The booming interest in glass etching for window and door installation had started only about twenty years ago. It was first introduced for architectural purposes but has now become a great element in interior design and decoration. It’s a beautiful process of creating a graphic design onto the surface of a smooth window or door glass. While it’s very similar to producing a frosted design on a glass, it’s actually more than that. Glass etching is also applicable for carving a design deeper into the glass that’s permanent and last for a long time.
This technique is not only exclusive for window and door installation but can also be done to etch on other materials such as metal, ceramics, marble, plastics, and so on. The elegant results of this process make glass etching more popular these days and you can see them in high-end hotels, banks, restaurants, and other commercial spaces. But you can also commonly see etched glass at homes as a beautiful part of interior design. Any visual effects that you want can be achieved by etching and can be done in different ways.
Surface Etching
This method is the easiest and fastest way to create the design because it involves etching only on the surface of the glass. It can be done in just one stage of blasting producing two element designs which are usually positive and negative. The etched part of the glass looks white while the unetched portion looks dark or black. Every detail of the design has to be separated by the unetched space of the glass to showcase the etched elements. Otherwise, there will be no design created.
Carving
In this technique, the design is being carved deep into the glass and create a three dimensional etched elements. This is perfect for window and door installation where the elements of carving design are removed at different times and blasted to various depths, giving the desired visual effects of the design. Carving can be done in different ways, including freehand carving, single-stage, two-stage, and multi-stage carving. It depends on the desired result which method to use.