Donovan P Zeh was born in 1964 in Raleigh, NC. He currently resides in La Grange, NC. He is an accomplished Photographer and Sandcarving artist. You can see his work at his website dzdonline.com
Sandcarving is an abrasive blasting technique used to etch a variety of surfaces. Glass, wood, stone, ceramic, metal, and sign materials can be sandcarverd. Most of the 3 dimensional wood grained signs you see at the beach, and on golf courses, use a form of sandcarving.
Unlike chemical glass etching, rotary engraving, or laser engraving, sandcarving can achieve multiple effects from a simple surface frosting, shading, deep etching, to full 3 dimensional art on the same piece. Simple line art, monograms, to gray scale photographs can be reproduced on glass or crystal wedding glasses, picture frames, ornaments, desk accessories, pet memorials, room dividers, fireplace screens, shower doors, and stone. The size of the piece is almost limitless, from shot glasses, to entire storefronts!
To sandcarve an item you need some basic equipment. #1 is an abrasive blasting system (Sand blaster), an air compressor, and some form of masking.
Basically you take a mask, vinyl, paint mask, masking paper, or commercial sand blast mask. You create your artwork on the mask, then you cut out the individual elements of the art work. You then peel off pieces of the mask to allow access to the work piece (glass, wood, stone, of foam) and then blast etch the work.
You can blast the design in one shot like a monogram or a one color logo. If you are trying to reproduce a multi colored image on a single work piece then you pull the mask off in stages, and blast at different depths to create a 3 dimensional look.
The only limitations of this art form is the artists own skill and imagination.
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