Glass engraving with diamond point stipple engraving, line engraving and useful tips on the shape of your glassware, with links to Warwick Crystal Designs and other glassware distributers.

Fishing Scene (Click to enlarge)

Diamont Point Stipple Engraving

The technique of diamond point stipple engraving could not be easier to describe, simply tap the glass with the tip of the tool and a small dent will appear, repeat thousands of time to stipple an area with a covering of tiny dots to form the image. The closer the dots, the whiter the surface will appear. Tones are built up by varying the distance between dots. The tricky part is the thousands of dots required, this takes a good deal of patience and practice to achieve an even result. The temptation is to strike harder where a whiter area is required, this tends to chip the glass or at best makes a larger and deeper indentation that naturally looks coarser than an even spread of tiny dots.

Hand Engraved Crystal Bowl (Click to enlarge)

Line Engraving - Glass Engraving

Line engraving is frequently used in conjunction with stipple particularly for detail such as hair. In simple terms lines are simply scribed onto the surface of the glass. As with stippling the closer the marks the whiter the result. This is very useful for long thin lines, blades of grass, rigging on ships and of course hair are all good examples. Hatching with line is also used to fill areas of tone or white in glass engraving. Hatching in a single direction produces the best results and should be used to follow the grain of the image. This is illustrated here where the lines follow the grain or direction of the flower petals.

Beware the shape of your glass - Glass Engraving

Plotting straight lines on glass is straightforward, for horizontal lines hold the wax pencil steady, perhaps on a pile of books and rotate the glass against it. Vertical lines can be marked with ease using a straight edge.

There is however a particular point to note here: With a variable width glass engraving such as the drawing of a vase illustrated, a vertical line only appears vertical when it is closest to the viewer rotate the object and the line seems to lean. By the same token any design that depends upon a vertical line will also appear to lean when the glass is rotated.

Warwick Crystal Designs

Glass Creations

Art and Engraving

"Plotting straight lines on glass is straightforward, for horizontal lines hold the wax pencil steady, perhaps on a pile of books and rotate the glass against it, Glass Engraving".

Rose Breasted Grosbeaks Design (Click to enlarge)