Just in from a loyal newsletter follower, Dorothy Collard, who writes:

There’s so much I want to ask you, but I’ll start with the Literary Agent’s front door. – Just how did you do it?

How?

There are several answers here.

And one answer – as some of you will remember – is that I got stubborn and refused to put up with bad smells in the studio …

Bad smells? Yes! -

And if you missed it, here’s how my precious nose – a veritable engine of progress, no less – gave birth to the Literary Agent’s stained glass rose window.

Yet there are at least two other kinds of answer you must also know:

1. The raw techniques, and
2. The evolution of the design itself

See, technical knowledge has no purpose on its own.

Nor is there any point if someone simply copies what we do – that kills the craft and does no good for anyone’s real worth.

The whole point about having conversations like the one we’re having right now is that as many of you as possible will master the raw techniques, then take them forward in your own way by enlisting them in the service of your own designs.

At that point, the techniques come alive.

Just as they did for us with this window. Because of course our design only evolved from visits and discussions.

And once it existed, it became necessary for us to decide how to make it in glass.

So today we’ll start with the design – with the question, so to speak. And next time, we’ll all get to grips with the raw techniques (the answer).

And here, for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, is the door itself.

First by night, looking in:

The Literary Agent asked for "Wow!"

Second by day, looking out:

A fine sight when the Literary Agent descends the stairs each morning

Already a major point here: when and from where is the window mainly to be seen?

When you design for glass, you must settle these questions with your client.

If you don’t, their expectations may be disappointed.

If you settle these questions early on, the client will understand that, although there is a difference between the design (on paper) and the actual window (on glass), you have understood their concerns and wishes for the impression the window makes on those who see it.

See, the design on paper can never ever convey the experience of the glass. So the client also need other ways of knowing we understand what they want.

And in this case, the Literary Agent, when pressed, said:

“When my authors’ cars pull up the drive in the evening, I want them to be dazzled and welcomed by the sight which meets their eyes.

And if they happen to stay up late discussing their latest novel with me, then I want them to be dazzled and welcomed when, the next day, they come down the stairs to breakfast in my morning room.”

And when I say “pressed”, it’s “pressed” I mean – it was some time after our first visit that the conversation flowed easily enough for such stipulations to emerge.

We were fortunate in that our Literary Agent was predisposed to giving important matters the time they deserve.

After all, our Literary Agent knows to trust his novelists when they appear bright-eyed and raving with a few scrawled paragraphs, claiming these will one day be on the Sunday Times and New Your Times Best Seller Lists …

It’s sometimes in every one’s interest to wait, to give time for the best ideas to emerge.

I wonder what you think about that?

How it began

We were invited to meet the Literary Agent because a fantastically talented interior architect (who knew of our work) was in the middle of designing him a new front door.

Here’s the view of the house as it was when we first arrived:

Before the "Wow!"

The proposal was to remove the existing door and reclaim space inside by installing a new arched door in front.

And here, right on cue, is the full-sized template which the interior designer proposed:

Full-sized template laid out on our studio floor

Well, anyone can see this new door just cries out for stained glass, doesn’t it?

So that’s how we became involved: through an interior architect who trusted us to design and make glass that would do justice to the proposed new door.

And, to get the ball moving, we quickly prepared three simple sketches – just to hear the Literary Agent’s reaction:

Three quick sketches to get the conversation going

So, while time is important, it is also important to take risks and test people’s responses. Stained glass designs, just like the Literary Agent’s novels, only emerge through a series of more or less confident drafts.

It’s the only way to keep things moving.

One can’t wait, idle, for the perfect design to emerge.

Again, I wonder what you think of that? Do you take calculated risks? Praise and rejection each pose their own set of problems here. Right now it’s only paper, after all – Easily misunderstood. But if one never says anything for fear of misunderstanding, then …

The Literary Agent’s choice

“None of them really,” he said, “although I do like what you’re suggesting for the middle of the second one.”

“Why?” we asked.

“Because I like the idea of having something as majestic as the passing of Summer into Autumn – the sort of spirit you sometimes catch in one of Turner’s paintings. Something that makes you say ‘Wow!’ because it’s both completely wonderful and also a little saddening …”

“Understood,” we said, and returned to Stanton Lacy.

Why you must be clear who a particular design is for

This is really important so pay close attention here.

It is possible that what you, the glass painter, require from a design is incompatible with the design the client needs.

You need instructions.

The client needs confidence.

And it doesn’t follow he’ll get confidence from seeing your own instructions. Yes, we all love our own designs – they mean so much to us .. and that’s just what I mean!

Here’s a case in point …

We truly understood the impression the Literary Agent was after. We would have bet our lives on it. We’d talked enough with him, and seen his country house in various seasons and also at different times of the day.

So the first step was for us to articulate our understanding to ourselves. (You have to get it out of your head in order to be sure you’ve got it right. Again, you can’t be frightened of making a mistake. There’s no point. You’re going to make a mistake. That’s the whole purpose of doing a draft!)

Now we knew for sure we wouldn’t use glass paint – it would do all the wrong things with the light.

It was going to be silver stain. And the question was, How was it going to be stain?

To work this out, we simply worked with light and dark – that is, with graphite (dark) on paper (light). Thus we used the graphite represents our proposed shading with silver stain.

