This post has taken me a while to put together, partially because I wanted real pictures of etched mugs on my pretty light table with my fancy camera and partially because it feels weird to write about negative things. Well, that and as “Will It Etch?!” floats through my head I think about the game show scenes in Requiem for a Dream.
Usually when we’re asked “can you etch this (logo, image, design, phrase)?” the answer is yes, but photographs are always tough. This blog post is about photographs and why you may want to pick a different way to capture your favorite memories on glassware.
Pet Photos
I love when people want to honor their pets with an etched image, our house is basically a zoo and our animals mean everything to us. Unfortunately, most pet photos don’t work well for etching. All of the texture from the fur or scales doesn’t translate well to a stencil, and in most cases the contrast in colors isn’t good enough to define your adorable pet’s best features.
If you still want your pet on your glass I recommend an SVG file rather than a photograph. That type of file will flatten your pet’s features to a more two dimensional appearance which is much more successful for etching. The other pet designs we can do are paw prints and nose prints, those designs look really great on glassware. Check out our paw print blog post for more info on those designs
Large Landscapes
As you can see in the images above large landscapes are a nightmare for etching. The editing software struggles to turn the photo into any sort of sensical imagery and any tiny people subjects get lost in the mass of trees and details that struggle to etch into the glass. I never recommend large landscape photos for etching.
Instead of using the photograph directly, large landscapes work best if they are recreated. For the mountain landscape I took an image of mountains that a customer provided and created the feel of the mountain range by keeping the actual mountains more simple than the photograph. I also added a few trees to the foreground to give dimension. In the past I’ve even taken little silhouettes of customers from the photos they provided and included those in the large landscape imagery. These types of designs generally take a lot of time and discussion back and forth to get right. Because they are an idea based on your memories I need your feedback to make sure those memories are accurately represented.
Group Shots
There is almost never a group shot of people that will etch properly on glass. It’s inevitable that those favorite group shot photos are captured in poor lighting, someone is blurry, and the contrast is terrible. I always tell friends that of course we can etch people on glassware, but you’ll look 85 and like you have 8 chins. With our editing process there isn’t really a way to make people look real. There are amazing artists out there that can turn your beloved group photo into a flattened image, like the SVG format I mentioned above. Those files will etch well, unfortunately my artistic skills aren’t at a point where I can create those beautiful two dimensional images of people.
If you are looking to honor someone special on your glass there are a few things we could do instead. First, like I mentioned above, hand and foot prints are beautiful on glassware, you can see more about that in our blog post about prints. Another thing we can do is handwriting and artwork, customers have sent us images of signed greeting cards, hand written recipes, their own note to someone special, or their favorite art piece created by their loved one.
Like the large landscape smaller landscapes usually get lost in the details when they’re created with photographs. Sometimes they are successful, brick details will show up nicely for houses, flowers usually give the general idea of what kind of flower they are, sometimes a silhouette of a person or animal will come through properly if the lighting is right.
For small landscapes I usually recommend creating the feeling of the memory instead of trying to capture the photograph. For the wolf image the customer had a really beautiful memory of going to a wolf sanctuary with their mom, we took that idea and made it a fairy tale style design that was a beautiful gift for their mom. This also takes quite a bit of discussion to make sure that I’m capturing your idea properly.
There you have it, a whole blog post about what won’t etch. If you ever have a question, or would like to see what your image might look like don’t hesitate to reach out. Our main email is inquiries@mixingspirits.com and I would love to work with you to create your favorite glassware and gifts. For more about things we’re working on that are amazing (like our legible braille or how to pick out your perfect toasting glasses) keep an eye on our blog. It’s such an honor to turn your memories into functional artwork, that’s why knowing what works best with our process is so important. I look forward to creating your favorite glassware!