Etched goldstone

I was given a jar of Etchall Etching cream by a generous fellow beader not too long ago and so I've been experimenting with it a few days now.

One thing I tried to etch was this goldstone nugget that I bought in a new age shop a long time ago. In those days I didn't know goldstone was glass and that sure wasn't the impression the shop gave either. But I loved it for the shimmer, not the material, so no harm done. Since then I've grown less fond of goldstone so I didn't mind "sacrificing" it.

And I must say I'm pleased with the result. I love matte glass and, even more so, matte metal. This have both. The copper shavings give a lovely sublime shimmer now. Kind of like eye shadow made from mica pigments. Not sure how well it shows up in the photos, though. (One thing I'm sure you see in the pics is the dust/lint I didn't see when I took the photos...)


Now I consider sacrificing my brown goldstone nugget too. It has much more copper in it so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. More of my etched glass and stone beads coming soon -- or check out this forum thread it you can't wait.

Etched opalite

Here's another post of things I did before Snuttis disappeared, but which I never blogged about. First because of the camera and then because of how I felt when Snuttis went missing. And then I almost ended up scrapping the idea of taking any photos as the colours and matte, transparent surface made it a tricky bead to take a sharp photo of. And you can't always tell that much of a difference between the etched and unetched opalite on top of that....

It's been a long time since I last etched glass.

I made this bead after having tidied up my worktable (not because I felt like the mess was too bad, but because of cats knocking things over) and looked through the bowl with glass to etch someday. Seeing how etching transformed cat's eye and goldstone beads into something much better than their original look, maybe the etch would work the same magic on another type of glass bead I don't like that much, opalite (a k a sea opal aka "moonstone").

Doesn't make as much of a difference as on cat's eye/fibreoptic beads, but it might partially also be because the etch cream has become weaker so the glass had to be etched twice. Partially it's also because both cat's eye and goldstone have something the opalite is missing: shiny inclusions. Cat's eye has fibreoptic filaments and add a special shine to the bead, even when etched. Goldstone has sparkling copper shavings. Opalite just have, well, a "quiet" opalescence. A slight change of colour depending on the angle of light and against what background it's seen. But etching does add a soft, velvety touch to the opalite and matte is always pretty. It's a rather romantic-looking glass bead now. So it's not a failure, just not a dramatic change in appearance as in e.g. goldstone.

For anyone who likes the opalescence of opal glass and the velvet touch of etched glass, this is something to try.

Etched brown goldstone

I've already shown you my blue/black etched goldstone nugget. As I was pleased with the result, I also felt confident that it would be a good thing etching my other, brown, nugget as well. This one has more copper particles in it than any other goldstone I've seen so naturally it has a different look from my first stone. If the copper became a subtle shimmering faint streaks in the darker stone, the metal gave the brown nugget a very different touch this time. Here, the stone looks like shiny, soft silk. It's matte, but the copper is so much more visible and light-reflecting. But as always, these are hard things to capture in with a camera, especially as still photos.




The darker "ring" on the surface is not an effect of the etching cream, it was there already when I bought it. Two of the sides are darker and two are lighter, as you can see in the pics above.

Dark metallic bronze bead

Just wanted to add a pic of a wooden bead my sis painted in Magic Metallics dark bronze paint.

She bought the paint for the same reason I bought their steel paint: to paint objects we wanted to add a patina to. These paints contain real metal particles and when treated with the appropriate patina solution, they patinate. Bronze and copper paint turn a beautiful verdigris while the steel paint rust -- like in this example I''ve shown before.

But I must say this paint is very pretty as it is: a matte black with a discrete copper shimmer. In a way it reminds me of my etched goldstone.

More etching

I should do other things than blog here today, but I just wanted to show you my latest etching experiment. This is a handful of cat's eye or fiber-optic beads. Optical fibers cast i glass and cut into beads with that characteristic optical effect that's supposed to mimic the chatoyance, cat eye effect, in certain gemstones. Top grade cat's eye can look nice and is even used by lapidary artists, lower grade cat's eye is just ugly. With a few exceptions this isn't my favourite material.

But seeing how I like silverfoiled beads better when etched, perhaps this could be the case with cat's eye as well? Had to give it a try. And here's the result. Matte glass with a sublime silky shine. Can't really capture it in a picture. I like it. Now I'm thinking about etching the hold strand. [And as I'm writing this I suddenly realised that I should've taken a pic with the un-etched beads next to these for a comparison. D'oh.]

Goldstone/aventurine and cat's eye -- two types of beads that look better when etched. Don't think anyone sells already etched beads of either kind, or do they?