Yes, I do want to make you an offer – it’s a good one. But I also want to share an important insight. Here it is:
Techniques make good walking sticks but bad crutches.
Give me three minutes and I’ll explain …
And you’ll also find out how to get this useful guide to painting stained glass heads:
Stained glass heads – designs and techniques
Here’s how it happened …
Hello again!
Right – here’s what life was like in the studio earlier on today:
Hot and unbearably smelly outside (the studio is beside a farm).
Very warm inside – with the air just about breathable.
And the paint on my palette was drying up faster than I wanted.
This June, at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, we’ll run a  stained glass painting workshop for just 12 students.
The two of us – David Williams and Stephen Byrne – will travel to the US to demonstrate, teach, discuss techniques/ideas etc. and answer your questions about the techniques of kiln-fired stained glass painting.
We’re coming to the US this June to run a 4-day workshop for just 12 students
Your main focus during this time with us will be on traditional English glass painting techniques e.g. undercoat, trace, strengthen, wash and soften, reinstate and model, flooding, highlight and soften – in a single firing.
All about the palette and the paint
This will mean paying special attention to working with a lump of glass paint (not a teaspoonful), how to move confidently from one consistency of paint to any other (e.g. from tracing to flooding then back to undercoating), how to deal with life’s small mishaps on the palette and also with those bigger accidents, managing the palette, storing and reviving your paint.
You will also learn all about using glycol to take your ‘single firing’ even further.
Plus you will use silver stain with oil.
On campus at Bryn Athyn College, Pennsylvania.
The workshop runs from 20th-23rd June 2014, from 9 to 4 each day (an hour for lunch).
There’ll be lots of demonstrations and discussion, and then practice, practice and more practice while we come round and work with you in small groups or 1-to-1.
We will be staying on campus so there’ll also be time to talk about other questions out-of-hours e.g. design, organising a studio, pricing etc.
These will be an intensive four days for everyone who comes.
The most important thing is you follow this blog, or get the newsletter, you know our guide to glass painting techniques, or you’ve seen our various documentaries.
Then you’ll understand about our approach and the kinds of thing you can expect us to do well with you.
You’ll also know how we focus first and foremost on techniques and process.
If you wondering what you will paint, the answer is: we’ll bring over a huge variety of small to medium-sized designs.
Sometimes we’ll all tackle the same design together.
Other times you’ll choose an image for yourself, talk it over with us, then paint it on your own.
Since there are two of us to teach and demonstrate, this workshop will often move at two speeds and in two groups – the classroom is plenty big enough for this.
Reason for this looser structure is, we want a good degree of flexibility in the scheduling of topics and demonstrations each day: that way we can be sure to meet the specific interests which each of you will certainly have.
Suitable for: intermediate students and for those of you who don’t yet feel confident in their ability to ‘do it all’ in just one firing.
Not suitable for: complete beginners (this course will be too fast) or advanced students (you know it all all ready).
Believe you can paint this? With the right techniques, it’s fairly straight-forward …
We’ll bring along a small section from ‘The Beastly Lion of Wolsey Towers’ (see him on the right).
The design measures 8 inches by 8. So it’s a fair sized piece of glass.
The basic techniques are:
Certainly, you must be tidy and methodical. You must also be able to stand and concentrate for an hour or so.
All the same, if this doesn’t seem too difficult to you, there’s a good chance you’ve reached the level where you’ll really benefit from joining us this June.
Note: afterwards there’s glycol and silver stain, which we’ll also cover on this workshop.
Or what about this sun:
Stained glass sun – 4″ by 4″ in real life
Undercoat, trace, strengthen, flood and highlight. An absolute beginner may panic. But if you believe you can paint this with some guidance (that’s why we’re coming over), then you should think seriously about joining us this June.
If you’re uncertain, just decide to do some good, steady practice between now and June.
That’s all it will take.
The fee is $900 per person. This is for 4 full days’ teaching.
All about traditional English glass painting techniques, and especially about managing your paint and palette so you’re in complete control and you feel absolutely confident about how to achieve what you want.
This fee includes all your glass, glass paint, oil, glycol, silver stain, use of brushes and tools, and all your firings.
1. You will also get a pre-workshop 30-minute Skype call with us to talk about the workshop and what you specifically want to learn.
2. Plus you’ll get a course work-book with detailed step-by-step notes and many designs.
And also:
3. This year on Kindle, we’ll release the first season of ‘The Glass Painter’s Method’: you’ll get that completely free and before anyone else. Amazingly readable, entertaining, instructive – and searchable.
Not included: your travel, accommodation, and meals.
We’ll stay on campus. You can too if you wish. (More information in the first comment at the end.) Or you can find somewhere close to stay. It’s completely up to you.
You book directly with Bryn Athyn College.
Learn more – click here
All brushes and tools are supplied, but certainly bring your own as well so we can see what you use. Also your own bridges.
We’ll be using lead-free glass paint, but by all means bring a face-mask, gloves and apron and whatever else you want to keep yourself clean and safe.
First, have a look at the example designs. Notice the variety: we’ll probably have a hundred with us, ranging from fairly simple like this moon …
Design for stained glass moon
to quite demanding like this ‘Coronation lion’:
Design for stained glass lion – he’s crossing the Atlantic with us this June
Like we said, this workshop is for improving-to-intermediate students. Some designs take just minutes. Others will need several hours of steady work.
Second, leave a comment below, and I’ll get back to you quickly.
Third, let’s fix a time to talk on Skype. It’s all part of the deal. My ID is stephen.marcus.byrne – send me a contact request and I’ll reply.
I know I’m speaking for both of us here: we can’t wait to meet you in June. I am thrilled to bits and counting the days till I finally set foot on American soil and shake your hand.
Learn more – click here
P.S. Questions? Please write and say.
A while ago, I promised you the low-down on the techniques we used to silver stain a fine front door.
The client’s brief was, his window had to have the ‘”Wow!” effect’. And the ‘”Wow!” effect’ was what our client got. If you’re interested in the story of its design, you’ll find Part 1 here – and just be sure to come back afterwards to learn how it was done.
Here now are the techniques.
There’s nothing magical. But the effects you can achieve are extraordinary.