Santa

Today’s prompt for the Xmas Magic challenge is Santa.

Growing up Jewish, Santa wasn’t really a thing but the motif has always been present. The first thing I thought of when I saw this prompt was the traditional Santa face. I thought I could glass etch that on to something maybe an ornament and that would be nice.

I didn’t have any Santa stencils and I didn’t have my contact paper to make one. I think it got left in Virginia during the move. A lot of things did. So I found the image I was looking for in stencil for on Amazon. It came in a pack of 12 Christmas stencils. When they arrived they were a little larger then I realized and definitely too large for the ornaments I had, so time to pivot.

I looked at the various glass items I had that weren’t etched yet, mostly mirrors. I found a larger square mirror and started to design. I found 3 other stencils to use. Two were other classic Santa images and the last was a Merry Christmas message. I arranged them in a tableau and thought maybe a border will happen. That was all earlier this week

Today, I did the actual work. I taped everything down and made sure the glass was clean. I made sure my etching medium was usable. This involved putting the bottle in warm water for a bit to allow me to remix the solution. I’ll be honest I probably should have left it for longer to really let the crystals break down but I was impatient. I was excited for this project. I love glass etching. I once did an entire set of Sailor Moon themed wine glasses for a commission (you can see them on my instagram) . It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to do it because busy life, smaller space, you name the excuse. That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about this challenge. I’m pulling out old skills for it.

I’m also excited by this particular project because I improved my skills. I taped everything down and masked all the glass that I didn’t want to etch. In the past I was just very careful about putting the etching cream only on the stencil but it often resulted in incidental etching when washing the cream off. Additionally, I did something new with this project, I added color. I found out that colored pencils can be used to color the etched areas. So I used the new colored pencils my partner got me for Christmas to add color and I really think it brought the finished project to life.

What do you think?

-Flower