|
Glass Tips & TricksNewsletters from our past converted to fresh articles about stained glass.
|
|
The Painted Leaf Project
When we worked on a recent project of four transom windows for Kent Walker, one of our favorite architects, we wondered if we could paint leaves on some of the big panels. This would allow us to skip some of the lead lines, allowing the design to be more open and natural.
If you want to follow this technique yourself, start by cleaning the glass well, drying it, and applying contact paper to both sides of the glass, then use spray adhesive to glue the paper pattern in place on the contact paper covered glass.
Then cut all the lines that will be needed to sandblast the pattern into the glass with a very sharp knife, I change my blade daily because they don't seem to keep a sharp enough edge after a day's use.
Only remove the part of the pattern that is to be blasted the deepest.
Only remove the part of the pattern that is to be blasted the deepest.
With the edge of the knife, or any other hard surface, burnish the edges of the contact paper down tightly to the glass, removing any bubbles, so that it won't lift up while sandblasting.
Don't forget to burnish down the part that will be removed later. It's easier to do it before the first blast because the lines will be blasted away during the first etch pass.
Now blast away, aiming the nozzle of the blaster towards the spilt in the leaf so that you'll achieve a really definite vein in the middle of the leaf.
You can test the edge of the split with the edge of your knife to make sure the blast is deep enough.
Then you can remove the contact paper for the second blast pass.
You can see that finished leaf looks good, but really blends into the background.
Then add a little paint to achieve the color and contrast that you're looking for. I used a rag dipped in paint to get the results I was looking for.
Here is the finished leaf, we did the same blasting on the back so that both sides would look the same and the painted leaf wouldn't make a weird shadow on the back of the piece.
Here is the panel before soldering. You can easily see the different colored leaves in the glass and the painted leaves that are falling from the twigs.