Glass can be decorated in a number of ways to make it a piece of art by adopting any of the processes or their combinations. The main decorating processes are Frosting, Sand Blasting, Etching, Engraving, making Textures, Grooving, Coloring, Staining, Bending, Fusion, Ceramic Printing, and Enameling.

Artists can achieve almost any perceivable impression by combining one or more of these operations. Though decoration of glass is more a work of art and is mostly accomplished in glass studios, some commonly used and technically important processes are briefly described here. Most decorative glasses can be tempered, laminated or double-glazed after decoration.

Decorated glasses are extensively used for decoration in the interiors in partitions, furniture, inner doors and shower installations etc. On the exteriors, images, signage and company names or logos can be made on the entrance doors or partitioning members as well as display windows.

The best utility of decoration on glass is for “manifestation” and for “partial visibility or privacy.”

Frosting, Sand Blasting and Etching:

Normal glass is transparent and allows vision and light to pass through it. In certain applications it is important to allow light while eliminating or obscuring the vision as in the case of a bathroom window. Glass has very neat, clean and glossy surfaces. One of the surfaces can be frosted or obscured by blasting sand or abrasives under high pressure through a nozzle. A very thin layer of material is removed and the sand or abrasive causes a pitting on the surface obscuring its “see through” property but not obstructing
the passage of light. The final glass is known as frosted glass. Another type of frosted glass is made by acid treatment resulting in a milky smooth satin finish on glass and achieving the same objective of blocking vision but allowing light.

Frosting can also be achieved by ceramic printing or using frosted PVB film in a laminated glass. Sand blasted frosting results in a rough glass surface, which can get smudged easily with fingerprints, liquids,detergents, oils etc. It can also gain back the transparency when splashed with water.

Ceramic printing or lamination option will not have this problem. It is advised not to laminate a sand blasted frosted glass as PVB will flow into the pitting and make the glass transparent again. Normally the whole surface of glass is sandblasted to make it frosted but sometimes this process is usedto make some designs, patterns and images on the glass. This can be done by masking a part of the glass surface with a stencil mostly made by cutting the patterns or designs on a sheet or tape of vinyl and pasting on the glass surface. The area covered or masked under vinyl will not be affected by sand blasting and only uncover
ed area is sand blasted. Any geometric, floral, Victorian or contemporary design is possible. Such designs are known as frosted designs.

Above method removes a very thin layer of material from the glass surface but the same technique is used for deep removal of material for etching or ttexturing by experienced craftsmen directing the abrasive jet on the unexposed glass surface. All sand blasted surfaces will be rough but it can be smoothened out by hydrofluoric acid treatment to obtain semi glossy finishes.

Engraving and Grooving

Designs and art works can also be engraved on the glass surface using diamond tools and routers to achieve a deep cut glass effect on glass. The grooves can be made in different profiles and varying depths. They can be rough, smooth or polished or a combination of these finishes to make it a piece of art.

Stained Glass

Stained glass has been used since ages in churches, which was made by soldering small pieces of glass of different colors. The process being very slow and inefficient is now mostly replaced by making partitioning lines with a resin or epoxy to make it look as if small pieces of glass are joined together and then coloring different parts with different colors.

Edge Grinding & Polishing