Glass paint

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Hi.

I have been reading about making glass signs with gold leaf for a while and now I think im almost ready to try it out, but I have som questions.

I have bought some yacht varnish to back up the gold. I asked for some black but in the store they told me, that black yacht varnish dont exist? So i bought some transperent instead and mixed it up color powder? I dont know the english word for it?

When I see this video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TSsDy5Bltk ) He use black yacht varnish or what is it?

And when I have backed up the gold leaf design I want to make some shades/outlines or something else. Can I use 1shot lettering paint or what would you suggest?

Hope you understand my bad english

Thanks.

-Lars

[Roderick Treece]

Lars,
You found my video ! In the video I am using Esoteric Sign supply Back up black but that's no longer available. I would try an air dry screen printing black ( Oil based) with some one shot hardener.
I would say you can use anything but water based paint.

Roderick
www.customglasssigns.com

[Larry White]

I wouldn't say you can really use most anything. But would agree that the screen ink is probably the best. You have to have a gold back-up that's reasonably tough, so it doesn't break down when removing the excess gold. I've never used OneShot to back-up gold....I don't think it would be tough enough. If you can't locate the screen ink, I'd do some test prior to using a substitute.

Rod, you might think about updating that soundtrack to your video....

Okay, you can use Tse Tse Fly!

-Aho



.

[Kent Smith]

Do not try to backup with enamel like One Shot even with hardener it does not produce a hard edge for cleanup. The real issue is the hard edge. A short oil resin varnish like Quick Rubbing will work by itself or similar Japan varnishes (Florence Japan, Venice Japan, etc.) or Japan paints. The One Shot poster paints can be used but they must be completely sealed. The screen inks also have this property of a hard edge so that they will not bleed out when printed. Most of us use One Shot enamels on glass by itself for outlines and shades as well as secondary copy. There can be issues with durability of those as well without being sealed however.

Letterhead Sign Supply does have the backup black that is much like Glawson's and I have had great results with it.

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Thank you Roderick for your video! I Have been watching it some times to figure out how it works

I will try do get some oil based screen printing varnish and try it out.

Thanks for your great anwers.

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Now I have done my first "glas sign" with some errors I can learn of.

The size I guess was to strong, maybe too much gelatine. I used 1x1cm gelatine (for cooking) for 0,25 litre water.
It was really difficult to remove the leaf around the numbers.

For the matte finish inside the numbers I used 1shot fast gold size, I think that is okay.

My biggest problem is the varnish. I use some yacht varnish, its clear so its a really difficult to see what im doing. I have been searching on the internet to find something about japan varnish but its like it dosent exist? I cant find anything about it.

And the screen ink companies will not sell me theire products because its for private use. They only sell for companies.

A last thing is, I did the marbling with water based colors and it cracks on the backside. Is water colors not suiteble for glass?

I found some black varnish for kichten tabels I maybe should try? And hope it will make the edge hard enough.


Another thing is, I have to pratice way more to be better with that lettering brush

-Lars

[David Slade]

Hey! Looks pretty darn good for being your first try! Better than my first shot!

If you have trouble removing the leaf try dipping your moistened cotton wad in fine powdered chalk or powdered rotten stone and rub it off with that.

I have problems finding equivalent chemicals over here in Japan too. They have screen ink in little tubes at art supplies over here. Or you might look for a small screen printing set at a hobby shop, too. Folks make postcards with them over here...
I can't work with just screen ink alone so I add in some resin(local to Japan) and quick drying medium(from art supply). This allows you to paint long smooth lines. Substituting boiled linseed oil for the quick drying flows even better but dries slower. The stuff I get over here is probably way different from what you would get in Europe or the US so EXPERIMENTATION is really important.

I don't know about cooking gelatin but gelatin capsules for vitamin supplements work fine too. I get them at the drug store. The used to call them quinine capsules.
Good Luck!

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Yeah experimentation is the way forward. I found some oil based black for both metal and wood work. Its works okay but the next I would try is, boiled linseed oil paint, and finally there is something thats easy to get here in Denmark. A long drying time is okay this far. But when im getting better I really would like to find something that dries fast so I can do a job in day I hope.

[Lars Wacherhausen]

This time a tried backup the gold with the boiled linseed oil paint David Slade told me about. It works okay, but the drying time was about two days! But im okay with my result

[DAVE SMITH]

looks good Lars keep it up.
Dave

[David Slade]

Looking good!
Two days is pretty long. More screen ink will shorten that but there is no big rush with us non-professionals.
I like the clothes pin brush hangers too!

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Thank you David

I dont want to start another topic for this little question but I have som problems with really small curves for flowers and ornaments ect.
What brushes do you guys and girls use so the lines remain with a nice flow? I have been trying with my lettering quills and scroll brushes (wizard vortex and the virus) and it dont really work for me. Is the hair of the brushes too long? Should they be shorter?

-Lars