How To Paint A Face On Stained Glass

How To Paint A Face On Stained Glass

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Glass Artists Newsletter - February 2010
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Last month we visited Brittany Golden's jewelry studio. Click here to go to her web page.

It was inspiring to see her studio, so we've been working on ours a little. I re-painted an ugly swamp cooler cover. Did some drywall repairs.

Jeanne took down old posters and put up new bright ones. It not spring but it feels like spring cleaning!...

We have a skylight that needed some new drywall and patching. Jeanne wonders if it will leak again, but I did a repair around it. (It could still leak, don't tell her) Spectrum sent us some nice posters of their glass colors, Jeanne is checking to see how close the pictures are to the real thing.

This month we show how to paint with enamel paint on stained glass. It's not a way to get great detail, but it is permanent and works quite well for a very minimal face.

How To Paint A Face On Stained Glass

	Before you can paint a face on stained glass, you need to sandblast the surface so the paint will stick. Here's the pattern, which has been marked for painting, the cut lines are all drawn in.
	We cover the glass with contact paper. Often we use clear, but this colored stuff works fine and it shows up better for the photos.
	We use a spray adhesive applied to the back of the pattern to get it to stick.
	Then we have one chance to place it perfectly over the piece. Because it's tricky to get in place, we sometimes blast the face first and cut and grind the face shape later so that the shape is perfectly aligned. But with large shapes we can usually get the pattern aligned properly.
	This shows the pattern in place over the contact paper covered glass.
	Then all the pieces need to be cut out and removed. We use a brand new blade whenever we cut a face, a blade that has been used and left out over night will often be dull enough to tear the paper.
	Then we use the back of the knife to rub and burnish down the contact paper so it won't come loose during blasting.
	Then we put it in the blast cabinet and "fire away." We use aluminum oxide now days instead of silica sand, in the hope that it's safer to work with.
	Then we take the knife and check every edge of the glass, we're looking for a ridge to the blasted area, to insure that we've blasted enough.
	Then the resist is removed.
	We spray a small amount of epoxy paint into a cap to paint the sandblasted area. More refined folks might purchase small bottles of paint.
	Then we add paint to the sandblasted areas with a medium painters brush.
	The paint is always globby and we sometimes need to add extra paint at the edges to make sure the hollow of the sandblasted areas are filled.
	Once dry, we can scrap away the excess paint. We've tried to spray the paint over the blasted area before removing the resist, but find we end up having to re-apply paint and going through all the steps we've shown anyhow.

Here's the finished panel, a cute little girl reading a book.

	Katherine used this same technique on the Jack Skellington she made as a present in December. Her hair is purple now, she's a true artist!