Glass Colouring

Hi

Seems strange that it was doing stained glass that got me into etching and now I'm going back to stained glass even if it is just imitation.

I didn't take to long into my etching to start introducing colour, I had been asked if I could do a football crest and decided on a porcelain tile as the base so it had to be painted.

I did mostly football club crests like this one or more personnel commissions.

These paints were enamel hobby paints like Plasti-kote or Humbrol enamels.

I used these as they where easily available and I could hand brush, float on or thin down for air brushing.

I did a lot of these but was not happy about the open finish that was left, I tried shallower etching so the paint was nearer the surface but that led to easier scratching so I looked around for a means of filling the deep etch and came across a 2 part pour on resin.

This worked quite well and I finished a couple of pieces with this.

This piece has the EnviroTex on, I tried to dome it on and it did work but it flowed to well and I ruined a couple of pieces by overloading and it flowed over the edges, luckily I got this piece covered the first go, thankfully, as the separation lines in the crest are so fine It took a couple of attempts to get the resist on clean.

If anyone wants to try it.

Anyway I have moved on from the EnviroTex to proper doming resin 

I have yet to try it but have watched the videos and because it is auto mixed and is controlled by the trigger the problems of pouring have gone.

I then progressed to adding colour to glass work, I first tried Colour Magic which a lot of people use with great success, I have watched the videos and seen it flow into the etch and dabbing and dabbing to get rid of the build up, exactly the same problem I had, it tended to pool and leave darker patched instead of an even colour. I shall one day try it with an airbrush and think I will have better results and shall do an experiment to find the best way for me to apply.

Anyway I tried a few glass colours that are available from the oven firing to the water based acrylic to the solvent based, I tried from a few manufactures such as Pebeo, Lefranc & Bourgeois and an Indian make called Camel which I have searched for and is no longer available on eBay.

I had about 50 bottles of camel mostly as there were easily available on eBay and came as sets of varied colours so I used mostly these, unfortunately I sold these on eBay and they are no longer available, unless you live in India.

But I still have a few bits and pieces left over.

Well its a bit more than a few actually, these cost a small fortune so I'd best get busy using them.

I did quite a few coloured glass pieces which have mostly gone along with any photo's of them but a couple where in the loft.

This one was one of the test pieces I made, probably Camel paint used, and as its solvent based it will never fade, although it hasn't seen the light of day for around 5 years so I couldn't guarentee that but the blurb says it is.

This piece was actually a commission which for some reason never went through can't remember why.

This is a house name plate and was supposed to go in a stainless steel light box, the design is a Rowen wreath with the house name in, I used one shot paint in this for its pigment content and flow although if I remember correctly the small tin of gold cost around £17.

At the time of doing these I was also doing a few jobs for a glass firm mostly house numbers and noticed the stick on lead false stained glass panels they where producing and thought that it would look better in solvent vitrail so I had a go.

This was the test piece I came up with, again I can't remember what I used but it certainly looks good, I deep etched and flowed the paint in.

The colours still look nice and fresh after 5 years.

Now, the reason for going through all this is that as I said in an early blog is that most people tend to find a path in etching that they wish to concentrate on wether architectural pieces, pavers to wine bottles well I like colour so I have decided to experiment with the varied designs I have, Celtic to Arabic to Japanese, Art Nouveau and Floral and to start I am going for a Faux stained glass effect.

I had a little search and came up with this design.

I am going to do it with a 2 stage resist, the first resit I shall pull the black lines which I shall etch for a key and spray black for the lead effect then remove and replace the resist with the colour pulled and deep etch that for the colour. Well thats the idea, don't know if this has been done before but no doubt someone has mastered the art in the past. O well best get started.

Paul