Project 3 Faux Stained Glass Panel

Hi

In this project I'm going to try and replicate a stained glass panel by deep etching and filling with colour, I've colour filled before as seen in the last blog but in this project I am going to attempt to include the black lines to imitate the lead lines of a panel.

I searched Google images and found a nice classic design .

Only problem is that it is a .jpg image at 72 dpi which when trying to vectorise turns into a bit of a mess.

Not much chance of cutting this so it took quite a few hours to clean it up and it still isn't perfect but is much better.

To make sure I took a full size print and was able to fix a lot of the problems, although after etching I found some more.

The idea behind this project is to etch twice, the first etch will have the black lines pulled from the resist then blasted and painted before removing the resist then the second resist with the colour pieces pulled and deep etched, first time for me so I expect mistakes which I will not copy on the next try.

To get the 2 resist patterns to match up I made a wood template so that the glass and 2 exactly sized resists will be positioned exactly each time.

I am using a piece of 4mm glass with around 25mm of clear border.

I sent the design to the cutter and cut two patterns which was a bit of a waste of vinyl as I realised that the second resist needed to be from my proper etching resist to withstand the deeper etching and the adhesive is not as permanent as I am worried about pulling the black paint

I then weeded the black lines out and covered with the application tape.

A double check on the glass in its frame before fitting.

To stick to the glass I pulled one end of the backing paper.

Then positioned into the corner of the frame and carefully squeegeed the fold onto the glass.

Then even more carefully squeezed the rest of the resist down.

Once the resist was on I masked up then into the booth it went, I was a bit unsure of how deep to etch and in the end I could have gone a lot deeper which in the future I shall.

The depth is mostly just a key for the paint, what I should have done is to go deep enough so that a razor could be scrapped over the etch to remove and paint without scratching whats in the cut, next time.

I then gave it 3 coats of black spray and left it overnight.

Once the resist was pulled you can see how good a job of the design you have done as all of the imperfections show up.

The next stage is to cut a new resist from the same design so it is a perfect match, this time I used my heavier resist designed specifically for glass work and weeded the coloured areas.

This resist has to be fitted as perfectly as possible to where the original resist was, to do this I peeled back the 2 edges nearest the wooden battens so as to view where the lines where.

I then positioned on the glass and made sure everything was lined up as best as I could get it.

I squeegeed the longer bottom edge to the glass and very very carefully pulled back the backing paper and squeegeed down.

I removed the application tape and thankfully I could see it was pretty much as I wanted.

Now it was just a matter of masking and into the cabinet.

I used my PAB and pressure pot to blast at around 25 psi, I could have used a bit more pressure but it has been a while since I have used this so took it easy and got to use my new filling system for the first time.

It took around 45mins to etch into the glass again as with the lines I could have used a bit more pressure and gone a bit deeper but always next time.

I blasted each segment in turn as opposed to going back and forth evenly which I have done in the past to get a more even depth.

Anyone not familiar will a PAB then this is one in use.

I found when putting on the colour that I could have done a better job on some of the edges and gone a little deeper.

But all in all it turned out not to bad.

I cleaned it up and removed the resist.

Surprise surprise this is exactly what I was after, although I did manage a little damage to the black paint lines.

A bit difficult to see but there is a hole in the black second line up and a few of the edges have have pulled.

This is where I wish I had gone a little deeper so as to touch up the black a little easier.

Now for the colour, I decided to use the Lefranc & Bourgeois and every colour I had of that type, to apply it I had bought a load of pippets.

I sucked up a colour and carefully applied to the etch.

The pippets are disposable so I finished one colour before moving onto the next.

I even got Lynne to act as a camera women.

All of the colour went in with very few accidents.

But a few lessons learnt, the first is that if you touch up the black lines then let it dry as the colour is solvent based and pulled the black into the colour, I managed to lift most of it with a tissue but some more may have pulled.
Still drying overnight so will have a look tomorrow.

Well tomorrow has come and even more lessons learnt, the ideas there but the technique requires a little work, apart from letting the touch up paint dry properly that is.

First problem is the edge lines between the colour and the black; even the tiniest missed part shows light through so where the black paint pulled a little and wasn't touched up or where the resist was a little out of alignment has light showing.
I think the fix for this is a much deeper etch so that on the second resist it drops into the groove of the etch, this should expose a little of the black line which can then be blasted creating a better edge to fill to.

As you can see around the edges of the blues and greens so more attention required when touching up the black, fitting the 2nd resist and because it is the back that I am laying the colour onto it doesn't matter so much if I go over the etch and into the black in fact it would be a good thing if done carefully and the 2 adjacent colours don't track into each other.

I tried touching up the colours along the edges but strangely only the red worked in fact the darker blue reacted badly with the dried colour and started to wrinkle so not good.

All in all for a first attempt of an idea it wasn't to bad and if you don't experiment you don't get no where.
But will have to work on the fix..

Paul