Stained Glass Painting Brushes

Doris Cultraro, from Rhinebeck, New York, US, writes and asks us about the kinds of brushes that we use for stained glass painting.

Here’s our list to get you started.

  • Wide narrow brushes for undercoats and overcoats
  • Blenders – large and small – which are mostly used to move wet paint around on the glass
  • Tracing brushes of various thicknesses for different kinds of line
  • Scrubs and stipplers to make highlights and texture

Silver Stain

How you can trace, blend, shade & flood from a reliable batch of stain which keeps for months (& why water or vinegar are no good for this)oven techniques

Who this is for

Please read this if you’re new to silver stain or if you currently use stain with vinegar or water.

Why?

Because the information I’m about to share with you concerns using stain with different liquids.

With oil or glycol, for instance.

And if you don’t already know it, stain and oil/glycol will get you the best results for the least cost.

These different liquids will also let you trace, shade, blend and flood – things you just can’t do with vinegar or water.

“Tried what you said and it worked like a dream” (Judy A., Texas, USA)

That’s right: oil/glycol is better.

It’s also cheaper.

So, now that I have your attention, please read on.

“It’s so refreshing to find someone like you who is so open about techniques in the murky & mysterious world of glass painting! (Why does it have to be like that??!) Finding you has been like stumbling on a pot of gold” (Simon Morgan-Howard, Wales)

The price of stain

Silver stain - expensive

$80 for half-a-pound: mixed with vinegar or water, silver stain is expensive and difficult to predict. The dust is also bad for you

First up, stain is incredibly expensive. Anything from $160 to $350 a pound. Ouch! All the same, used properly, it’s worth it. It can make your glass gleam and shine like no other kind of fired paint.

Unpredictable

But second, stain is easy to get wrong, like when it doesn’t work at all, or (the opposite extreme) when it discolours your glass, which ruins it.

Yes, used with vinegar or water, the failure-rate is high.

Since staining is the very last thing you do, this means your tracing and shading is most likely put at risk.

Messy and harmful

Third, used with vinegar or water, it’s not just messy, stain is also time-consuming and hazardous to use.

The dust gets everywhere – also inside your lungs – and it takes ages to prepare a piece for firing in the kiln. (You must wait for the stain to air-dry, then laboriously and carefully remove it where you do not want it.)

And there’s more …

There are other problems too:

  • With vinegar or water, it’s impossible to shade from light to dark
  • It’s really hard to blend
  • It’s impossible to mix and store a batch that works reliably for months and even years
  • It’s difficult to apply it smoothly to a specific area; instead you end up applying too much, then picking it out and damaging your lungs with all the dust, not to mention all the stain that’s wasted …
  • It’s unreliable because even if you do a test, you can’t then use the same batch to do your real piece
Silver stain

Silver stain is magnificent. But it’s sheer waste to stain with vinegar or water. I’ll explain which oils to use to produce effects like this, every time …

What a mess. What a waste of time and money. What a failure to achieve beauty.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. You can do things differently. 

You see, information on the correct use of silver stain is scarcer than gold dust. In most books, you’ll be lucky to find a paragraph or two.

Even then, you’ll mostly be instructed in the use of water or vinegar, which as I’ve shown you is such a waste.

So we decided to remedy this poor situation. I mean, glass painters have been staining glass for the best part of 800 years. It seems a shame this knowledge should be lost.

And it will be lost if folks continue their unsatisfactory ways with water and vinegar …

That’s why we prepared an online course which sets the record straight:

How to work with silver stain

You’ll learn:

  • How to mix a reliable batch of stain that keeps for months and years
  • How to find the best firing schedule for your own kiln
  • How to trace with stain
  • How to flood with stain
  • How to avoid picking out and wasting dried stain ever again
  • How to shade stain from dark to light
  • How to blend two different kinds of stain together
  • How to create textures in stain
  • How to give added emphasis and body to your stain shading
  • What you must do to preserve the smoothness of your stain shading
  • The brushes to use, what to use to store your stain, what to use for a palette

But not just that.

This technique of using oil will also save you money on palette knives and brushes.

Stop wrecking your good tools

Silver stain

If you work with vinegar or water, this blender will rot. But if you use oil, you won’t have to buy a new one. Plus you’ll be able to blend your stain (not a hope with vinegar or water)

Yes, another problem with using vinegar or water is, the stain will rot your tools.

Nothing you can do to stop it because it always does, no matter how clean you are.

Always.

And unless you work with oil, you’ll need new ones every year.

New brushes, new knives. That’s added cost to you.

But not the way we’ll show you. Because the medium we recommend won’t dry, it won’t corrode your tools.

Problem solved.

Money saved.

“I wish I had crossed paths with you fellows back when I was just starting out as a painter. It would have saved me an enormous amount of frustration. Again, thank you for the truly useful information, and for making it available at such reasonable expense” (Terry Mominee, Evansville, Indiana, US)

Your guarantee. You have 60 days to read and watch. If you decide it’s not for you, you can have your money back at once, no questions asked.

“Thank you for capturing your studio’s experience on paper” (David T., Virginia, USA)

Afterwards, at any time, you can write to us and we’ll reply.

“Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. We know you are a very busy man, and we very much appreciate your taking the time to address our concerns regarding silver stain. We found your information very helpful, and beneficial to us at a critical time in my project development. Thanks to you and your excellent tutorledge, we were able to overcome this difficult aspect of the panel design, and move through to completion of the process. The results were as good as your advice” (Steven Whorl & Sherry Sonntag-Whorl, Florida, US)

Here’s the course:

How to work with silver stain

Best,

P.S. Just one ounce (28 grams) of stain can easily cost you $15 – so it’s really important you don’t waste stain. Also that you don’t waste glass, you don’t waste time, and you don’t wreck your knives and brushes. 

“Thank you so much for answering my questions about my problems with the silver stains. I can’t wait to experiment with your suggestions, and I have a couple of students who’ve been waiting for answers as well. So – again – my gratitude for taking the time to assist me (Lynne Rowe, Miami, US)

How to work with silver stain

Silver Stain

Proven techniques

How to trace, blend, shade and flood from a reliable batch that keeps for months

This information on this page is important if you’re new to silver stain or if you only mix it with water or vinegar.

This information is not for people who already use oils with silver stain.

Or if you already know how to trace, blend, shade and flood with silver stain.

All other glass painters, please continue – this is really useful to you.

The cost of silver stain

When you “bulk buy” silver stain straight from the manufacturers, it will cost you between US $158 and US $324 a pound (16 ounces), depending on the type you choose.

Which is anywhere between to $9 and $20 an ounce.

Of course when you actually buy it one ounce at a time, maybe you’ll pay a third or more on top, so maybe $12 to $25 an ounce.

An ounce.

So that’s the cost issue.

Silver stain is expensive.

And if you only ever mix it with water or vinegar, you’re pretty much throwing that expensive powder to the four winds.

Not to mention the disappointment when it doesn’t work …

It’s up to you. It’s your life, your work. Do you enjoy the struggle? Really?

The value of silver stain

Silver stain is gorgeous – when properly applied and properly fired.

Improperly applied and improperly fired, of course, it’s as ugly as sin.

What’s more, your piece is pretty much ruined. All that work is wasted. (Unless you go to the bother of using hydrofluoric acid to remove the ruined silver stain …)

But let’s focus now on the good side of stain. Unlike glass paint, it’s transparent. You can use stain to shade white glass into yellow, orange glass into red, blue glass into green. It’s a joy!

So when I said a moment ago it was expensive, let’s just be clear: nothing’s expensive if it’s worth it, and silver stain – being so beautiful – is definitely worth it.

It’s just that it’s so difficult to use.

One day it works, the next day it doesn’t. What’s going on here?

See, it’s the failure-rate which really makes silver stain “expensive”.

Reduce the failure-rate and improve your techniques, and silver stain is worth it without any shadow of a doubt.

Water and vinegar

Most people mix stain with water or vinegar.

Their failure-rate is fairly high, I hazard to guess.

Nasty ugly “metalling” on the one hand or infuriatingly weak colour on the other. Bah!

Seen from the outside – this kind of failure is unacceptable and unnecessary – you’ll discover why it happens and how to avoid it

Yet what’s actually worse is that, even when it works with water or vinegar, there’s still a massive failure to reach stain’s full potential. Its sheer unrivalled beauty.

Can you use water or vinegar to shade and blend?

No, you can’t.

That’s my point.

Problems with water and vinegar

These are the main problems I remember from my days with water and vinegar (oh, what days of endless frustration they were):

  • It’s impossible to shade from light to dark
  • It’s really hard to blend
  • It’s impossible to mix and store a batch that works reliably for months and maybe years
  • It’s difficult to apply smoothly to a specific area; instead you end up applying too much, then picking it out and damaging your lungs with all the dust, not to mention all the stain that’s wasted …
  • It’s unreliable because even if you do a test, you can’t use the same batch to do your real piece

What a mess. What a waste of time and money. What a failure to achieve beauty.

But you can change all that.

Here’s the answer.

Silver stain – proven techniques

Information on the correct use of silver stain is scarcer than gold dust. In most books, you’ll be lucky to find more than a paragraph.

Even then, you’ll mostly be instructed in the use of water or vinegar, which as I’ve shown is pretty much pointless.

So David and I decided to remedy this lamentable situation.

I mean, glass painters have been staining glass for the best part of 800 years.

And the introduction of silver stain brought about a huge increase in its potential – for the simple reason you could now include two colours within a single piece of glass.

Freedom!

Seems a shame this knowledge should be lost. And it will be lost if folks continue their unsatisfactory ways with water and vinegar …

That’s why we teach a special course on silver stain.

It’s all online, so you can learn from anywhere in the world and at a time which suits you:

  • How to mix a reliable batch of stain that keeps for months and years
  • How to find the best firing schedule for your own kiln
  • How to trace with stain
  • How to flood with stain
  • How to avoid picking out and wasting dried stain ever again
  • How to shade stain from dark to light
  • How to blend two different kinds of stain together
  • How to create textures in stain
  • How to give added emphasis and body to your stain shading
  • What you must do to preserve the smoothness of your stain shading
  • The brushes to use, what to use to store your stain, what to use for a palette

Will you have a look here.

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