From the monthly archives:

September 2009

Sunlight and Stained Glass Design

by Stephen Byrne on September 25, 2009

The light was heavenly here the other day – just as David was working on a water-colour design in our stained glass Studio #2 …

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Stained Glass Painting with Nib and Oil

How to paint stained glass by Williams and Byrne, designers, painters and restorers of stained glass

by David Williams on September 14, 2009

In Glass Painting Techniques & Secrets from an English Stained Glass Studio, you discover an amazing technique for painting with oil-based stained glass paint on top of unfired – note this: unfired – water-based paint. If this technique is new to you, read more here.

This is the exact technique we use each day to achieve a particular sense of depth and contrast in our work.

That’s the point about the information you get from us: it’s all tried and tested to the limit.

Sure, there’s always more to learn.

But what you learn with us is excellent and true.

Now this particular technique involves oil and brush.

Stained glass fighting bird in oil with nib by Williams & Byrne, designers, painters and restorers of stained glass

Stained glass fighting bird in oil with nib

But have a look at this sample piece of painted stained glass.

This is the very piece which caught Penny’s eye when she took time off from the front-line of our National Health Service – leaving the nation at the mercy of Swine Flu – while she spent a weekend with us at Stanton Lacy.

And what a stained glass painting course that was!

A time when people meet each other and immediately know that they will meet again.

Penny wanted to know how the piece was made, so here’s precisely what you all need to know.

It’s not done with oil and brush, but with oil and nib.

Here’s how we painted it.

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Stained Glass Painting – Silver Stain

Silver-stained stained glass cockatrice by Williams and Byrne

by Stephen Byrne on September 12, 2009

Jeff Hitch e-mailed us from Mission Viejo in California with a question about silver stain:

Can you please give me some tips on how to paint with silver stains?

I have been using vinegar and brushes with no metal (since I understand there’s an active ingredient in the stain which corrodes the metal).

They paint OK but they just don’t flow as well as other types of paints.

Also, I can’t get them to gradate very well. Can you help?

Yes!

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Stained Glass Tracing with Vinegar

by Stephen Byrne on September 7, 2009

Sue Sills wrote and asked us about mixing glass paint with white vinegar:

“I have only used water and gum for mixing tracing paint so far.

But I was recently told that you can use white vinegar instead of water and that it stopped the paint from drying out so quickly, thus making it better for tracing lines.

Do you know if this is so?”

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