Etching help please

[dangerousbead]

I want to etch a heart bead and leave shiny letters on it. BEN or BN to be precise. I've tried painting with nail varnish but I'm not steady enough to make it look stylish. Will it work with letraset or does anyone have special acid resist decals that I could buy? :-)

[Trudi]

Have you tried the nail varnish with the very fine tips, the ones they use in beauty salons to paint flowers etc?

something like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12-Colours-Acrylic-Nail-Art-Painting-Polish-Pen-Varnish-/290663640918?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Nails_Manicure_Pedicure_CA&hash=item43ace72f56

[sarah t]

you could try using sticky letters for card making etc  but dont know how well they would stay stuck if you are using the liquid etch but if you applied a layer of varnish or wax over the top that might work and keep you neat

you can get letter decals but they need to be put back in the kiln to fix and think that affects the etch

could you do it the other way round ...dip the bead in wax then remove the wax with a fine pointed tool of some sort then etch so the letters are not shiney but the bead would be

i would suggest a play with fugglies first and work out what works best

[Krysia@No98]

How do you feel about writing it on with stringer in a glass that doesn't etch?

[dangerousbead]

Good suggestions but I'm so slap dash. I.ll try letraset on a fuglie I think. :-) just discovered that fuglie in predictive text is evilie :-)

[Carl]

What size are you thinking? Never etched jewellery but have done beer glasses for a local festival. I used sign vinyl cut with a craft robo if your letraset does not work would be happy to cut you some letters but not sure how small I can go. I often keep offcuts so no need to worry about cost.

[Pat from Canvey]

Sticky contact paper resists acids, the sort of stuff you stick on shelves. You could cut out whatever letters you wanted by first drawing the letters on the contact paper with a biro and then cut them out with a scalpel or craft knife. Stick on the bead, depending on it's size and then etch. I used to print out patterns from my computer onto white contact paper using my inkjet printer before cutting out with a scalpel or hot stencil cutter, See
http://www.thestencilstudio.com/cut-master-stencil-tool---stencil-cutter-3314-p.asp for the type of cutter I have.

[dangerousbead]

Thank you Carl, that's very kind of you. The bead only 1" and heart shaped. It might be a bit tricky. Pat that sounds like a good alternative. Good old sticky back plastic. :-)

[dangerousbead]

Well i got some letraset style letters and they work but not consistently. Also peel off ones sort of work too. I'm going to try putting a peel off one on, dipping in wax, peel off the letter then etch. If that doesn't work I.ll give up. Tenacity not being my strong point.

[Nick]

You could try a marker pen this works with some acids as a resist. Try it on another not so special bead first

[Trudi]

Ohh I did't know about pens .... do you know of any that work?

[Carl]

Yesterday I cut some lettering for a friends van, as there was room I did an experiment to see how small was practical the smallest i cut was 5mm * 8mm and that came out OK. Was thinking though that with any sticker it may not lay perfectly flat if the surface is too rounded so may be worth trying the pen idea not done it on glass but my sharpie works for etching bronze so may be worth a go. Happy to send the vinyl if you want to give it a go.

[Nick]

Felt tip marker type pens then white spirit or meths to get it off afterwards

[dangerousbead]

Thanks Carl, and bigger thanks for having a go, but I just know I.ll hash it up. Might try the pen though.