Etching glass beads

[k00m]

I think you can get the pitted look by rolling the bead a small amount of bicarb (ain't it useful stuff?! ) and then burning it off, but I haven't tried it myself.
I'm sure there was a thread about it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now.

[MadelineBunyan]

ok...I'll summarise very basically and clarify some things...or try to.

bicarb (to get texture, not to neutralise etching fluid) make a bead, while its hot, roll the bead in it, tap off excess, cook it in a bit. dont breathe it and dont get it all over your desk it'll make your other colours go scuzzy when you dont want them to. I put mine in a spoon on a piece of paper on the furthest bit of my desk I can reach.

sand blasting. this is a machine that uses compressed air to blast the glass with grit (sand) it has a chamber which you put your piece inside, and manouver the nozzle about whilst it shoots out the grit, so you get the whole of your piece. these machines are big and pretty expensive and not alot of people have them. some colleges do.

etching fluid has already been discussed, but I think if you leave them in longer they do start to pit a little bit. you'd have to experiment with timings.

tumbling, you need a separate barrel to the one you use for silver (wouldn't want roughened up silver now would we?), and a particular grit, dont know how long this takes though.someone wrote a nice blog post about it a while back....ciel?

there are threads with more detail on all of these but I need my brain to be working a bit more before I go off in search of them. If I drank coffee I'd be saying I needed some about now.

[Blue Box Studio]

Only sea glass will have the proper sea glass look.  I'm a bit anal about this because I make jewellery from the stuff and am fed up of the market being flooded with sea glass that isn't.  Tumbling bottle glass for a while even in sea water does not make it sea glass, no more than sticking some bead caps marked Pandora on a cheap Chinese bead makes it a Pandora bead.  Anyway, you'll get a frosted look if you tumble glass, I think someone told me it'd take a couple of weeks, but it'll just be frosted.  To get the characteristic 'C'shaped frosting marks on genuine sea glass you'll have to wait 50-100 years and let nature do the work for you.

I've had the odd bit of sea glass go bang on me, one piece even refused to melt.  I've not tried on my Minor, will have a go this weekend if I get a chance (my Mango bead corer comes tomorrow, I might not be able to resist). 

I'll get off my soap box now 

[Pat from Canvey]

I did try to melt some sea glass BANG!!!  whooo scared the pants off me...did it the 2nd time but it just took ages and besides...

Did you pre heat it in the kiln first?

[Margram]

I was doing some etching yesterday and realised I had forgotten to say I use a wooden toothpick to push the beads around in the etch, a soft toothbrush after the bicarb bath,  and a pipe cleaner to run through the holes after/during rinsing.

[MadelineBunyan]

yes, if you want the look of sea glass you can get an approximation of it, if you want the real thing then the only way to get it is to go find some, however,  I didn't see a single piece last time I was at the beach.
maybe ours isnt a good beach for the stuff, but I'm sure I remember picking it up relatively frequently a few years ago.

I have to say I don't get this melting it thing though...if you picked it up for the finish on it, why then would you want to melt it and remove that finish? even if you then go on to put it back by 'faking it'

[Lotti]

I was doing some etching yesterday and realised I had forgotten to say I use a wooden toothpick to push the beads around in the etch, a soft toothbrush after the bicarb bath,  and a pipe cleaner to run through the holes after/during rinsing.

Ooh, yes me too (the tooth pick  - a very long one) and the pipe cleaner.