Glass Painting

Glass Painting: Dolphin Vase.

Glass Painting.

It's actually bee quite a while since I did any glass paints.. 18+ months perhaps. This has mainly been due to moving hose but I must admit working on the update for Craftville.com took up a lot of time as well.

Any way after completing the update for Craftville the next obvious thing to do was update glasspainting.co.uk. This is another site I have been running for a long time (just check and i started it in 2000 so it is now 15 years old).  Again it has always been a "help site" with designs videos and product reviews.

Whilst deciding to update the site, making it viewable on tablets and mobiles etc, it also became obvious that a lot of the content also needed updating. Whilst a lot of the writing was OK the images and videos were certainly showing their age. Digital photography has come a long way very quickly. My phone now takes far better images than my first very expensive digital camera!

When I first started making videos I recorded them on tape. I then had to be a special box to plug into the computer. I would attach the camera to that, play the tapes and record them on the computer in a digital format. Even then they were quite a low resolution.

Glass Painting: Outlining Video.

Anyway the glass painting site has now been updated and I am busy replacing the old content and creating some new stuff. I here's the crux of this piece.... I'd forgotten how much I enjoy glass painting and how relaxing I find it.  In a lot of ways it is even better now. When I actually worked as a glass painter and demonstrator full time it was actually quite difficult to come home and do some more for the site. Now I can do it just for fun I feel that I can start enjoying it again.

Glass Painting: 3d Framed Suncatcher.

So far I've re-recorded the video on outlining and created a completely new project, a 3d frame suncatcher.

One of the great things about glass painting is the range of items you can make. As well as redoing some more of the old videos I am now developing a few more new projects. At the two extremes of glass painting I'm doing a couple of "quick" projects using limited resources and a "big" project which looks like it will be my front door. I haven't done a really big project for a very long time so I am really looking forward to that!

So my advice is, is you haven't done any glass painting for a while or even if you've never tried it before maybe it's time to get give it a go. There is plenty of information on our glass painting site to help you get (back) into it, there is even a blog on recuing old paints.

www.glasspainting.co.uk

Childrens Glass Painting Project.

This is the first Glass Painting Project I have done which is specifically geared towards children. Not that it can't be used by adults as well. I was thinking of doing another example myself to show that the same technique can be used by adult to produce quite high quality work and may still when time allows.

I still don't feel that these thick waterbased paints give the same standard of finish as a flowing paint, solvent or waterbased, but then again it is very difficult to use a flowing paint on a curved surface. What will help is when I find another glass painting film which would let me paint flat the move it to a window  etc, haven't found a good one since Rainbow Glass closed down :-(

Anyway back to the Childrens project. It features "Luke" doing most of the painting. I did the outlining for him although he does have a go at outlining now-a-days, and it is getting a lot better, I did it mostly for speed. He's made the little candle holder as an end of term present for his t4eacher so hopefully she'll like it.

Glass Painted Vase

I realise I haven't really mentioned our Glass Painting site on here very often. About 7 years ago Glass Painting went through a very popular period. It has diminished since but still remains a fairly popular craft in the UK, USA, India and quite a few Middle Eastern Countries.

This is a hobbyist type of glass painting. The paints aren't fired but you can still get some amazing effect and paint everything from a small candle holder right up to a full window or door. Here is the video which we did for one Glass Painting Project, a Dolphin Vase. You will find lots more projects, together with guides, product reviews, how tos etc on our site www.glasspainting.co.uk.

GlassPainting.co.uk

Well I've completelyrevamped the glasspainting.co.uk website, new layout, new mailing list, new forum and even some new content.

The new content includes 3 new videos, a basic painting one, a new blending one and a glass painted portrait.

Not too sure about the last one. The videos a bit boring, just me glass painting speeded up! I'm not too sure about the result either. It's the first time I've tried this type of glass painting (without outliner) and I think I'll have to give it a few more tries. Next time I'll ensure all the colours are completely different as the dark brown I used was far too close too the balck. The blue I used should also have beeen a lot greyer!

Well if you don't try these things you never learn anything new! Would be interested to hear if anyone else gives this style of glass painting a go!