re: Fun With Sand (Glass Etch)

A SIDE NOTE: I rescued many a piece of tempered glass or a 1/2" thick mirror use in things like those computers you used to see on old Navy movies. The ones with the sailor sitting in front of a screen showing blips of light.

One of the things I discovered, by accident, was the major effect of heavy blasting and paint, or silver plating.

I swiped a [somewhat] octagon shaped mirror before it hit the dumpster. I etched a unicorn into it (people were heavy into them) and went heavy on the etch, even though, as noted above, I was only running at about 45 PSI. I etched it from the plated side (the way they used such mirrors).

I framed the done etch and hung it on the wall, which had a really ugly floral pattern. That gave me a really ugly floral patterned unicorn. I took it out to the shop and sprayed it with silver paint. When I did, all the heavy etch, before not discernable, jumped out.

Hmmm

I called a mirror re-plating place and learned I could get mirrors re-plated for about $4.00 per square foot. They warned me against their process, because the different depths would cause details to show. SNORT - SCORE

Even common spray paint totally changed the lightly carved etch. Muscles, before not apparent, jumped out.