There is nothing quite like seeing a crystal or glass award sparkle in the sunshine or feeling its weight in your hands. Tim Williamson, manager of Just Right Awards and Engraving, jokes that he wishes that all days could be sunny ones for his glass and crystal products.

As the year progresses, awards and personalization members face no shortage of challenges: supply chain delays, inflation, labor strains and more. In this climate, making the most of the equipment you already have isn’t just helpful—it’s vital. If costs rise elsewhere, after all, greater in-house efficiency can help pick up the slack.

When you decide to buy a sandcarving system, you need to make some choices right away, not only about what brand to buy but also what type of system to buy. One of your first choices will be between a siphon system or one with a pressure pot

What I love about sandcarving is the appearance of a deep etch in glass. I have been in the industry for 18 years, and I still run my fingers over the sandcarved area.

Personalized flasks are a fun and unique gift to give to a bride, groom, groomsmen, best man, maid of honor, bridesmaids, or matron of honor. In fact my sister recently provided me with plain metal flasks to sandcarve with a personalize message for her own wedding party.

Sandcarving is a quick, clean, and simple process that will diversify any business. Sandcarving not only allows for deep etching capabilities with sharp, clean lines, but it also offers techniques unique to sandcarving that will increase the value of any project. These techniques include halftone, or photographic etching, frosting capabilities, complex curves, and the popular multistage carving capability!

Need a quick and easy paint to use for sandcarved items? So did we! When Rayzist Photomask introduced colored paint into our trade show demonstrations and sandcarving workshops in 2007, the paint had to dry quickly, be easy to use, and feature the durability of enamel paints. We tested and experimented with different paints—and then we came across a graffiti mural artist paint called Belton Molotow.

Subsurface laser engraving (SSLE) has been available for many years, and the process has evolved from a primitive and difficult technology requiring substantial equipment and support into a highly refined yet simple process yielding truly beautiful engraving results that aren’t available with any other technology. Advances developed in Germany have made SSLE systems reliable and straightforward to use. Some of the systems now available are virtually maintenance free.

For retailers looking to diversify their product lines, now is the time to consider personalizing products that hover just outside the traditional boundaries of the awards and recognition market. Sandblasting, commonly known as sandcarving, is an easy-to-learn, creative, and profitable way to tap into new and burgeoning markets, including personalization and gifts, memorialization, and architectural design, say several industry experts.

Glass and crystal are thought of first as materials appropriate for sandblasting, but almost any hard material is suitable.