Tropical etchings and sand carvings are always fun and a big interest to me. The ocean and sea life always produce marvelous scenery to base your artistic work on. And it seems like many other glass artists think so also. If you check around other websites, you will realize that a lot of etching artists work with tropical themes. This might also be because this craft has been desirable in areas that have shores or tourist areas. Anyway, here is a critique of the second project to give some tips on my past mistakes with the example shown below.
Sadly, this was one of my first sandcarvings that I did many years ago of a tropical fish. It wasn’t the greatest, but I decided to designate it as the picture on the cover for my information manual just because it’s what sparked my newly found hobby.
My first suggestion is the pattern isn’t a great one for multi-stage sandcarvings. Line patterns are usually best for this to look good. A second suggestion is that the depth differences aren’t noticeable enough to distinguish some areas from being closer than others. For example, the front fin should have been carved deeper to help show that the other fin is behind it. That would have made the fish look more three dimensional.
Got a tip, question, or comment? Then, please leave it below. I hope these critiques are helpful. Thanks
Share this on social media or email by clicking below!
I LIKE THE FISH. I HAVE TRIED DOING SOME NUMBERINGS ON BLASTING AND I GUESS I JUST DONT HAVE THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT. BUT, YOURS ARE GREAT.
Debra, I am guessing you have a siphon sandblaster. If so, you will need a pressure pot sandblaster to do stages. Some people use both a siphon and a pressure pot. They use a pressure system for sandcarving and a siphon with a variable gun for shading.
Wow what a very fine output you have there.. you must be using a very fine grit I guess. Thanks
Exactly, I use 180 grit aluminum oxide most of the time. For small sandcarvings like this, it doesn’t take too much time.
Wow, that’s unreal! I’ve got one that looks exactly like that, and I’ve been trying to understand what I did wrong. You’re explanation really helped.
Iam looking for the Praying Hands stencil that can be sand blasted in layers for detail on the hands. Do you have any idea of where I might find the pattern?
Eileen, I have one but it isn’t very detailed. Try searching google under the images tab for “black and white” plus various keywords like “praying”, “praying hands”, “spiritual”, or “holy”. Let me know if you find anything.
Sometimes it takes some time to find something good. Feel free to let us know how your project turns out.
Thank you. I will keep looking and let you know if I find anything.