It is not every day you sit in a tycoon’s boardroom (nice Gothic-clawed chairs, by the way) and receive a challenge:

“The commission is yours if, within seven days, you can forge me two fine pieces of ancient-looking glass …”

The boardroom was littered with other makers’ samples – wallpaper, curtains, rugs, table-tops …

I could see the tycoon’s problem – I’m quick like that …

And the problem was -

Everything looked new.

Beautiful but … new.

Indeed, money can buy most things.

And that’s why it’s often nicer to make the impression that money bought these things a long, long time ago …

Anyway, we accepted the challenge. Why ever not?

There was also you, our loyal readership, to consider.

With so much interest on your part, we now find ourselves compelled to seek out adventures and commissions to entertain you.

Indeed, I imagine how Simbad felt a similar emotion each time he cast off anchor, thinking of how the Sultan’s court would long for his return to hear his marvellous tales.

It’s not like we find your attention is addictive or anything like that.

All the same …

It’s official – The Independent says so …

Today’s copy of The Independent features a rather exciting centre-fold 2-page full-colour picture of me and David. I hope it’s not too racy for their readers.

And we’re described as “one of the Britain’s leading makers of stained glass”.

Oh yes?

Who are the others then?

Anyway, let’s not get distracted by all this media attention.

To coin a phrase, it’s only just begun …

Yes, the challenge of the tycoon’s casket!

1. Arouse curiosity

Prepare one design.

This was already an interesting aspect of the challenge: what exactly to depict?

There had to be a narrative, an imagined story.

David and I walked spent a dutiful morning, walking around various ancient English churches, until we came across a window in the corner of St. Laurence’s in Ludlow: The Adoration of the Magi.

These are Casper’s hands, bringing gold:

"I wonder what's inside"

2. Choose good and appropriate glass

The faces in a 19th century stained glass window may look white (and we must leave aside the cultural implications of this choice of colour here).

Yet, in your hand, and out of context, you’ll often find them to be green.

The reason is, their colour was purposefully chosen to hold its own against the strength of the bleaching sun.

The colour in hand is not the same as the colour in context

Our tycoon is a lifelong collector of stained glass. He will therefore know this fact. So we found an interesting piece of tinted English glass and cut it down to size.

3. Map out the main lines

This often means laying down a smooth undercoat (and if anyone wonders why, please see strategy #3 on this page right here).

Then, with the glass on top of the design, you use a fine tracing brush to make a literal copy of the outline.

Copy-trace the main lines

Note: it’s often easier to prepare a pencil tracing from the water-colour design, and work from this.

4.Initial highlights

There are so many different ways you could go forward from here. for example, it’s often possible and advantageous to build up shadows right away (see strategy #7).

And yet … and yet – here we settled on a more immediate approach, setting down some highlights straight away:

Rough highlights to give an impression of where light falls

5. Giving body and weight to the image

It comes as a relief (because you thereby move away from a provisional state of affairs) when you strengthen and/or thicken your original trace lines, and block in around the edges of your glass, in order to contain the light:

Blocking in quickly adds substance to the painting

This close-up draws your attention to the roughness of the blocking in.

The point is, perfection under a microscope can sometimes conflict with the wider and more important objectives, such as being legible from a distance, and also – crucially – gaining the tycoon’s confidence.

6. Other appearance of ageing

Always remember the back of your glass.

It is your second canvas.

Working the back of the glass you can either add shadows and thus create a greater sense of depth.

Or, as here, with a light wash plus a good toothbrush, followed by some gentle rubbing, you can start to mimic the  ravages of age.

These spots are on the back of the glass

To be clear: these spots are on the back of the glass. With a suitable firing schedule, and a suitable mix of paint, you can fire both sides at once.

7. Authenticity

It is a modern luxury, and sometimes even an indulgence, to run the risk of firing your glass several times.

Yes, it’s easy when you have a computer wired up to your kiln, and you can walk off and get on with other things.

In earlier times, you’d pay a great deal of attention to the firing, and chance it as infrequently as possible.

So a lot more painting would go on between your firings.

In particular, you’d often resort to oil, as here, to build up further shadows:

Oil adds a new dimension to your glass painting

Just look at the subtle shading on the hand here.

