Dartington Crystal introduced me to the process of sandblasting, which looks similar to etching but is a process that can get the same results every time.

Sandblasting leaves two tones to the glass - the transparent untouched glass and the translucent sandblasted areas. The process of sandblasting is shown in the photo below taken at Dartington Crystal.

This photo shows some of Dartington's finished products which have been sandblasted. You can see that an identical illustration can be produced repeatedly using the stencils.

Hand etching is great for producing bespoke products and showing how the bottles I'm designing will look. However, if the bottles I am designing are to be mass produced, or even batch produced sandblasting may be the best way to create the design. It would reduce the production time and human error which is the downside to hand etching.