Though artist Alex Gardega had already installed his 20-foot etched glass wall in the Aspen Social Club in Midtown Manhattan, he still needed to add a few more details. But since he could not use the sandblaster he usually uses to etch inside the restaurant, he dashed over to the art store Pearl Paint, picked up a can of Armour Etch brand etching acid and added five more trees to the intricate wall.
“At the last minute they wanted a couple more birch trees,” said Gardega, who has been doing glass art for over 20 years. “[Armour Etch] saved my life because I was able to pull off this last-minute desperate thing.”
Those were the days. In September, purchasing Armour Etch will not be so simple for Gardega and other artists and hobbyists, thanks to a bill passed by the Council in early May regulating the sale of etching acid. The bill mandates that sellers of etching acid view the customer’s photo identification and record the buyer’s name, address, type of identification, purchase date and the quantity of acid sold. The intent is to deter vandals who use etching acid for “scratchiti,” a type of graffiti done on glass panels such as subway cars, bus shelters and windows.
The new rule has left a few store owners scratching their heads.
“It’s used as a beautiful way to etch glass without a sandblaster,” said Dinah Rengel, store manager of Pearl Paint, which stocks Armour Etch. “When it’s used for good, it’s a beautiful product.”
Armour Etch, which is sold in art and hardware stores, is the only commercially available etching acid. Although two kinds of etching acid traditionally used by print makers—nitric acid and ferric chloride—technically fall under the bill’s definition of etching acid, they are not sold in stores, and print shops usually order them from suppliers.
The main market for Armour Etch is home hobbyists, as professional artists like Gardega tend to use a sandblaster. For example, the “Project Corner” section of Etchworld.com, a Web site owned by Armour Etch, is filled with glass craft projects ranging from the classy to the kitschy: frosted glass candleholders, a snowflake-etched glass vase, a “We Love Grandpa” glass photo frame and “Etched Ornament Cards of Love.”
The bill’s sponsor, Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens), has a history of fighting against graffiti that has helped him make headlines, even scoring him a cameo on The Colbert Report. His first etching acid bill in 2006, which would have licensed the possession of etching acid, got much less support than this one.
“The mayor’s side was very opposed to that sort of regulation,” he said. “We were at an impasse for a long time.”
Then, while buying Sudafed at a drugstore across the street from his office, the clerk asked Vallone for identification.
“I thought, ‘Hey, this would be a good compromise with the administration,’” Vallone said. “Why not hand ID over and keep a log of the purchases of etching acid?”
The legislation passed 49-2, with only Council Members Melissa Mark Viverito (D-Manhattan) and Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) voting no.
Mark-Viverito said she voted against the bill because she was worried about how the collected information would be accessed and used by police, she said.
“I am concerned about how this information could lead to overreaching on the part of the authorities as they attempt to track down culprits,” she wrote in an e-mail.
Even this so-called compromise bill goes too far, said Robert Perry, legislative director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“We think it’s really misguided legislation,” he said. “It deputizes merchants to police the sale of etching acid, and mandates that these merchants collect in-store personal identification that is susceptible to unauthorized release and abuse.”
Under the legislation, the city will fine stores that do not collect the required information.
Perry said the bill was unlikely to deter vandals, who would quickly learn not to purchase etching acid in the neighborhood where they planned to use it.
“If you want to prevent subway graffiti, prosecute the defenders, identify the time and graffiti patterns and focus the law enforcement patterns,” he said. “That seems to me a reasonable approach, not setting up some kind of data collection obligation for merchants.”
Art stores and suppliers are already aware of the non-artistic uses of Armour Etch.
“If you look like you’re going to be up to no good, we try not to sell it,” said Rengel, the Pearl Paint store manager. “We bend over backwards to sell it to the right people.”
New York Central Art Supply stopped selling etching acid three years ago.
“When they find out you have it, they try to steal it,” said owner Steve Steinberg.
Even New Jersey-based Armour Products, the manufacturer of Armor Etch, has worked closely with the New York City Police Department to prevent graffiti, said Armour Products president Sydney St. James.
Gardega, the glass artist, said he had mixed feelings about the new legislation.
