat cat Penny was on the table getting in my work space (she really likes to sit on paper bags).  I eventually had to lock her out. 

After I got my surface clean and cat hair free, I taped off the top and bottom of the jars.  This was kind of hairy for me, but if the ends of the masking tape matched up in the back, I figured it was "straight enough."  Then I used my seam gage to center the F (for Flour).  The letters were fairly forgiving when it came to having to restick them, which I did often. 


I used 3" letters for the F and S and 2" letters for the rest of the word.  I don't know that I like it quite as well on the sugar jar since it is smaller, but that is what I had, so that is what I did.


At this point you really want to go over the edges of all of your letters and masking tape.   Make sure there are no bubbles where the glass etching cream can creep in, because once it is in there it is etching. 

Next, the fun part.  Using the etching cream.  This stuff is majorly toxic, so be careful.  It smells potent, and I imagine if it came in contact with your skin it would burn a bit.  Brush a thick layer of it on, brushing in one direction.  Then get your brush full of the cream and do it the other way.  Make sure every part you want covered is covered. 


Let it sit for 5 minutes and then rinse off the cream.  At this point you can remove your letters and masking tape.  Use a rag to make sure all of the cream is off the jar and ta da, you have something new and exciting for your counter-top or pantry.  Cool, eh?

They look better in person, please feel free to come over and see them.  Any other ideas of what you could glass etch?  Leave a comment with your ideas!

2 comments:

  1. That is really awesome. It makes me want to etch bottles for all kinds of organizing. Does 10oz of the cream go quite a ways?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh yes, I did those two big jars and a glass and I still have about a half of a bottle left. Let me know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete

Leave us a message! Tell us what you think!