I don’t say this to boast.

I say this to remind you how, with oil, you can give tremendous expression and delicacy to your shading (see strategies #14 – #16).

8. Secondary highlights

Another wonderful quality of oil is how you can take your time to make exactly the highlights you want:

You can take your time with oil highlights

And you can also blend them afterwards (see strategy #17).

9. Older still and older …

You can add texture to the front of the glass by flicking water onto the oil you applied earlier:

Flicking water on untroubled oil ...

The effect is largely random, so you have to pray you get what you want …

See how the water has caused the oil to separate ...

10. First firing

Then a few anxious hours while the kiln does its work:

Incidentally, when you paint with oil, you lose less in the kiln - so what you see before you fire is pretty much the density you get after you fire

11. Tracing and shading with silver stain – it really is that easy …

Time was when you’d have been anxious about staining – it’s such a messy and frustrating job with water or vinegar.

With oil, it’s so much easier (though you always have to run suitable tests):

Silver staining with oil really is that easy - when you know what you must know ...

12. Second firing

If you’ve done your tests, there’s little cause for worry now.

Unless there’s a tycoon who wants his proof …

Did it work, the stain?

And was the tycoon pleased?

What do you think happened?

13. The Tycoon’s Casket – watch it now!

If you already have your copy of Silver stain – how to trace, blend, shade and flood from a reliable batch that lasts for months, we’ve just posted you a bonus 20-minute video.

You already have the password, so just click on Video / Silver Stain and scroll down until you come to video #8.

How thrilling!

That makes 73 minutes of exclusive online video – you see exactly what you must do.

Just click here and use your password

There’s also a free copy of the original water-colour design for you to use. (And why not? – We borrowed it from St. Laurence’s in the first place.)

If you don’t yet have your own copy of this essential technique-packed guide, there are two proposals:

1. Just the guide on its own – that’s proposal #1
2. Guide plus 73 minutes of online video – that’s proposal #2

And proposal #2 is where you get to see all the exciting close-up videos.

It’s the next best thing to coming here! (Or opening up your own copy of today’s Independent and admiring our centre-fold technique …)

Click here and choose the proposal you want but remember how only proposal #2 includes the online videos:

Recipe, techniques, media, discussion, step-by-step project with design

]]> http://www.realglasspainting.com/stained-glass-painting-techniques/2010/07/09/tycoons-casket/feed/ 6 http://www.realglasspainting.com/stained-glass-painting-techniques/2010/07/04/how-to-use-silver-stain/ http://www.realglasspainting.com/stained-glass-painting-techniques/2010/07/04/how-to-use-silver-stain/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 08:00:14 +0000 David Williams http://www.realglasspainting.com/?p=6180

Silver stain – how to trace, blend, shade and flood from a reliable batch that lasts for months …

Frustrated with silver stain? Fed up with unpredictable and disappointing results?

There’s no need.

There is another way …

Silver stain explained – your 18-page downloadable guide now launched with 75 minutes of online video demonstration for you to watch and copy.

Includes how to mix a reliable batch of stain which lasts for months: how to trace, blend, shade and flood with stain: what you must do to prepare your brushes for staining: how to dilute your batch of stain to make any consistency you want: how to find the right firing schedule for your kiln: how to extend the blending and shading capacity of your stain: and the correct way to hold and use a round-headed blender.

Plus a step-by-step project.

Have a look here:

But that’s not all.

You can also get 55 minutes of online demonstration for you to watch as often as you want so you will see exactly what you must do to mix, use and keep stain beautifully.

Watch the videos as often as you want.

If you mix your stain with water or vinegar, or if you’re new to stain, this is for you so click here right now:

When anyone’s always been told to do something in a particular way, and then suddenly they think:

“But wait a moment, this doesn’t make sense!”

And they head off in a new direction and things work out for them there – well, the story’s interesting.

It’s interesting because it shows how all of us can think for ourselves, and also work together with like-minded souls, to do the kinds of things we’re meant to do …

So here’s an excerpt from our latest guide, “Silver Stain, How to Trace, Blend, Shade and Flood from a Reliable Batch that Lasts for Months“.

Plus you can also get 8 close-up videos demonstrations – more than 75 minutes where you watch and see exactly what you must do to stain glass beautifully.

