Suddenly we have a gilded glass!

[Julio Cesar Germano]

So... Happiest of years to everyone!

Been a long, long while since I've last been here and I've been up to my neck with so many things...

Here are some of my recent attempts at glass gilding, I've spent (wasted) a whole booklet ( ) trying to do it before finally getting it sort of right.
The first one was supposed to be a "nameplate" for the outside of a lawyers office. Regrettably, my first and only attempt of doing it on glass consumed most of my time, and the original request was actually for it to be done with my calligraphy on paper.
The process went mostly like this.

- Wrote the name of the person on paper and photocopied it for transparency.
- Created a silk screen with my script revealed
- Gilded the glass with reasonable success (Huzzah for the Smith Tip!)
- Failed at screen printing, when pulling the squeegee the screen slipped and created that unsightly "shade"

Failed nameplate

IMG_2626.JPG (151.14 KiB) Viewed 9161 times

The second one I gilded and right now am looking for a better place to affix my screen before actually doing it...

Good-ish gild waiting for screen.

IMG_2667.JPG (135 KiB) Viewed 9146 times

Unfortunately I couldn't afford a decent back up paint, so my backup is currently transparent general varnish found in most art stores.
Will be posting the final result as soon as I get it done.

Wish me luck.
Sincerely,

Júlio César.

[Lee Littlewood]

Julio,
If you have done much silk screening on hard surfaces (not tee-shirts), then printing on glass isn't too big a change. You need to have reliable rests for the screen, proper off-contact, and thick enough ink.

Stops on glass: We have a set of glass worker's small suction cups (expensive) and have made a bunch of plastic suction cups (cheaper). The suction cups are nice because they go off and on easily and leave no residue, but I'd start out with wood blocks and double-face tape. 3 pieces of plywood, 3/4"x2"x1" will do, with a good 2 sided tape holding them to the glass.
The very coolest tape is the Scotch 'Command' which is for dorm rooms and suchlike, it sticks fine but can be pulled off sideways without pulling against the surface. But any tape should work for a small screen, and if you have to you can cut the tape with a flexible blade or some piano wire (think of a cheese cutter) to get the blocks off the glass when you're done. Oh, and 4 spots of the double-faced tape on the corners of the screen frame are just right for off-contact AND for holding the screen to the glass while you reach down to get your squeegee if you are printing alone.

Off-contact: like any hard surface, you want the screen to float a little above the surface so the squeegee can press the fabric into contact without distorting the image too much. (A good reason to keep the image away from the edges of the screen, so the fabric can flex evenly.) Remember, you are not squeezing ink through the mesh, you are letting ink touch the surface so the ink will stick, staying in place while the fabric rises up and away.

Ink: for vertical printing you might go a little bit thicker than usual to minimize drips, but remember it is the ink in the screen that prints, not the big glob being pushed by the squeegee. Often we do a flood coat (holding the screen horizontal) to fill the image with ink, and then scrape off most of what is by the squeegee, so what we are picking up pretty much can't drip but can print. After the print look carefully to see that all the image is not shiny - if it has shiny spots they show ink still in the screen and you can pull the squeegee again from the same direction to get that ink transferred to the glass.
When we pull the frame down, we often do a flood-coat before we even look at the print, so ink will not be drying in the screen while we look carefully at serifs and such. And a lot of time you can touch up pinholes and flaws with a brush more easily than by continuing to print.
It is nice to be able to see your print clearly, so black is a nice color for back-up. If you have to use varnish you might add black paint, and you might be able to let it thicken a little with the top off. We often print with 1Shot straight from the can to get colors, but it is a bit thin for good SS ink. (I know somebody who used to keep it in the refrigerator to thicken it, but that would be hard on site.)

OOPS - looking again at your photos it looks like you are not printing vertically. Maybe what you need is a way to hinge your screen to your table, or (again) blocks of wood to keep it in place while you print. In any case it looks like your backup ink worked and you removed the excess gold OK.
Do some nameplates for yourself or for friends, and you will soon have the system under control. Cheers...

[Julio Cesar Germano]

Hey Lee,

Thank you for the advice on window/wall printing! I've seen a couple of videos and was very curious about it.

The problem was (and is) that I'd never done any screen printing at all. Nothing like some hands on failure to teach a couple of things.
I'm currently working on a claw-like thing I've seen used in printing t-shirts to hold the screen, should be ready in a week or so. The new year brought some very desperate brides needing their envelopes addressed and they tend to be vicious when desperate O.o.