The Literary Agent had talked about the passing of the seasons and also mentioned Turner. So, especially given the architectural opening, it was natural to imagine something suggestive of the fiery late afternoon sun. Here:

This stained glass design is fine for us (but not really for the client)

Of course it’s not prudent to assume that black & white will get the right message to the client.

So, having worked things out for ourself, it was a quick task to add a touch of colour to the client’s version:

The client's second sketch

Along with this sketch, we also took along some samples of glass to which we’d applied stain in the proposed manner.

This did the trick.

And so we were ready to choose the glass, then cut and stain it.

The Literary Agent's "Wow!" - to be continued ...

]]> http://www.realglasspainting.com/stained-glass-casestudies/2010/07/27/stained-glass-front-door/feed/ 6 http://www.realglasspainting.com/announcements/2010/07/20/two-possibilities/ http://www.realglasspainting.com/announcements/2010/07/20/two-possibilities/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:54:06 +0000 Stephen Byrne http://www.realglasspainting.com/?p=6566

So say today you visit this website right here in front of you -

Welcome!

“Kiln-Fired Stained Glass Painting – Your Best Guide”, it says at the top.

Yes, the ancient, proper craft.

Now – there are just two possibilities …

“It’s all too much!”

Possibility #1 – someone stops for a few seconds then quickly leaves forever because …

“There’s too much information here. I want something quick and cheap.

I don’t want to think for myself. I mean, why do I have to practice? I don’t want to practice.

I just want someone to tell me how to paint glass like an expert. Right now.”

So it’s “Goodbye!” right now to anyone who doesn’t want to learn and practice. It’s always best to decide this quickly.

But that’s not you, is it?

No – because you’re still reading – this is more like you:

“It’s like a dream come true”

Possibility #2 – maybe you can’t quite believe your eyes because, well, there is so much information here …

“Is this true? There’s so much knowledge and experience here. I’ll read a few articles today. And I’ll think about what I’ve read, maybe try it for myself.

And I can even ask them questions – is this true? Really? Williams & Byrne will also answer my questions?

I’ll come back tomorrow and make sure it’s not a dream! I do hope it’s not a dream …”

No it’s not a dream. Information – excellent information, lots of it – about so many different aspects of stained glass:

• Brushes and other tools, for example
• Or maybe you’re interested in a step-by-step account of how a stained glass design is born
• Or a fascinating analysis of the way in which painting on glass is so very different from painting on paper
• And here’s a useful piece on how people always mix silver stain the wrong way (which gives them so many problems …)
• And there’s even something on using pen and oil on glass
• Or which is better – liquid or powdered gum Arabic?
• Or – if like us you do all your glass painting in just one firing – what happens if you make a mistake
• Or – Heaven help us – how this encyclopaedic glass painting resource began
• Plus (to return to Earth again) the pros and cons of tracing with vinegar

And so much more.

How to find what you want

Here are 3 quick ways to discover what you want to know:

Use the Search box on the right of the screen – it’s just beneath the picture at the top.

Or the Calendar beneath it – it’s a great way to browse.

Or simply click on one of the Keywords beneath the calendar – there’s everything from “A” for arm rest to “W” for whiting.

Or just wander where you wish.

There’s also a menu bar at the top of the screen with “Ask” to ask glass painting questions, “Sign Up” to get free glass painting tips and “Guides” – well, more about them in a moment.

The information is for you, for everyone who wants to explore and learn.

How to never miss a new article

That’s really quick and easy. Scroll up and click SUBSCRIBE, top-right.

Then you’ll never miss an article.

How to learn more – choose a guide

Read and practice and enquire and experiment in your own time and at your own speed.

Whenever you want really detailed information, check the “Guides” page for stained glass painting downloads.

Everything from how to mix paint, how to shade before you trace, how to paint with oil on top of unfired water-based paint, the secrets of successful silver staining plus loads of case studies – faces, birds, flowers and medieval beasts for example …

Cick right here for stained glass painting guides and downloads.

Also with online video for you to watch and copy

There are even free video demonstrations like:

• How to prepare a kiln tray
• How to paint with oil, and
• How to create some magnificent ancient-looking forgeries

And many free video demonstrations also come with the free glass painting newsletter. So you must join to get them.

Plus there are the downloadable guides – very useful because you can have them by you in your workshop, or read them sitting comfortably in an armchair.

Some guides even come with more online video for you to watch and copy.

And all the time you can use the Ask tab on the menu bar at the top to ask questions about kiln-fired stained glass painting.

If you’re serious, so are we.

Whether you’re a professional or an enthusiastic amateur, a complete beginner or a seasoned glass painter – there is something here for you.

If you’re serious, it’ll be a pleasure to work along side you over the weeks, months and years ahead.

Let’s all go forward together.

And do please join the free glass painting newsletter – weekly tips, ideas and free video demonstrations – it’s a great way to learn and improve. Free.

P.S. And if you haven’t seen it already, you must read the challenge of the tycoon’s casket. Discover – if you dare! – all the steps to make an ancient-looking stained glass forgery.

Read "The Challenge of the Tycoon's Casket"

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:

For a quick guide to our firing schedules, click here and scroll down to the free guides on this page of glass painting guides.

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.