How to paint stained glass

Welcome

This site is dedicated to you and your adventures with the techniques of kiln-fired stained glass painting.

This page will help you find what you’re looking for – from ‘Tracing’ (scroll down to §2) to ‘Silver Stain’ (see §8) and ‘Firing’ (§9).

Just click a link and start exploring.

Our main blog is here.
Be sure to download this free e-book about the 6 essential tools and how you hold them so they work wonders for you.
Not free, but worth every penny, is our book: The Glass Painter’s Method – Brushes, Paints & Tools.

Now for some information about techniques.

§1. The undercoat

Professional glass painters rarely trace and shade directly onto glass.

Instead they prime their glass before they start. They paint an ‘undercoat’.

The undercoat is a light layer of paint which they apply all over.

And if you’re wondering why they do this, there are several reasons e.g.

It’s hard to trace and shade directly on bare glass.
Once dry, the undercoat is a lovely surface on which you work: it grips your brush, which gives you more control.

See here for five ways the undercoat will help you paint stained glass.

Other resources for you:

To watch us prepare the glass then apply the undercoat, click here.
If you want to see a good way to hold a badger blender, you’ll find this very useful.
And this post tells you how to clean your blender.

§2. Tracing

Some people like to shop. They think their tracing would be perfect if they only found the ‘perfect’ tracing brush.

I confess I used to think like this.

Yes, I did.

But see how few brushes I use these days – just one or two: read my full confession here.

Preparation

Time to get the paint right

I learned the hard way because I had to earn a living.

That’s why these days I mostly trace with just one or two good brushes.

And one essential thing I always do is take whatever time I need before I start to get my paint just right.

These days it doesn’t upset my calm if my paint needs 10 minutes to prepare it before I start.

What are 10 minutes?

10 minutes are nothing in the scheme of things e.g. if, with excellent paint, you go on to trace a lot of long and lovely lines.

Here’s what happened one day so you can see me get my paint just right before I start to trace.

Another big thing I know is to study the design before I start. I always have a plan:

I’ll start here
Then I’ll move round to here
Then this
And this, then …

If you’re interested, here are two designs plus a break-down of the sequence in which I chose to trace the lines.

And maybe you’d do things differently. Who knows? Myself, I reckon what matters most is you have a sense of purpose.

You don’t start tracing and only then decide the general sequence of your lines. As with driving somewhere, you need to have a route … a plan.

You need a plan because a plan will keep you calm and focussed on your tracing. So my plan plus designs are here.

Pace

What’s the rush when you trace?

Why the hurry to get it done?

Some people bring this from the other work they do: ‘busy, busy, busy’.

Well, I’m busy too.

I always have a ton of work to do, a hundred conflicts to resolve: that’s my life.

Chances are, it’s your life also …

Exactly: so I work fast.

But I never lose my sense of what’s important here.

And if you’ll forgive me for stating the obvious, a stained glass window can easily last 500 years or more.

Which makes me think how what’s important is, we work the best we can.

So I work fast, but I never rush.

Here’s a good 5-minute video where you’ll see the kind of calm you need to trace stained glass.

And – when you’ve time … – here’s a long article I wrote about not rushing. It’s called ‘Rushing and not Enjoying vs. Treasuring the Journey’. Read it here.

Another thing: always, in between the strokes you paint, you must look after your palette and its paint, as you’ll see here in this 6-minute glass painting video.

A steady hand

That’s important, certainly: a steady hand. Here are 9 useful tips which make a difference.

You should also know how to load and shape a tracing brush with paint – a light touch is what you absolutely need – and how to hold it when you paint stained glass.

How to use the painting bridge

The bridge feels awkward to begin with, but you’ll soon get used to it.

It’s best to hold it when you’re tracing.
Later on, when you’re doing highlights, it’s best you hold the glass: see here.

There’s also a 12-minute tracing and highlighting video here which makes the difference clear.

How to arrange your palette

You’ll trace far better when your palette is properly arranged as you see here.

Other resources for you

Lead-free glass paint: see here.
The right and wrong way to leave your paint and palette when you’ve finish working.
A 15-minute video where you see exactly what to do to restore your paint and also work up your brushes so they’re perfect for a morning’s work: watch it here.

§3. Shadows

Some shadows we make by ‘softening’ trace-lines or mid-tones.

“Softening?”

That is to say:

You apply the undercoat
You trace the lines / mid-tones
Now you turn them into shadows by covering them with a wash of paint, then blending them with the badger until they’re nice and gentle

Then you add more lines etc. to restore the precision and detail you sacrificed in step 3 above.

Watch this video here.

We teach this and other ways of shading inside Shadow. This course is for those of you who already feel confident with the key techniques. If you’re starting out, try this course here – it’s perfect for beginners.

§4. Flooding

‘Flooding’ is the name we give to the very thick paint you use for stained glass lettering or to block in around a face or hand.

It’s important you learn to do it well, because thick flooded paint can sometimes blister in the kiln, which you definitely don’t want.

Here are some tips and guidelines. And here’s a video demonstration – a stylish one: click here and you’ll see what I mean.

§5. Highlights

You’ll find a lovely demonstration here.

This step-by-step slideshow walks you through the process of using sticks and scrubs etc. to cut back through unfired paint to the bare glass which lies beneath.

§6. What do you mix your paint with?

Your glass paint: what do you mix it with?

Everyone often uses water.

We’re no exception. So all the main lines and shadows are done in glass paint mixed with water and gum Arabic.

For a wonderful, short video course on how to mix small and perfect lump of glass paint,
see here.

And then we carry on.

Sometimes we then use glass paint mixed with oil, other times it’s glass paint mixed with Propylene glycol.

Why? Why do we continue painting? Why don’t we stop and fire our glass?

The reason is there’s so much gain and so little risk.

Watch the high-speed demo (below) and you’ll understand the stunning effects which glycol let you achieve.

Ah yes, shadows can be difficult.

But we’ve figured out a way:

Watch a high-speed demo here.

And here’s a long article plus 8 videos where you see you the full process.

Join the online course on shading here.

§7. Mistakes

Doing so much painting in just one firing, you might naturally wonder what happens if you make a mistake: is all your work ruined?

So isn’t that a good reason to trace and fire (and fix your tracing permanently) before adding another layer (which you fire separately)?”

That’s a good question.

Because yes – some mistakes are serious.

Other mistakes are just variations which occur naturally whenever you do things by hand. So they’re fine, they’re only human – and wonderful.

§8. Silver stain

When you use silver stain, it is very important to test everything: here’s why.

Here’s a video demonstration of stain and oil in action: watch it here.

If you’re wondering about the oils we use, I’ll gladly tell you. First of all, sandalwood amyris to make the basic mixture. Then spike lavender to dilute it to whatever consistency you need, e.g. depending on whether you want to trace, shade or flood.

Amazing online course is here.

§9. Firing

Here’s our ‘common sense’ firing schedule. Just be advised that every kiln is different, so you must test things in your own kiln.

You should also adjust your schedule slightly to make due allowance for whichever techniques you’ve used.

Here are 12 points you must bear in mind when deciding how slow / fast to fire your glass. And here’s an article about fire-polishing, which is useful after sand-blasting.

§10. Overviews of complete projects

Here’s David talking about a heraldic window he was commissioned to make in honour of the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation: lots of useful tips and insights – see here.

And here’s a detailed case study which shows you the techniques we used to silver stain a magnificent front door.