OK, so let’s say you’ve made your lump of paint (not a teaspoonful as the books so wrongly say). You’ve also discovered the benefits of diluting it a little at a time to make the consistency and darkness of paint that you need for your next sequence of brush-strokes.
And then it’s time to stop for the day.
But when you return, of course your lump of paint is dry. Really dry. Dry as a bone in fact.
What do you do to bring it back to life?
“Plating” is the leading up of two or more glasses of the same shape, one behind the other.
Here’s what E. Liddall Armitage has to say on the matter:
“Some artists resort to plating and even tend to boast about it, but it is best avoided” (Stained Glass, Leonard Hill Books Limited, London, 1960, p. 130).
He presents two arguments. First, that it is unsound craftsmanship. Second, that medieval glass is beautiful and never, ever plated.
Before discussing these arguments, we must make an admission of special interest here.
There is a mind-numbing and irritating consensus which insists that stained glass paint should be fired between successive layers. This silly idea is found in any number of so-called instructional books on stained glass painting techniques.
It’s wrong, of course. And here’s a short wordless video which proves the point!