Beyond Glue-Chipping (glue chip)

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Posted by Catharine C. Kennedy on February 08, 2004

With much patience & practice I've finally gotten some decent pieces! Next step is painting, but in doing so one one piece the glue-chipping was completely obscured...(I had painted the entire back after doing the lettering) Suggestions?
Thanks!
CK

Larry White

In backing up glue chip, or any other areas where the glass surface has been altered (sand carved, acid etched etc.), unless it's left clear, it needs to be backed up with a medium that will reflect the light. Without this light reflection, the textured surface will go "dead" and disappear. The higher the degree of reflection the more prominent the texture will be. I have had good results in backing up glue chipping with; angel gilding (solution gold deposition), silvering, lead deposition, water gilded gold leaf, Krylon Looking Glass Paint, and bronze powder.

The gloss of enamel paint isn't enough of a reflective surface. Glue chip can be tinted with a clear glaze, then water gilded for the reflective surface to create colored areas.

I started my glue chipping obsession with Bob Mitchell's Glue Chipped Glass Signs book. In needing to learn how to finish them, I got Gold Leaf Techniques by Raymond LeBlanc and Kent Smith.
-LW

Mike Jackson

Besides all the additional suggestions given regarding filling behind glue-chipped glass, I might add the additional possiblity of using transparent glazes (paint), and then backing that up with leaf or other reflective materials. You'd have to apply the glazes with very thin airbrushed coats to keep it from puddling in the depressions.

You can also place a commercial piece of mirror behind the glass that has the glue-chipping, however, you would need to paint the back side of all lettering with black or a dark color since it is reflected back by the mirror when viewed at a slight angle from the front.

Also...you mask off and glue chip the back side of a commercial mirror. If you frost away some areas of silver mirroring, you can fill that from behind with black or dark colors and it will appear black or dark from the front. Slight etching will not show in the painted areas.

Lastly, if you know solid covering paint will fill in and not leave much of a record of the texturing, you can use it to your advantage. Rick Glawson had an old piece of glass in his shop that had been acid etched. Nothing new there, except for the fact they acid etched a registration mark into each of the four corners. They knew it would not be visible when filled in with paint, so they included it for later registration. The only caveat here would be not to use that step if angel gilding, since the gold would get into the registration marks and be very hard to remove. Silver mirroring is generally okay because the silver strip goes down in the depressions and dissolves the silvering.

Mike Jackson

Robare M. Novou

On page 59 of the book by Robert Mitchell, "The art of glue-chipped glass signs". Mr Mitchell describes using translucent paint on the chipped areas and backing up with silver or white.

On some of his pieces he uses bronze powder on the chipped areas for a more muted effect than silvering or gilding.

Make some samples using translucent paint and bronze powders.

RMN

William Irish Holohan

This may be a question to be laughed at by the more experienced here at letterheads, but here goes anyways.

Would the tranparent paint used to spray backlit
plexi work in this case?

Another item to try might be the clear DuraCoat automotive paint. Not at the shop right now to get the # off the can, but have used the "gold"
(not even close) on polished aluminum letters and it gives a nice transparent "yellow/orange" color. The red is much the same on polished aluminum letters. Much like a mildly tinted clear coat. Most likely a dye based tint. No evidence of pigment at all. Have no idea how it would stand up outdoors, although it is designed for automotive use.

Just a thought.

Irish

Mike Jackson

Catharine,
Well, you learned one lesson! Don't paint the glue chipped areas. They either need to stay clear, or you need to leaf it. Actually Angel Gilding or Silvering works better as long as you didn't leave any areas just "frosted".

The next best answer I can suggest is to keep making tons of small sample pieces. Many answers and solutions will fall into your lap.

Mike Jackson