Yeah I got that vibe, so I was wondering if that would work for you. I’m all for it.
As for the vinyl trick, the idea would be that you cut a sticker, stick it to the glass and blast it. Peel back the vinyl and your glass has a clear/frosted pattern. There may be a way to accomplish this with something more durable, maybe a silicone sheet with some replaceable adhesive or something, I dunno.
Harbor freight sells a pretty good benchtop sandblaster for fairly low price, you might be able to pick a used one up pretty easily too, feeding your upcycling concept.
I feel like someone on here was doing some sandblasting, lets see…
I mean really the whole sandblasting search term is useful.
https://community.glowforge.com/search?q=sandblasting
I think you’ll find that etching or sandblasting is going to scale pretty well, and sandblasting is probably the most sustainable of the options.