But that’s getting ahead of the story.

How did it all happen?

Let me remember now …

Memories and confessions …

Here's how it happened ...

And now I (Stephen) — not we (Stephen and David, who together wrote the other parts of this guide) —  am going to write to you personally right now.

If I could write this individually by hand, in my own expansive and curly script, I would. But I can’t. So I will just type and write as I remember things …

See, 11 years ago, all I wanted was to escape from the City — which is how we refer to the “square mile” of London, its financial centre — and that was all I cared about.

No family then, so I had true freedom of manoeuvre, for which I thank my lucky stars, and on account of which I am today so determined to teach.

It’s not that I know more than you in any important sense. In fact I know I have everything to learn from you. Yet, being a practical kind of guy, it’s just that I like to pass on practical things.

Things which work. And also how I discovered them. Because when you see that, you’ll also see how to do this for yourself.

Here’s how it happened eight years back when I was doing my apprenticeship …

One bright morning 8 years ago …

Normally in this studio, and perhaps in many others, the “paint shop” doors were shut.

Closed.

Dark.

Sacred ground.

A phrase I’ve used before: the holy of holies.

One day, a sun-lit day, for some chance reason these doors were open, and, strange to relate, the master painter was also in expansive mood.

As a mere apprentice, it was incautious of me to venture in, but I reckon an open door that’s usually shut always holds a special attraction.

Fumbling over my words, I muttered something about the magnificent shading and matting to be seen in many Victorian windows.

For once not silent, the master painter reminisced about his own apprenticeship, some 35 years earlier.

“The whole building was filled with the strangest smell,” he mused. “And it all came from here in this room. Like road-building it was. Creosote … Tar, even. It was foul. But the painting was magnificent.”

You see how, even in his day, even he wasn’t told everything?

And all of us just tend to follow the examples we are set.

But at least he shared the memory now. Which set me thinking.

And you must remember the internet was new back then.

“‘Google’? What’s that?” (This is 2002, remember.)

So I telephoned Reusche – and such was the meanness of the studio, I even paid for the transatlantic call out of my own salary – and asked them about this long-remembered smell.

Immediately they said oil of Tar.

Which I don’t recommend for you, because it’s carcinogenic.

I got some all the same. (Again from my own salary, and the master painter asked me for some, so I gave him some of mine, by way of saying thank you for his unprecedented openness.)

Yet I was so overworked there at this studio where I did my apprenticeship, often getting in at 8 in the morning and not leaving until 11 in the evening, I never tried it …

In a dark cellar, 3 years later …

Three years later, I had decided to set up with David in a part of the world we both loved: the magnificent county of Shropshire.

And we were working together on a church window, working from the cellar of the 17th century house I was living in back then. (The studio at Stanton Lacy was still being renovated.)

It’s easier when you’re your own master, so I said:

Come on, David, let’s take a break, let’s try something different. (— Because there’s no point in always doing what you’ve always done.) Let’s crack open this flask of Oil of Tar, I said, and see what we can do.

Which we did. And that first piece we still have in the studio, because we couldn’t believe our eyes.

See, it was so easy to use this oil to shade on top of unfired water-based glass paint, we couldn’t believe how simple it was way back in Victorian times … a “piece of cake” it was to go from light to dark and back again.

We felt ourselves alive as never before, because quick-drying water has a deadening effect on every glass painter’s sensibility — and this majestic oil released us.

Yes, we jumped free “with one bound” as the comic books say.

And it is true.

But the most important part is yet to come …

Star with royal beauty bright

The very next Christmas, because I am not one to send cards, I was painting mine on glass. And I was minded to stain them also. And I wanted to shade the stain.

So I thought:

Surely this magnificent oil of Tar is worth a try? Even though it’s foul dark colour is so unprepossessing – what can I lose by a quick experiment? I know everyone says it’s only water or vinegar with stain, but … let’s try it all the same.

So that Saturday morning I did just that.

And the results were — awful.

But David sensed I had a point.

He tried it also.

And the results were — magnificent.

By observation and testing, we soon figured out what I’d done wrong, and, with two bounds, we were away.

Beautifully stained stained glass.

