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In this project we are making an Glass Painted Art Deco Mirror. As with many of our projects I doubt you will want to make something the same shape, size or designs but the techniques we used will remain the same.
The mirror was bought quite cheaply from a local Facebook group and was secondhand. It’s is always worth keeping your eye out in places like this. I buy lots of mirrors, vases, glass etc this way. I don’t always know what I’m going to do with them but I usually use them eventually!
Glass Painted Art Deco Mirror. Step by Step.
The Design.
I created the design on my computer in “GIMP”. If you haven’t used GIMP before then you will find a couple of articles/videos on this site showing you the basics. It is perfect for creating designs like this (and it’s free). It’s an Art deco(ish) design which I felt suited the mirror with is large black glass boarders.
You will obviously want to do a design which suits your mirror and where it will do. You can either do this from scratch or base it on an existing design.
If your design is very complicated there is no reason why you can do this design in liquid leading or a mixture of adhesive and liquid leading.
Materials.
I chose to outline the design in 6mm adhesive lead. It may have been better if I had used the Ebony but as I only had the Natural to hand I used that. You can do a piece like this with liquid leading but due to the size of the piece and the long straight I thought the adhesive was the way to go.
The paints are all Vitrail by Pebeo. I was going to use more colours but actually changed my mind as I went along. Whilst this isn’t always a good thing to do I do often find that it is obvious, as I get into the work, that my original plans need changing.
The specific colours are: Crimson Red, Black, Apple Green and white.
Process.
Create your design and print it off.
Clean the mirror.
Use a (none permanent) felt pen to mark THROUGH your design onto the mirror below.
Place the 6mm lead down working it out so you have as few loose ends as possible. Take your time over this and ensure there are no gaps where the paint can seep through. Always cut your lead slightly longer than needed. You can trim off the excess latter.
Trim off any excess and clean the glass again.
Paint you segments. Best to do non-adjacent segments first just incase you get any leaks.
The marble effect is achieved by using opaque and transparent colours in the same area. Don’t mix them too well or you will loose the effect.
Once painted you should go through it and remove any specs of paint you have on the lead.
Art Deco Mirror Summery.
This isn’t a difficult project. The leading is perhaps the hardest bit. Once that has been done the the flood filling is fairly easy. You can choose your colours to match a rooms decor which makes this a great project for your home.
