Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Challenge 15-Etched Vase Fail

You would think after the past failures I have had, I might learn not to try pins with no instruction information, but alas I have yet to wise up. This particular pin has been on my craft board for awhile and when I started this blog I knew this was one of the crafts I wanted to try.
The instructions are simple: This is brilliant- rubber bands wrapped around the vases, then spray it with the craft spray that 'etches' the glass & remove bands. On one of my many trips to Michael's in the last few weeks I found the etching spray that the instructions were talking about. I bought a glass and some rubber bands at Dollar General and set it up this morning. I read the instructions on the spray and the basic pointers were to: A. Spray the etching compound in a well ventalated area, B. Spray in continuous motion to prevent blobby spots (my words not theirs), and C. Will not be completely dry for 4-6 hours and may need multiple coats. I wrapped the vase in rubber bands, trying to make a cool asymetrical shapes with the rubber bands. I used a mix of small and large rubber bands and a mix of thin and thick. I took all my supplies outside and that's when the trouble began.



I set up the vase out on a stone wall out in the back of our apartment complex. I started shaking the glass spray for the requested 2 minutes and then a heard a small crash. It's been fairly windy the past few days here in north Texas and the surface of the wall wasn't completely flat, that crash was the vase falling and cracking on the stone wall. Since it wasn't shattered I figured I would go ahead with my experiment and see how the etching went (I could always go back to Dollar Tree and get another vase). I followed the instructions on the spray but the wind wasn't really helping. The coverage was ok, but it was still hard to get an even spray on the glass.
The other major problem was that even after waiting a few minutes to move the vase, the first time I touched the vase my finger nail scratched off some of the etching. Doing this for real would defintely require multiple coats to get a decent etched coverage. After letting it dry all day (I did this around 8:30am and I took the rubber bands off at almost 7:00pm) some of the etching still scraped off and the rubber bands didn't make the best solid lines. I wouldn't do this craft this way again, but I did see another pin for the same idea that uses another type of spray paint (and actually includes step by step instructions). I plan on trying that one when I get back from our trip next week. As much as I love Pinterest, not ever pin is a winner.







2 comments:

  1. This is wonderful! I love the bit about hoping. That's the thing that really got me to make my final decision to sign with my agent; she had this amazing optimism just leaking out of her pores when she called to offer representation.

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  2. Our North Texas wind can be a problem when trying to spray paint outside, I know from personal experience :)

    I want to thank you for sharing your 'fail'. These are as important as are real successes. I was going to pin, and try this spray to make some hand soap dispensers. After your post, I think I'll pass (&save myself some money and frustration). Thanks for sharing!

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