Glass engraving
Almon White, U.S. Army Air Corps, World War II
Above is a portrait of my grandfather, Almon White, which I engraved on a clear glass plate. Below is a cup, the companion piece for this set. It features my mother, Norma, as a little girl, and my grandmother, Millinea White, in a portrait taken during World War II. The plate and cup set represents the family as they were during the war -- Daddy Almon was apart from his wife and daughter, but together they are nonetheless a family, separate pieces of the same set. I gave the set to Mama Millie for Valentine's Day 2003.
Below are the original photos from which the portraits were cut.
Here are more detailed views of each picture on the cup ...
Glass engraving is my new hobby. I've decorated pub glasses, mugs, coffee cups and plates. I especially enjoy creating portraits.
The elusive images are difficult to photograph. This medium is symbiotic with light, like stained glass.
The glasses look best when they are illuminated from behind with diffused light. Illuminated from the front, the etching looks like a photo negative and the detail is difficult to discern. But when you turn them in the light and the etching changes to shadow -- by holding them in front of a lamp, a window, or TV screen, for example -- the image turns positive and and the detail suddenly leaps out at you. That's when they come alive. The images above are photographed in front of a lamp with a white glass shade.
I recently engraved these glasses with photographs of our dear friends Jeanne and Wallace Swanson as gifts for their 60th anniversary. They met during World War II, when Jeanne was a nurse and Wallace was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division.