And a truly foul-smelling studio.

Not to mention the serious risks to our health.

Summoned to tea to discuss a front door with “Wow!”

The next thing to happen was a summons to the Literary Agent — he who always wished to write like Dostoevsky but chose instead to help other writers to realize their own potential.

He wanted a front door. Not just any front door, mind. It had to have the Wow! factor, he insisted.

And he also included that phrase in the contract with us, which must have brought his lawyers to despair.

Thus it was that David and I were challenged by a design brief where it would have been all to easy to carry on as before and use stain and Tar to give the Literary Agent every Wow! he could have ever wished for.

And yet …

I couldn’t face the smell.

I thought, what smell would I enjoy?

Seeing Lavender on a shelf, I sprinkled it across a piece of glass, and badgered it thoroughly, then came down hard with heavy tones of oil of Tar based silver stain.

And the results were — acceptable but nothing special.

Yet David sensed I had a point.

And he was indeed no happier than I was with the foul smell of Tar throughout the studio.

Not to mention its carcinogenic properties.

(You have now been warned off oil of Tar a second time.)

We tried Patchouli — again this was in the studio, because we had one of those aromatherapy stones which you plug in and heat up and cover with nice oils to cover up foul smells (in our case, oil of Tar).

And we sedulously worked our way through mandarin, bergamot, hyacinth, rose geranium and ylang ylang. All of whose perfumes pleased our senses though they failed to meet the aesthetic and legal demands imposed on us by the Literary Agent …

The literary agent's "Wow!"

Finally we observed what our eyes had been telling us all along, that a thicker starting paste was needed (Lavender evaporates too promptly, and therefore is unsuitable for the heights we sought to reach. A reliable and long-lasting batch was what we wanted.)

So it was we fell gratefully upon Sandalwood.

It worked well and smelled delightful.

And the literary agent got the Wow! he wanted.

Dear nose!

Nietzsche correctly remarks about “this nose of ours, of which no philosopher has yet spoken with proper reverence and gratitude …”

In the 110 years since his death, philosophers have not corrected this omission.

So at least, today, we glass painters can.

Thank you, dear nose, for making us unwilling to continue staining with the foul-smelling Tar!

Silver Stain – How to Trace, Blend, Shade and Flood from a Reliable Batch that Lasts for Months

Watch and learn from 75 minutes of online video demonstrations and also hold in your own hands these 18 detailed pages of recipes, techniques, strategies and close-up colour photos.

Plus ask questions.

Interested?

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

Here’s a quick proof – if proof is needed – of how it’s possible to trace with silver stain.

And not just trace, but also shape your strokes, then gently blend them …

Just turn on your speakers and click the play button in the video box on the right.

Now published! Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

To get a deep, pure golden colour, it’s also great when you know how to flood your silver stain directly into selected areas – with no messy clean-up afterwards …

You need a good reliable batch to start with, plus the right dilution.

It’s easy when you know how.

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

Imagine the time you’ll save – not to mention the money - when you know how to mix a batch of stain which has this useful property …

… that it lasts for months and months, and you know it’s “good to go” whenever you need it.

You will discover how to do this …

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

Of course, when silver stain is mixed with water or vinegar, it just isn’t possible to shade it like you see in this photo here …

To shade your silver stain from light to dark (and back again), you need to use the right oils.

A thick oil to make the basic paste, plus a thin oil to dilute it to the consistency you need.

You will discover how to do this …

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

It’s also useful to know how to blend several kinds of stain together like you see in this photo here …

It depends on your media, and also on the consistency of your stain.

Then, and only then, it’s easy …

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

Mixed correctly and with the appropriate medium, it’s perfectly possible for you to trace long and beautiful lines with silver stain. Photo over here …

And for you to know they’ll fire clear and golden.

But you can’t go on using water or vinegar – that just won’t work …

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

There’s a fascinating article in the History Of Psychiatry (Volume 1, No. 2, 191 – 206, 1990 to be precise) about a type of delusion that was widely reported in the 15th to 17th centuries but rarely occurs in modern times.

Since the writer’s purpose is always to entertain and educate the reader, let me immediately tantalize you with a choice collection of words – they all belong in the story you are about to hear:

• Glass
• Buttocks
• Rene Descartes

Thank you! I thought that would work, and I won’t enquire which word did the trick.

