Part 1
We’re glad to hear your questions. They tell us what’s important to you – and we want to know, because your perspectives aren’t the same as ours. For instance, we design and paint to earn a living. Many of you do it because you love it. We love it too. But we also earn a living from it – it’s not the same. It can’t be.
Here’s a familiar theme: how to mix your glass paint.
Our approach is totally at odds with the recipes you read in many books and with what happens in most classes.
Most books and classes say to mix a “small” amount of glass paint.
We suggest you mix a “large” amount. We describe this as a “lump” to make the contrast clear.
Now the paint you mix is so important, we prepared an online course about it – how to mix a “large” amount. Notice: no hyper-link to the course. That’s intentional. If you want to know more about how to mix your paint, it’s enough you know the course exists: you’ll find it. Today’s topic is what we want to get to now.
Namely, “small” amounts of glass paint.
Here’s an email I received last week.
Hello Gentlemen,
My question is : How do you mix up small quantities of paint for just 2 or 3 small suns …
… on white opalescent glass. This paint may not be used again for several months.
Do you throw out what you don’t use? Save it?
Thank you.
Totally enjoyed your courses and your book.
David
Here’s my reply.
It’s an email, remember, not a college thesis.
Hello David,
Wonderful you like our book. We wrote it chiefly for beginners – to show them how few brushes, paints and tools you need to paint stained glass, to welcome and encourage them. I know you’re not a beginner anymore – I’m especially glad you found things inside you also like.
You ask, How do we mix small quantities of paint? Much the same way we mix our larger quantities: glass paint, a little water, and a lot less gum. Then plenty of mixing – more mixing than people often think.
I’ll make a video about this and post it. Since mixing a small quantity isn’t something I do a lot of, I’ll be fumbling in the dark myself, but also solving problems on the hoof, and maybe that’ll be as helpful in its own way as the well-rehearsed performances we post inside our courses.
Is it worth the time and effort to mix a small quantity of paint?
Yes, sometimes it is.
For me, a general principle is: whatever quantity of paint I mix, this quantity should help me paint the best I can.
- So I’ll mix a small quantity of paint to test it in the kiln, for instance.
- But I won’t mix a small quantity if a small quantity will trip me up e.g. because it’s hot weather and a small quantity of paint will dry out too fast.
We’ll return to principles and guidelines in just a moment.
For now, I want to approach things from the other end.
You mention you won’t use the paint again for several months perhaps.
Do we throw out what we don’t use? Or do we save it?
Most definitely we save it! In 20 years, I’ve thrown paint away just once – it was an experimental gum Arabic which a friend had made. I think the bottled gum you buy in shops contains preservatives. Anyway, my friend’s concoction didn’t have something important (I don’t know what). A week later, my paint was mouldy. To my mind, the problem had to be the gum – it couldn’t have been the paint or water.
So that’s the one and only time I threw my paint away.
Every other time – weeks, months, even years later, old dried paint is fine. Never had a problem.
Even paint like this, which is in a frightful state (it isn’t mine!):
It’ll just take more time and effort to bring it back to life.
Just always do something to keep dust and airborne grease from landing on it – one cover is good:
Three covers are better:
And, if you won’t need this paint for several months, an airtight sandwich box is better still …
… especially if you add a small wet sponge which you refresh from time to time.
Size not crucial here: your airtight box could certainly be smaller.
And keep it out of heat and sunlight:
Yesterday I returned to my sandwich box and dug out a few spoonfuls of dried up paint I’d mixed last year:
Ten minutes later, with a bit more gum to freshen the mixture, I had a lovely resurrected lump of glass paint:
Incidentally, this is what I call a “large” lump.
More on large/small in a moment.
Right now I want to return to the situation you describe: you say, 2 or 3 suns you want to paint – perhaps 60 short lines in all: can you mix a small quantity of paint to do this?
Yes.
A principle I follow is: if I need a little paint for just one technique – e.g. a bit of tracing – then it’s easy to mix a small quantity of paint which has the right consistency I want.
What’s difficult, you see, is when you want to use two or more techniques – e.g. tracing and flooding, or undercoating and tracing – because when you just have a small quantity of paint, it’s can be challenging (also for experienced glass painters) to move from one consistency to another.
That’s one reason we usually mix a lump of paint.
Now this might be a “big” lump or a “small” lump. We call it a “lump” (whether big or small) because there’s always enough paint that we can mound it up and put it in the corner of our palette, cutting slices as we need them, and diluting them to whatever consistency we need.
- A lump of glass paint is like a car with several gears: you can do more things with it.
- A small quantity of paint is more like a vehicle with just one gear specifically designed to go at one speed only.
Does that make sense?
So if one morning you want to trace and trace and nothing else, certainly you can mix a small quantity of tracing paint, and stop working when it’s all used up.
It’s a bit trickier if you want to clean your glass, lay down undercoats, trace and also strengthen.
Trickier – but not impossible: don’t let the challenge deter you! If you mix just enough paint that you can still mound it up and get done everything you want to do – that’s another factor to remember: you don’t want to run out of paint half-way though a line – you’ll be fine.
So give it a try. We all learn by pushing hard and working through the problems which matter to us.
I can’t easily use written words to guide you with the exact quantities / ratios except to say it’s very little water and even less gum! At this level, just three drops more of water will make a big difference.
But as I say, I’ll make you a short video and post it soon.
One last thought. You mention white opalescent glass. I’ve had bad experiences with white opalescent glass. The kiln’s done unattractive things to it. Our glass actually changed colour! If you haven’t test-fired this particular kind of glass before, I believe it’s worth doing.
If you have any other questions, just say. We’re always glad to hear from you. It’s how we learn what matters to you.
Best,
Stephen
