Glass Painting, Part Two
Last time I talked a bit about how we can add dimension to our pieces by including some stainer color shadowing, shading and highlighting to some of our pattern pieces. Today I’d like to go into a bit more detail and expand on our glass painting options.
I wrote a bit about the use of stainer colors as we were focusing on highlights, shading and shadowing. Expanding a little today we can include two other forms of medium: silver stains and transparent enamels.
Silver stain is a pigment-like substance which actually changes the nature of the glass its being applied to. It’s matted or brushed onto the reverse side of the glass and then brushed away after firing, leaving the glass permanently recolored a somewhat limited variety of pretty ambers, yellows or oranges. The stained color you see isn’t a layer of pigment, after firing it actually becomes part of the glass, similar to what happens when you patina a copper foiled or leaded piece. It’s thought that the term “stained glass” originally comes from the silver-staining of glass.
Finally, transparent enamels provide a welcome addition to our color palette. Bright, colorful and layerable, transparent enamels provide color options and flexibility which had been previously unattainable. Subtle changes in hue and/or shade plus varying degrees of vibrance or saturation can be accomplished through the use of transparent enamels.
Regardless of the medium, the basic processes are the same – outline, matte and remove. Layer by layer, color by color. Techniques can be developed, skills can be honed but the processes themselves are straightforward and easy to learn. Glass painting is a particularly satisfying artform, and one we don’t see nearly enough of.
I want to wrap up today with one final little bit. It’s about color. I think what artists were able to do during the formative years of glass painting is simply astounding. I hope you find the next couple of paragraphs interesting.