Wednesday, January 20, 2010

How To Paint Glass



There are a wide variety of paints manufactured especially for painting on glass. These can be water-based or oil-based. While the oil-based paints are more glossy and iridescent, a beginner would do well to start off with a water-based paint as they are easier to handle.

The paints may be opaque or translucent. While the former is better suited for conventional patterns like figures and still-life, the later gives an enchanting, shimmering quality to the paintings, particularly used for making sun-catchers. Any one might be chosen, but it is advisable not to use both varieties in the same painting. Each has its own texture and these do not gel.

Glass liners are available, conveniently packaged into tubes. These are again of myriad hues, but a black liner is recommended. It gives a clear definition to the outlines making the paintings stand out.

Requirements:

• A clean piece of glass, of the desired size. For a first-timer, a square piece of size 8X8”
• Glass liners
• Glass paints
• Paintbrushes
• Nail-polish remover
• A soft piece of cloth
Steps:

1. Choose a pattern. For a glass painting, a pattern must be clean lined, with minimum intricate curving and pointed corners. Here is a website that offers excellent patterns for free.
2. Once a pattern is selected, copy it on to a piece of paper of the same size as the piece of glass. The pattern must be drawn exactly on the center of the sheet. A margin of at least one-and-a-half inches must be left out on every side of the page.

3. Place the sheet on a flat surface and the glass on top of it, in perfect alignment with the piece of paper.
4. Trace out the outline carefully on the glass with the glass-liner, squeezing the tube from the bottom.
5. Take care not to smudge any part of the the traced pattern while working upon another part of the drawing. If this happens accidentally, swab the smudged portion with cotton-wool dipped in a little nail polish remover, then wipe out the surface with a clean dry piece of cloth.
6. Once the whole pattern has been traced, leave it to dry for about 3-4 hours. It may also be blow-dried with hot air to hasten up the drying process.
7. After the glass painting pattern has dried completely, start filling it in with glass colors of your choice. Use one-directional strokes to fill in the paint. Avoid spilling, do not take two much paint.
8. Use fine-tipped brushes to fill out the corners and areas near the outlines. From time to time, lift up the glass and look at the painting from underneath, any unfilled portion will be visible and can be filled out.
9. Pierce with a fine needle any bubbles that may appear, or gently brush them on to the glass painting outlines and out of the painting. Then wipe off the extra color outside the outlines with nail-polish remover.
10. Never put two coats of paint on any one portion. It will stand out and give a very shabby appearance to the finished painting. If you have to apply two coats, go over the entire area to blend the coats properly.
11. Take care not to lift the painting up vertically while paints are still wet, in order to prevent the glass paints from dripping.

Voila! A delicate, gorgeous glass painting is created, a perfect gift for that special occasion, or for adding charm to one's own residence.

glass painting Reverse




Reverse painting on glass is an art anatomy consisting of applying acrylic to a section of glass and afresh examination the angel by axis the glass over and searching through the glass at the image.
This art anatomy has been about for abounding years. It was broadly acclimated for sacral paintings back middle Ages. The lot of acclaimed was the art of icons in the Byzantine Empire. Later the painting on glass advance to Italy area in Venice it afflicted its Renaissance art. Back the mid of 18th an eon painting on glass became advantaged by the Abbey and the dignity throughout Central Europe. A bulk of alarm faces were created application this address in the aboriginal to mid 1800s. Throughout 19th an eon painting on glass was broadly accepted as folk art in Austria, Bavaria, Moravia, Bohemia and Slovakia. Unfortunately, during the inter-war an eon (1914-1945) this acceptable "naive" address fell about to a complete abeyance and its methods of acrylic agreement and structural blueprint had to be re-invented by accumulation acrylic and oil paints. Also the appearance of painting and abnormally the capacity had to be assorted and adapted to new perceptions of the apple in avant-garde times. Thus painting on glass started to become accepted afresh back 1990s. However, abounding painters of this brand assert that abandoning that altered attitude of naive's access to painting on glass is rather difficult. Therefore the painting on glass becomes an accustomed alternative for refurbishing a new abode congenital in an acceptable rustic style. For example, the afresh erected Catholic abbey at Roadstead in Northern Slovakia autonomous for accepting its Stations of the Cross on 14 ample pictures – all corrective on glass.

The painting can be astute or abstract. Astute about-face paintings are added arduous to actualize as one must, for example, in painting a face, to put the adherent of an eye on the glass afore the iris, absolutely the adverse of accustomed painting. If this is alone the artisan will not be able to actual the absurdity as he will not get in amid the glass and the acrylic already applied. No such affliction charge be taken with the abstruse form, but with this anatomy you do not accept a acceptable abstraction how the section will attending like until you are accomplished painting it. This action is not like decrepit or leaded glass plan in that it is not advised to adhere in a window with ablaze advancing through the piece. Hanging on a wall, affected or unframed, with a lot of ablaze directed appear the section provides best viewing.

