Greetings from the Mirror Guy!
Who is this mirror guy, you ask? Well, my name is Rob and I only became the mirror guy recently. Before this I was a respected scientist. OK, apparently not respected enough to be granted tenure, however. This despite living up to all of the expectations put upon me at hiring.... but I digress... The reason for mentioning this is that during the pain and misery of working through my anger and frustration, I needed something to keep me busy. Rather than go back to drinking (I quit in 1993), I decided to try something new with my scientific inclinations. Now, keep in mind that two years ago, you wouldn't have caught me dead in a Michael's Craft store. But how is this for going technologically backwards: instead of curing Parkinson's disease (ask me about it--I have a tremendous amount of insight that is now going to waste), I decided to get arsty fartsy and make candles for a while. An artistic but somewhat flakey (is that redundant?) friend needed wax to get his 'candle business' up and running again. So, sure, I thought--with a terminal contract from the University (WVU, btw) and no sense of obligation to them, I had time and money for a bit. So I bought some wax and made some candles.
Now, here is where serindipity really starts to kick in. I asked my kids' karate instructor if he would be willing to try to sell some candles out of his martial arts shop. Occasionally, he said, he gets customers asking about feng shui candles. So I made some feng shui candles out of gel wax, adding colors and aromas to match the associated set of chinese symbols. He said something to the effect of 'well, I like the candles, but I wonder if the labels could be added a bit classier' (I had used printed white label stickers). He went on: 'My mom knows of a technique where you can make a template out of contact paper and then etch the glass with a kind of paste you can buy at Michaels craft store'. 'Really?', I thought. Maybe I'll try it.
So back to my apartment I went (though still married with five children, my wife and I were separated at the time--loss of job, loss of marriage.... go figure) to cut out Feng Shui symbols. That seemed a bit tricky at the time, but luckily my hands were steady enough after 14 years of no alcohol that I was able to use a scalpel skillfully. OK, so I had some feng shui candles. I also had some contact paper and etching paste, and let me tell you, the latter isn't cheap. Being abhorrent of watching things go to waste, I wondered what else I could etch and for whom. Well, being an old frat boy and now having my oldest son a member of my old fraternity (albeit a different chapter-me Beta Theta Pi at Whitman College, he here in Morgantown at West Viginia Unversity), greek symbols on shot and beer glasses seemed a natural extension. Then it was the beta dragon. Then, the idea "I wonder if I could put a face on glass?" Having been an afficionado of Conceptispuzzles logic art for several years prior, I was keenly aware that it really took only a few pixels in the correct location in order to invoke the image of a recognizable personality. "I bet I could etch Bob Marley" I thought. So I did. On a small round glass table top
. But I didn't like it because it was all backwards in contrast. However, when I placed a white piece of paper under the etched portion of the glass, suddendly there was Bob! That's weird, I thought. I'm a smart man, but I wouldn't have guessed that I needed to put white paper under white (the frosted glass color) in order to get the etched areas to appears dark in comparison (due to a light scattering effect, I suppose). Hmmmmm.....my mind raced.....maybe if I reversed the black and white areas and put it on a mirror I would get that background naturally.
. But I didn't like it because it was all backwards in contrast. However, when I placed a white piece of paper under the etched portion of the glass, suddendly there was Bob! That's weird, I thought. I'm a smart man, but I wouldn't have guessed that I needed to put white paper under white (the frosted glass color) in order to get the etched areas to appears dark in comparison (due to a light scattering effect, I suppose). Hmmmmm.....my mind raced.....maybe if I reversed the black and white areas and put it on a mirror I would get that background naturally. 
And sure enough, it worked! So not knowing any better, I kept doing it. Before long I had sold my first piece to one of my sons' friends. It think it was the very piece pictured to the right.
So anyway, to wrap up this introduction, I ran into a woman who owned a custom framing shop and who was on the verge of retiring, so I bought her shop and launched "The Mirror's Image Custom Etching and Framing, L.L.C." My reasons for posting a blog are at least two-fold.
1) I would like to hear from other people who are interested in or who already perform mirror etchings to compare notes and/or share ideas and experiences.
2) I am interested in hearing from other people who were forced into unpleasant circumstances of any sort which resulted in a creative outlet. How common is this? As I said, you wouldn't have caught me dead in a Michael's craft store two years ago. And now, suddenly, I've convinced a number of people that I'm an artist! (Admittedly though, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the title--see the "Blue Moose" story to follow in the near future). How common is this I wonder? Have others been squeezed so hard that something creative and good came out of it?
So, thanks for reading my blog and feel free to contact me if any of this strikes home.
Rob
