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We often get asked which paint brush to use for glass painting. It’s a good question but unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer. As many of you will know there are different types of glass paints and glass painting. What type of brush you use really will depend on exactly what you are doing.
The two main types of paint brush are bristle and solid. As shown in the video and below I keep both types around in various sizes and use them for different types of work.
Which Paint Brush to use for glass painting?
Solid Paint Brushes.
These have been around for quite a while now. I’ve certainly been using them for over 20 years! In fact they last a lot longer than bristle and I still have and use my original one.
They are great for the flood-fill technique. That’s where you are working flat and pushing the paint around (rather than brushing on the glass.). The two great benefits of a solid brush are:
- They are so easy to clean. One wipe with a piece of kitchen towel and they are ready to be used with a different colour. This is particularly useful when you are blending multiple colours in the same area.
- You are far more unlikely to get air bubbles in your work as the are no bristles for them to hide in.
Solid brushes used to be quite expensive, back when they were only made by one company. Now there are a lot of cheepcopies around which seems to work just as well (although I am having issues finding them in decent sizes).
Bristle Paint Brushes.
These are best used for painting on curved/non-flat surfaces where you will actually be brushing the paint on. In fact I’ve never managed to do this successfully with a solid brush.
It really doesn’t matter about the brand of the brush. Get on e which is tapered (so you can get into small areas.) is soft (to help get a sooth finish.) and where the bristles don’t drop out (you don’t want them in your work).
As I have real difficulty getting bristle brushes clean (even with thinners) I tend to keep different ones around to use with different colour. One for the reds and oranges, another for the blues, another for the green and so on. There is no need to have a seperate bush for every shade!
Summery.
If you only want to buy one brush to start with but would like to try different types of glass painting, you should get a bristle brush. That will do both. However I do recommend getting a solid one to use for flood fill work as soon as you can if you are going to carry on glass painting.
This was very useful, thank you. I was wondering though, which paints will hold up to UV rays?
You are welcome.
Non of the paints hold up indefinitely to UV rays but the good solvent based ones tend to last longer than the waterbased (although I am still testing an oven bake waterbased one). How long a piece will last depends on how much direct sunlight it gets / which country you are in. In general I would expect a piece to last somewhere up to 5 years (in the UK) with some colours fading before others.
I am also testing the use of a crystal clear varnish both in terms of making non-bakable paints waterproof and increasing its longevity due to its UV protection. Unfortunately these tests take a long time!
Crystal Clear Varnish.