Anyone in a real hurry, just click here to watch the trailer now.

Now I am perfectly aware that popular delusions are often related to recent technological developments. (I exempt my iPhone which really is filming me when I’m not looking.)

So bear in mind that the first clear glass, Cristallo, was invented only in the 15th century.

And that it was as late as 1675 when George Ravenscroft invented lead crystal glass by adding lead oxide to Venetian glass.

"I'm fine about glass and buttocks but can we please keep Descartes out of it - he's such a windbag!"

Even so, it is difficult to comprehend the scale of this particular delusion which caused its sufferers – mainly scholars or lovers – to believe that they were made of glass and to fear they would shatter if they suffered from even the lightest knock …

A few choice examples, because I am actually rather keen to talk about silver stain today:

(Yes I know it’s fiction, but) Cervantes’ eponymous Glass Graduate, Tomas Rodaja (1613), is accidentally poisoned by an enamoured woman, which leaves him crazy and believing that his body is made from glass.

(This isn’t fiction.) No less a doctor than Alfonso Ponce de Santa Cruz (c. 1614) reports the incident of a man who believed he was made of glass and therefore languished on a bed of straw to avoid being broken.

(Nor is this.) Louise de Casaneuve, physician to the French court, describes the the case of a glass maker from the Parisian suburb of Saint Germain who always applied a small cushion to his buttocks, even when standing, for fear that, being made of glass, they would shatter (1626).

Which brings me 13 years later to Rene Descartes. (And, yes, soon to the topic of silver stain.)

Descartes wanted to doubt everything which could be doubted so as then to be able to build a sound edifice of knowledge only on the securest possible foundations (whence his famous cogito – “I think, therefore I am”).

And if you’re wondering “Why would he want to do that?”, do bear in mind that the Enlightenment hadn’t yet begun, and someone had to get the ball rolling.

But it’s Descartes’ starting point which nowadays catches my eye.

He first remarks how he cannot doubt that “I am in this place, seated by the fire, clothed in awinter dressing gown, that I hold in my hands this piece of paper”.

Yet within moments he is assailed by the terrible uncertainties he wants to banish.

He sadly concludes that people who doubt the physical reality of their own hands and bodies are no more crazy than people who believe their bodies are made from glass (Meditation 1, section 4).

Now whenever you’re feeling a bit low and dispirited with things, cheer yourself up with the thought that the work we all do with our glass lies right at the very heart of the great Enlightenment project to banish superstition and bring certainty to man’s quest for knowledge.

Bring me my sable of truth, and all that.

Yes, it’s all our fault, don’t you know. All that science thing …

But silver stain, yes.

Remember how a few weeks back we talked together about the difference between painting on paper and painting on glass?

Actually this was David’s post, and he got fairly hot under the collar with the popular notion that the stained glass painter is someone who “paints with light”.

Because in fact the stained glass painter uses oxide-based pigments to block the light, not paint with it.

And then I chipped in with a seductive video clip of using oil-based glass paint to touch up Martha’s face.

Both of us were keen to put forward the (we maintain) helpful (if provocative) notion that the glass painter is someone who paints with darkness.

Well, only up to a point.

Because, whereas glass paint blocks light – silver stain allows light to pass through it.

And it’s perfectly possible to learn to paint with stain, and then to prepare your designs with this ability in mind.

Now the primary sense of “delusion” is anything which deceives the mind with a false appearance (as noted in the Oxford English Dictionary no less).

And silver stain is the main tool at our disposal to conceal the artfulness of what we do, because it is a paint which, once fired, no longer sits on the surface of the glass, but which becomes part of the glass, and changes its ionic structure.

Yes, the silver stainer as painter of heavenly delusions …

Now after all this hard work, you’ve earned a moment’s relaxation.

So sit back, turn on your speakers – because the music’s great – and watch this short video.

It’s meant to be fun, but I know we English have a strange sense of humour.

I mean, have you ever seen a stained glass video trailer before?

Proven techniques – interested?

Keep your wits about you or the glass Green Man will come and get you!

Put an end to your disappointment with silver stain – find out how it’s really done …

Click here for how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.