transparent colors

[Sarah King]

I have been asked to do a glue-chipped and sand-blasted window that needs to be beautiful from both sides. I would like to paint the glue-chipped areas with a thin wash of perfectly transparent, very durable color. What's the best thing to use?

Also, is there a paint that works over sand-blasting or does paint look as bad as trying to mirror over sand-blasting ?

Thanks,

[Dan Seese]

Well, Sarah, here's what I did once.
1.) I sand carved a logo into a glass panel. Then I used some of the transparant inks that Rick sold, mixed them with a bit of varnish and airbrushed an even consistancy onto the glass. If you have a larger area, you could spray it with an HVLP. Rolling it on probably wouldn't work because it would be hard to keep it even. Screen printing would work, though I'm not sure how it would lay on the chipped glass.
2.) Anyway, my next step was to mix a very small amount of mica powder (Super White M9020C) with varnish and spray an even coat onto the glass.
3.) Then I applied another coat of the transparent ink.
4.) Lastly, after everything dried, I cleared it with Frog Juice.

The transparent inks look great on the sandblasted glass. It kind of has a cathedral glass look to it. The mica powders are quite transparent but are also reflective. That middle layer of mica powder allowed the refractive light to pass through the glass. At the same time it would reflect the light back through the transparent ink when it was dark on the opposite side of the glass.
I experimented quite a bit with the amount of ink to use and how much mica powder to put into the middle layer before doing the final piece.
If it's something that will have an exterior exposure, you need to look into lightfastness of the colors you use. Here in Colorado, we have thinner atmosphere and thus lots of UV rays. I haven't been impressed with the performance of Frog Juice as an exterior UV inhibitor at this elevation - it breaks down pretty quickly.
As far as durability on the inks, I can't really tell you. There are paints for stained glass - you would know more about that than I do - but I think most of them are meant to be fired after application.
Now that I've thoroughly confused you, I can tell you that what I did worked great as an interior application.
Hope this helps.
Dan

[Sarah King]

Dan,

Your piece sounds wonderful. I never thought of using mica to make it reflective - that is just great. And I'm thrilled to hear that it worked on the sand blasting so well. What brands of ink and varnish did you use?

I looked at the inks the stained glass guys use but the best brand needs to be fired in the kitchen stove at 325 degrees - which is ok except that my oven is not 24 by 36 inches and I don't have a kiln.

My piece is for an inside bathroom wall so UV won't be a problem but humidity might be. I'd love to try out your method if I knew what brand of tranparent ink Rick sold. And varnish.

Thanks so much.

[Larry White]

Hi Sarah-
I created this piece of glue chipped and sandcarved glass and then colorized it. I used transparent artist oil color, the type for fine art painting. They seem to have the highest degree of color fastness. They all have a rating right on the tube. I mixed it up with Frog Juice and so far, it looks as good as it did when I made it, several years ago. It looks the same on both sides except for the sandcarving relief, which looks better from the smooth side of the glass. One of the nice things about the execution of it was, the sandblast mask doubled as the airbrush mask. Airbrushing the transparent color is really the only way to get it even. Using an opaque paint over sandcarving would cause the relief to go flat. I like Dan's use of the mica powders...I'll have to try to remember that one. Good luck...and of course we'd all love to see the finished product!

[Dan Seese]

Sarah,
The inks Rick sold were Naz-Dar transparent screen inks. You could buy it probably in quarts from a sign/screen printing supplier but he packaged them in small tubes. Esoteric Sign Supply may still carry them. I'm pretty sure Ron Percell with Letterhead Sign Supply carries the same thing now.
Larry's use of transparent oils sounds good as well. Norm & Ruth Dobbins give a class on coloring sandblasted glass. http://etchmaster.com/page/ES/CTGY/S-9 I think they use acrylic paints but I don't know if they are transparent.
As far as the type of varnish I used, it was just one of the Commonwealth varnishes that Rick carried - I never really understand the difference between them all. I may even have used Frog Juice, which is perfectly clear.
Humidity shouldn't be a problem with these inks as they are mineral spirits based. Even acrylics should be fine once they're dry unless it has moisture on it continually. The sandblasted glass gives a really good tooth for the paints/inks to hold. I would think that even the chipped areas have enough imperfections in the chip that the paint will hold to it. I guess you'll be our guinea pig.
Best of luck on it.
Dan

[Sarah King]

Well, thanks guys!! The info is great. I can see that I'm in for some real experiments - the most fun part of the whole operation.

I haven't done much with paint at all (so far) since residential stained glass in Chicago is almost never painted. The design for this project is a tree with flowers and leaves. I was thinking of trying thin copper mirror on the flowers and then painting the leaves. The mica flakes might refelct in the same way that I'm hoping the copper mirror will. If and when I ever get the project done I will certainly post a photo.

Larry, I have been looking at your piece on your web site for a while and wondering how it was done. Thanks for the info. It's great.

Actually, I think that you sign painters have been holding out on us stained glass guys. Do you know how long it would take to do a piece like Larry's in stained glass - just the mechanics of putting it together? Sand-blasting feels almost like cheating - it's so fast. But I'm onto you now - haha.

[Larry White]

All you had to do was ask... -LW

[Sarah King]

I know, Larry, I just get shy sometimes.

[joe_jones]

What about house of kolors base coat kandies?


Larry
how did you cut that curve?