General Glass Painting Questions
Can I mix my Paints?
In most cases as long as you are using the same brand and type of paint then this should be fine. In some cases you can even do this between brands if the type/base of the paint is the same. As with all of these things you should be careful and test with a small amount of paint first. That way if it doesn’t work you haven’t wasted too much.
Whenever possible I recommend using a sold brush. This is best used for flat and “flood fill” work. The huge benefit is it can be cleaned by one or two wipes so you can use the same brush for all your colours. This is particularly useful when blending and using several colours in quick succession.
For 3D objects and any other time when you don’t have a solid brush. Any high quality one should do. We recommend high quality so the bristles don’t come out into your work.
Well first of all let me be clear. There is normally nothing wrong with the outliners in tubes, it is the tube itself which is the issue. Some people may get on well with tubes but I have always found them to be an issue. It is virtually impossible to get an even line, or it is a lot difficult to do it. Also with many of the tubes the outliner doesn’t stop coming out when you stop squeezing.
The method of outlining I prefer most is using a piping bag. This gives you ultimate control. Next best is a small pliable bottle. I keep 3 of these handy. One with Black outliner, one with silver and one with gold. They are always ready to touch up a piece of work or make smaller pieces when I don’t want to make up a piping bag.
There are several different types of glass paint and many brands. We have a short article on this HERE.
This depends on two things. Which paint you are using and what you want to do. Remember if you want to make the colour lighter you shouldn’t add thinners, use a clear version of the glass paint instead.
If you do want to make the paint thinner so it will flow better then you should use the thinner recommended and/or supplied by the manufacturer. The same goes for cleaning your brushes. In some cases this may be as simple as using water!
If you want to revive old paint you may want to read this.
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There is no longer any membership for this site. It became far too time consuming to try and monitor it and protect the forum etc from spammers. (Taking time away from my glass painting). We now run a Facebook page and a Facebook group. You can use the group to share any work you have done, ask questions etc. We also allow comments on all are articles so you can ask questions there if you wish.
Do you have a list of your recommended products?
OutLiner types you use?
Piping bag material?
The three small bottles for outlining?
Are there glass blanks to paint?
Etc etc
I have been searching for months for someone with years of experience like yourself. I am excited about learning and I am taking your lesson videos which raise a lot of material and tool questions.
Thank you for taking your time to share your knowledge and giving us a visual tutorial to help explain your methods. Obviously there is A LOT to learn!
Hi James,
Some very good questions there. I think I’ve answered them all but it’s spread over the site so here is a quick summery:
1. For general glass painting I like the Plaid Gallery Glass outliner. It has a nice consistency and comes in nice big bottle. It is “good value” perchased this way. It can’t be oven baked so items made with it can be washed down but not put in a dish washer or soak washed.
2. The piping bags are made from grease proof paper (I think in some countries it is called parchment paper). The type used in cooking. YOu will normally find it sold by the roll in the cooking/baking section of super markets,
3. The three small bottles for outlining/
Sorry I’m a bit unsure what you mean with this question.
4. Are there glass blanks to paint?
Obviously a lot of the time I am working on vases, picture frames etc. Which I get from cheap shops or charity ones. The staple for years though were sun catchers. I’ve had difficulty in getting these recently so have gone back to making my own. The last video showed how to make one and in the next video I will be covering BASIC glass cutting.
I’m glad you’ve found us and thank you for the questions. They give me ideas about what I need to cover in the future ! Just get back to me with any more and I will try my best to answer.
Oh should have said. The paints I use mostly now are Pebeo Vitrail. They are good paints and the cost is very competitive with the other decent ones. As well as transparent they also sell a couple of special effect ones (Fantasy Prisme and Fantasy Moon) which, as they all have the same base, can all be mixed. You will find these, and others, reviewed in our equipment section:
https://www.glasspainting.co.uk/glass-painting-equipment