Acid Etched Glass #5: Painting and Staining.

This entry demonstrates the process of painting and staining. I mostly use Reusche glass paints, but have a collection of other makes, all of which give me a varied palette to achieve various design outcomes.  This design also uses silver stain, which was Oster’s Ancient Walpol. I used Reusche Tracing Black paint to paint the lines of the central bee and border designs. For the bee, I used a sable 00 brush, which allows good control of the brush tip and holds enough paint to allow good steady lines.

For the hive border I used a pen nib.  The border paint was mixed using oils, which results in a deeper black once fired, and is good for fine straight lines when
used with a nib. Once the lines had been fired, I applied several layers of matte, which were picked, brushed and scraped away, with each layer being fired to fix it.  The application of several layers allows the depth of colour, the development of form and shadow and the build up of texture.   Once I was satisfied with the depth of tone and sense of form of the bee, I then applied the silver stain to create the yellow of the bee’s abdomen.

The stain is applied to the none paint side so that the stain has good adhesion to the glass, and without any paint forming a barrier.  The stain dries looking like a brown powder, and unlike glass paints or enamels, it retains this appearance after firing.  Once the glass is cooled, the stained area is washed to remove the powder residue and reveals the golden yellow beneath. The bee was painted on the reverse side of the hive cell piece of etched glass.  This created a 4mm depth
of separation and added to the development of 3D imagery.  The weave border was also applied to the rear of the glass, however this was so that it could be later worked with the water gilding.