“I’m really on the fence about this because I’m very anti-nanny state,” he said. “But it’s really obnoxious and wrong to ruin someone’s window.”
“At the last minute they wanted a couple more birch trees,” said Gardega, who has been doing glass art for over 20 years. “[Armour Etch] saved my life because I was able to pull off this last-minute desperate thing.”
Those were the days. In September, purchasing Armour Etch will not be so simple for Gardega and other artists and hobbyists, thanks to a bill passed by the Council in early May regulating the sale of etching acid. The bill mandates that sellers of etching acid view the customer’s photo identification and record the buyer’s name, address, type of identification, purchase date and the quantity of acid sold. The intent is to deter vandals who use etching acid for “scratchiti,” a type of graffiti done on glass panels such as subway cars, bus shelters and windows.
The new rule has left a few store owners scratching their heads.
“It’s used as a beautiful way to etch glass without a sandblaster,” said Dinah Rengel, store manager of Pearl Paint, which stocks Armour Etch. “When it’s used for good, it’s a beautiful product.”
Armour Etch, which is sold in art and hardware stores, is the only commercially available etching acid. Although two kinds of etching acid traditionally used by print makers—nitric acid and ferric chloride—technically fall under the bill’s definition of etching acid, they are not sold in stores, and print shops usually order them from suppliers.
The main market for Armour Etch is home hobbyists, as professional artists like Gardega tend to use a sandblaster. For example, the “Project Corner” section of Etchworld.com, a Web site owned by Armour Etch, is filled with glass craft projects ranging from the classy to the kitschy: frosted glass candleholders, a snowflake-etched glass vase, a “We Love Grandpa” glass photo frame and “Etched Ornament Cards of Love.”
The bill’s sponsor, Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens), has a history of fighting against graffiti that has helped him make headlines, even scoring him a cameo on The Colbert Report. His first etching acid bill in 2006, which would have licensed the possession of etching acid, got much less support than this one.
“The mayor’s side was very opposed to that sort of regulation,” he said. “We were at an impasse for a long time.”
Then, while buying Sudafed at a drugstore across the street from his office, the clerk asked Vallone for identification.
“I thought, ‘Hey, this would be a good compromise with the administration,’” Vallone said. “Why not hand ID over and keep a log of the purchases of etching acid?”
The legislation passed 49-2, with only Council Members Melissa Mark Viverito (D-Manhattan) and Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) voting no.
Mark-Viverito said she voted against the bill because she was worried about how the collected information would be accessed and used by police, she said.
“I am concerned about how this information could lead to overreaching on the part of the authorities as they attempt to track down culprits,” she wrote in an e-mail.
Even this so-called compromise bill goes too far, said Robert Perry, legislative director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“We think it’s really misguided legislation,” he said. “It deputizes merchants to police the sale of etching acid, and mandates that these merchants collect in-store personal identification that is susceptible to unauthorized release and abuse.”
Under the legislation, the city will fine stores that do not collect the required information.
Perry said the bill was unlikely to deter vandals, who would quickly learn not to purchase etching acid in the neighborhood where they planned to use it.
“If you want to prevent subway graffiti, prosecute the defenders, identify the time and graffiti patterns and focus the law enforcement patterns,” he said. “That seems to me a reasonable approach, not setting up some kind of data collection obligation for merchants.”
Art stores and suppliers are already aware of the non-artistic uses of Armour Etch.
“If you look like you’re going to be up to no good, we try not to sell it,” said Rengel, the Pearl Paint store manager. “We bend over backwards to sell it to the right people.”
New York Central Art Supply stopped selling etching acid three years ago.
“When they find out you have it, they try to steal it,” said owner Steve Steinberg.
Even New Jersey-based Armour Products, the manufacturer of Armor Etch, has worked closely with the New York City Police Department to prevent graffiti, said Armour Products president Sydney St. James.
Gardega, the glass artist, said he had mixed feelings about the new legislation.
“I’m really on the fence about this because I’m very anti-nanny state,” he said. “But it’s really obnoxious and wrong to ruin someone’s window.”
