{CHALK ETCHED GLASS}

As an enthusiast of cheap old items found at garage sales and antique shops, I have always searched to showcase my finds, sorted by theme, in display cabinets.

Initially using simple bookcases from a well-known Swedish brand, I noticed that dusting between each object was time-consuming. Having opted for glass doors to keep dust away, I noticed that this seemed to smooth out the collections, making their themes less noticeable.

Seeking to highlight each theme and the antique aspect of this collection, while fitting in with the shabby chic theme of the living room, I thought of old antique cabinets with engraved windows, to make my own using just one tool: chalk pens ! Durable, easy to use, economical, washable, and correctable, they are a great tool if we want to add elegance to glass furniture, easily and with the possibility of always updating them to suit their interiors !

By playing with the opacity of the chalk, we can achieve a beautiful effect reminiscent of these antique showcase with engraved or etched glass, with the freedom to imagine their patterns.

As I usually do in my tutorials, where I explain everything step by step, this one only requires you to draw on the glass surfaces of your furniture, I came up with this tutorial based on useful tips, inspiration and explanations for creating this decorations that imitate engraved glass.

(1) Chalk pens (or chalk paint if you prefer to draw) *

(2) Glass cleaner and a cloth

(3) Stencils or freehand **

* Any brand; you will see in the tests that some are more or less opaque, with thick or thin tips, so choose according to your taste.

** I drew all my designs freehand, but you can use stencils, be careful, as I tried mine beforehand they can make the chalk smudge.

If your glass furniture are clean, you can start ! If not, and there are fingerprints, coffee splatters or grease marks from your kitchen, start with this step so you don't have to clean them after drawing. Just like with normal windows, use a glass cleaner and a soft cloth, to avoid scratching them, then simply clean, wipe or leave them to dry !

Having multiple brands of chalk pens, I wanted to try various thicknesses, drying times, durability, costs and opacity (I wrote the brand name with the pen itself to remember its chalky effect and opacity on glass).

As we can see, the first brand is invisible, the second is opaque and white, and the third is slightly translucent.

Choose according to your preference ! The first is unusable, the third one looks like very old engraved glass, but for my personal needs, where I want the designs to be visible despite the objects behind, I opted for the second one, which is whiter and opaque, like in the old days when glass engravings were white to make them stand out !

STENCILS OR FREEHAND : At first, I thought about using stencils to make the decoration uniform and quicker, but with my chalk pens, all the patterns smudged when I used a stencil, so I had to draw them freehand (see special tip number 6 if you're afraid of drawing freehand) !

THEMES : Next, to isolate each collections, I based my drawings on the layout of the interior shelves of the glass and their respective themes, but you can just do the overall frame or the corners too !

USE : Using chalk pens (or chalk paint if you prefer, to be applied with a brush) is very simple. Just draw as if you were drawing on a sheet of paper vertically and then let it dry. You can draw hollow, filled, old, modern and thematic shapes, in varying degrees of opacity and thickness.

CHALK : When the pen dries out a little, with this brand the pen only needs to be shaken a little and the tip pressed down to re-soak the tip with the liquid chalk. My three glass furniture were easy to draw with two pens. If some decorations are less opaque or the pen has not applied enough chalk, add another layer if necessary.

HAND: Also, be careful to always draw in the way you write, from left to right for right-handed people and from right to left for left-handed people, so that you don't smudge the drawings that are not yet dry with your wrist or hand.

If you draw on the glass freehand or haven't thought about what to draw, have smudged, made a mistake, or the pen is dry, you may need to correct ! Don't worry, these pens have an easy and versatile texture that allows for two corrections, which means that the drawings are completely washable while allowing you to isolate elements that you don't want to correct.

The first correct is immediately after drawing. You can simply wipe it off with a soft cloth or even the skin of your finger, as the drawing is still wet and will come off easily.

The second correct is a few minutes to hours after drawing, when the ornament is dry. It will not come off with a cloth or your finger, but either by scratching with your fingernail or with the glass cleaner and wet cloth.

The trick if you want to correct an ornament on your drawing without having to start all over again is to play with the drying and moisture of the drawing. In my case, when I was sure of my drawing, I waited for the ornament to dry, then did the complex parts, as I was able to wipe it with a soft cloth without removing the first drawings, but not the second one, which I corrected with a cotton swab or my finger that was still wet !

Especially when drawing in mirror image on certain ornaments, I did it in the same direction and had to redo it with the mirror effect, so correction was a real asset.

MIRROR : It should be noted that, in order to create my antique-style engraved ornaments, I wanted to preserve the logic of old days etched glasses, which consists of creating a floral or geometric-inspired pattern, symmetrical with a mirror effect to maintain a certain consistency when looking at the showcase. The design on the left is identical to the one on the right, but reversed. I drew them on the outside, but it is possible to do it on the inside (see tip 7).

TIPS: If you have any questions that I haven't addressed, feel free to ask me, I'm always happy to answer, as sometimes you may want to do it another way !

* As a reminder, my collection of preserved insects has always been purchased at antique shops, as I have never approved the farms that create them by breeding insects for this sole purpose. This old collection always motivated me to create my own cruelty-free insects frames (tutorials available on my account) using plastic figurines that I stage and paint by hand, to show that these displays can be made entirely from fake materials and cruelty free !

I am by no means a professional artist, and my drawings are very simple, but it is this handmade aspect that gives the glass showcase their charm !

Some symmetries and mirror effects are slightly different, but this is always beautiful.

As you might expect, if you opt for stencils, you won't necessarily find a theme that matches your items, so if you have to draw certain ornaments yourself, don't be shy and go for it ! Remember that it doesn't have to be perfect or flawless, as long as it looks beautiful, that's what counts. Your window displays will be unique and refined thanks to you and the courage you take.

As you can see, mine are rough, but since neither I nor my guests will be sticking our noses right up to the showcase, it's enough to make them pretty and give them a certain authenticity. By personalizing them in this way, you'll be the only one to have them like this, with the possibility of add ornaments on them as you wish, updating them according to your old and new collections.

My decorations have themes as varied as floral, gems, nautical, old cameras, steampunk, curiosities, celtic, greek and mythology.

If you're not feeling inspired, don't hesitate to either think about images that you feel represent a theme, or search for simple shapes related to that theme on the internet to inspire you for your etched glass ornaments.

I have never tried using colored chalk, as most of the engraved glass were translucent white or opaque, with a few rare exceptions. However, if you add a few touches of color, it would look pretty, adding some colorful accents and highlighting certain designs.

If you have a glass furniture that tends to get dirty despite your best efforts, you may have to choose for drawing on the inside ! This is possible because, unlike me, who has to make sure I don't damage the illustrations when I need to wash it, you will have your drawings inside the window and can still wash the outside of your window when necessary without risking damaging the drawings !

Here is a before and after and the three cabinets with the chalk-themed engraved glass effects !