This appearance of painting is beginning in acceptable Romanian icons basic from Transylvania.
Recently this appearance of painting is accepting acclaim in its delineation of Hindu deities abnormally in Southern India. These consistently involve ample bulk of gold acrylic and colors, like red and green, for the gem stones adorning the deities. The lot of arresting footfall in this appearance of painting is that the gem stones on the altered pieces of jewelries are corrective aboriginal and afresh coated with gold to accommodate the adornment effect. Acrylic is the frequently acclimated painting average and these absorb actual attenuate brushes and minute workmanship. This appearance of painting could battling the acceptable Stanmore painting in the advancing years with its beautiful address and abundant bottom costs in the abreast future.

Monday, January 18, 2010

FUSING INTRO - JANUARY 2010

What great projects everyone made at the Intro to Fusing workshop that we held this past Saturday! I've put photos together for you to see... Click on a photo to enlarge it for closer viewing... Enjoy! c@

Project I

Everyone began by making a square design... with individual pieces put
under a clear cover. Options were given to fuse the piece flat to use as display art, or to slump the piece in a mold to use it as a plate.

Precision cutting techniques with strip cutter and hand scoring tools, together with color planning (not to mention mechanical coordination to flip the piece over to add accent pieces to the top) were skills in high demand. Everyone was encouraged to try using a repeating pattern and/or vitrigraph for motion in their design.

The project was challenging - but everyone did quite well, as you can see from the photos above! I think everyone learned many techniques that will help them on future projects.

And a huge round of applause, please, for Laura - who is color blind and put together a lovely piece of display art!


Project II

While all the square projects were being designed, each person had an opportunity to cut a circle to use for their second project. All the circles came out perfect - on the first try! Excellent work, ladies! And, congratulations to Kristi who even cut a second circle for her project!


Circle cutting accomplished, each person was to design a piece that could be draped over a mold.
Some chose to make their bowls textured by including some coarse frit and having the pieces fired using a contour fuse, Kristi chose frit and dots to create a design, and Carrie and Suzanne experimented with frit to fill in spaces between their designs.

Such cheery, colorful pieces that were created!

Project III

Then everyone learned a few techniques to hang glass by creating some pendants. We used fibers to create channels and fine silver wire to make pendant bails.


Everyone had a chance to experiment with dichroic glass and learn about dichroic glass.

All in all, I think everyone will enjoy their creations for a long time, and should feel proud to use and display them!

Friday, January 8, 2010

The technique of painting on glass in India


The technique of painting on glass in India originated in the second half of the 18th century, chiefly owing to the influence of Chinese artists who lived and worked for the nobility and royalty. Glass paintings, as the name indicates, are paintings done on clear glass. The process requires immense skill and, as a genre, glass painting is extremely difficult for the sequence of steps followed when painting on an opaque surface, is reversed in painting glass.


Although religious themes dominate, court scenes and portraits are also common. Essentially a popular art, the technique of glass painting spread rapidly in western and southern India, though examples of regional styles are also found in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Bengal. The town of Thanjavur ( Tamil Nadu) became known for the craft of painting on glass and this tradition continues till today. Very often the glass paintings are mistakenly referred to as the Thanjavur sacred icon paintings since these glass paintings tend to repeat the composition of their more expensive counterpart. The glass paintings are decorated with gold leaf, thereby providing devotional images for the puja (worship) room. The colours used are rich and bold and have a feeling of opulence. If the figure painted is that of a deity it is surrounded or housed within a frame. Often the formal frame is created by depicting heavily fringed and tasselled curtains, chandeliers, glass lamps, winged angels, or heavy furniture.

Painting on glass involves a process different from the procedure used when painting on opaque surfaces. The technique requires visual memory since the details, especially the finishing and shading lines, are painted in first and the large areas of colour are filled in afterwards. The picture is mounted with its unpainted side uppermost so that it can be viewed through the glass. The paintings are executed by skilled artists who wield a bold and confident brush. The picture, in tempera, is begun with the brush outlines and finer details being filled in first. Interestingly when the painting is finished these lines appear on the top layer. When areas were left unpainted a gold or silver foil is pasted on to give the effect of gilding. The next stage is when the larger areas are filled in with opaque paints. These areas are generally given a flat finish except when depicting drapery or when used to depict the face and body, in which case shading techniques are used