Acid etching

A while back I had a referral from Aberdeenshire (Thank you Gordon at Morning Glass Design) for acid etching some red flashed glass for a stair window.  The broken glass was removed by the client and taped together.  It was then sent in the post and arrived in the following state:

I copied the design by cutting into the resist to allow the hydrofluoric acid to etch away the red surface until the clear was revealed.  Because the flash was thick on two of the pieces, they were in the acid bath for a total of 6 hours over two days.

This is a picture of the panels just out of the etching process and having been cleaned, they are drying.

When dry, the remaining resist is removed and the powdered glass cleaned from the glass.  This gives the result shown below.

These have now been packed up in a plywood box with lots of cushioning and sent by courier to the owners in Turriff.

50 Plus Show

Last Weekend I was involved in the 50+ Show to help promote Craft Scotland.  This was a last minute effort as the promoters only offered the space to Craft Scotland about 6 weeks before the show.  Selection was a hurried affair and with some being selected dropping out before the three people were selected.

When we arrived, I was surprised to find that we did not have a shell stand, just a space.  However we all set up with the materials we had.  This was the set up prior to opening on Friday.

The three crafts represented were paper making (Pulp), jewellery (Lauracet Designs) and glass (Verrier).  We all offered some hands on making of a basic kind.

The first day for me was a blur from about 11:30 when people began taking up my offer of a free basic introduction to stained glass through making copper foiled angels or Christmas trees.  The degree of activity can be noted by the fact that I got to start my lunch after the close of the show at 5:00.  I was better organised on Saturday, but still finished my lunch at 5:00.

I am not sure how much Craft Scotland got out of the show, as we all were busy and not really able to promote the sponsoring organisation as much as we should have.  The staff of Craft Scotland were in Philadelphia at a show promoting Scottish craft and the Board member who was to have come on Saturday was ill.

It was gratifying to hear some of the workshop participants say to one another that "this was the best part of the show."  I am not sure how many people will be coming to my classes and workshops as a result, but I enjoyed the process, although very busy.