Thursday, January 31, 2013

Chemical Etching or Tumbler Etching?

When it comes to etching,
I'm a kind of take or leave it person.
However, after ruining my bathroom, and I do mean ruining it, with a chemical etchant that spilled,
I had to look at other ways to etch.
I belong to a wonderful forum called
There are many discussions there about a variety of topics.
I found several on non chemical etching.
So, here's what I did.
I realized I had what I needed on hand.
 I bought this at Harbor Freight.
I also needed some silicone carbide grit.
Surprise!
I had purchased a small amount years ago.
All you need is a teaspoon.
I was set.
I filled my tumbler with the end chunks of the murrini I make.
I added water, the silicone carbide grit, and a drop of dish washing liquid.
I added the beads.
(Oh, it really IS a good idea to count the beads before you put them in the tumbler.)
I tumbled them for an hour. 
Here are the results.
I was pleased.
I like the matte finish on these discs.

I didn't like these beads before I etched them, but now I do!!

These beads came out much better than I expected!
I like them now.

I like these discs now.

These discs look pitted to me, so I'm not sure on these.

Overall, I was very pleased with the etching.
I'm still not really excited about etching, but I did make some beads specifically for etching.
I'll take before and after photos and show them next week.

5 comments:

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

realy cool post. jean :)

Celeste Kemmerer said...

I think about etching and I do like etched beads, but I'm always afraid I will like them better not etched. Of course, I can always make the beads again if I don't like them etched. I made some pink beads with rubino "bumpies" and I etched the beads and covered all the dots with nail polish to keep them shiny.

AliMc said...

Thanks for posting this! I tried to tumble some beads just this week but I think I used the wrong size grit, perhaps too coarse? Oh, and I didn't add aditional glass, just the beads.

Unknown said...

I like them etched.

april grinaway said...

I loved them etched !