Have you seen how beautiful is the treated and carved glass? They look like jewels crafted by modern artists and they're as simple as a figurine or an

exhibit piece. Glass art first appeared in the 15th Century Before Christ in Egypt. The Pharaohs seemed to have an affinity for this kind of objects. To

create glass items artist needed to posses some particular skills and to know some crafting techniques. One of these techniques is the acid glass etching.

The beginning of acid glass-etching

Etching was not used only for glass materials. Knights and aristocrats used it as a distinction for their armors and swards. Etching became so popular that

people used it to decorate their plates and goblets.

Etching continued to be used during the Victorian time. Artist used glass ass a material for expressing it. This art became so famous, that it received its

own name: Acid glass-etching. However its popularity started to fall when it was discovered that the Hydrofluoric acid used for etching was damaging for the

health of the manufacturers.

This acid was actually like a poison for those who come into contact with it. Some artisans even lost their fingers because their skin merely touched the

toxic acid. This is why acid glass-etching lost its fame and shine and only a few people continued to use it.

Modern Day Acid Glass-etching

Artisans stopped using the poisoning Hydrofluoric acid. However researchers discovered some substances that are safe enough to be used by manufacturers.

Today artisans use an etching crème which is both safe and very easy to apply for any kind of glass ornaments. It became so popular that people started to

use it for souvenirs, decors and even building materials.

This technique was found its place in the automotive industry also. This technique allows the car producers to etch the owner's driver license number on the

windshield of the car so, any owner can easily recognize its car if it was stolen.

Modern acid glass-etching techniques

Today, thanks to the safety of the substances used in glass etching, many people can use this technique as a hobby or as a small business. For regular shaped

items crème can be smoothed wit a squeegee. Wax paper carriers can be used as patterns for cutting a unique design. However pre-cut patterns can also be

acquired by artisans.

For those who want to use those old and dangerous glass-etching substances there are also some tools that can help them such as the swiveling or picking

knives. For irregular object there are some liquid solutions that are very practical. The artisan must dip the object into the liquid solution for a couple

of minutes and it will come back with a decorative aspect. Acid glass-etching is a very well known and popular technique same like glass staining, glass

fusion or glass-blowing.

Steve Weber has more information about stain glass supplies on his site.
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