I found an art store here that sells pure pigment for making ink (brand is Pebeo) I was thinking of mixing some of it into the varnish to colour it for the back up and possibly drop-shades. Any advices on this?

Eager to learn more,
Sincerely,

JC

[Lee Littlewood]

Julio,

Are you sure the art stores don't have silk-screen ink? I don't know if textile ink (for tee shirts) would work, but a standard solvent based ink would probably work better than a varnish mix. When they make SS ink they make it fairly stiff, so it stays where you put it on the surface (no bleeding or dripping), but they do something so it flows under pressure (when the squeegee is on it). A nice combination of qualities.

Failing pre-made ink, I'd look at printer's inks (which is what your Pebeo is??) or enamel paint, maybe thickened with pigment. Probably most anything will go through a a screen: what we want is that the print not spread too much, or lift the gold (so waterbased is probably out), and be physically tough when dry. Opacity is nice, but not needed in back of leaf. The thinner the ink is, the more it will bubble as the screen lifts off the surface, and that can affect the strength of the final film.

It sounds like you are getting a hinged clamp for your screen frame. Next you will want a flat table that you can screw or clamp the hinge to. Tape your film positive art to the gilded glass where you want it, then lay the glass on the table in the right place - usually it is easier to put the piece down first and then move the screen around, clamping it down when everything lines up properly. When you look through the screen you should be able to tell if it is lining up with black film, because the gold is quite bright.
Once it is "in register" you put some blocks of wood or cardboard or plastic or something, snug against 2 sides of the glass - usually better to do a long side and a corner, if you can. Now look thru the screen again, curse, and move things around until they really are in register and stay there after the screen goes up and down a few times. (Often it is easier to use a 'sub-base': a piece of card (or even paper) on the bottom, so you can move the glass around while it is under the screen. Once in register the card can be taped down - there isn't much side force from going over with a squeegee.) Now if you have a few pieces of glass of the same size you can print one, flood coat the screen, put in another piece of glass touching the blocks and print it, and so on. All the prints should come out in the same location, relative to the register blocks.

And of course there are a million ways to do all of the steps - I'm just going thru it the way we would work in the shop. "Anything that works" should be your motto.

good luck with your brides and your gold...

[Julio Cesar Germano]

Hello again.


Finally a break from writing other people stuff and back to writing my own stuff.

Lee: Art stores around here are quite limited to drawing and painting stuff. The silk screening supplies I have were bought from a place that says it's dedicated to sign-making, but it veers towards large sized printed stuff. Took me about 30 minutes to get them to understand what I was trying to do and the only thing they could think of was an epoxy-based paint which would have been a pain to deal with.
The Pebeo is an enamel alkyd-based glossy varnish used for finishing up oil paintings and it's quite thick from the bottle. I was thinking of mixing pure pigments into it so I could see it when brush lettering.
As for the process of fixating the screen I bought a couple of hinges from the hardware store and I'm going to screw the whole thing on top of a table. The video from Dave's Born'n'Raised has something along this line.

I've finished writing/drawing what I intend to place on the round gilded glass. A friend of mine is going to teach me how to vectorize this so I can get a good transparency for burning the screen.

The image says "Calligraphy Maringá - The tools of the past in the hands of the present"
A bit bold given I can't use some of said tools properly, but I'm getting there.

Thank you for the help Lee! No such thing as to much information!

Sincerely,

JC

Drawn Lettering.

Round Artwork.jpg (149.48 KiB) Viewed 8861 times

[Lee Littlewood]

Hi Julio, and Happy New Year to you too.

I hope your silkscreen project goes well. We use SS printing for many things, especially with gold leaf or spray silver - it allows very accurate work and it is good for multiple copy work. Getting a good work table and clamps is a big help. Of course, getting good ink would be nice too.

It looks as if you are doing your artwork with pen & ink on white paper, then taking it to a camera, or getting it vectorized and then cutting it in rubylith or vinyl? A good system. It is possible to letter with a brush directly on clear film and make your own 'film positive', full size and with the little quirks of the hand. I like to use a frosty Mylar film, or if a clear film I rough it up with steel wool so it has a 'tooth' and takes the paint or ink better. Black will work, but the best color for exposing the emulsion turns out to be yellow - we add some black to yellow paint so we can see it better, and it burns a screen very well.

Good Luck with it

[megan child]

Hi Julio,

it seems we are both at the same speed, I just near completed a ss mirror and you can see it in my recent post. I used a 2 pack epoxy and to get the gap between the glass and the screen I used stick on "feet" that you use to stop computers leaving marks on the desk.

Its good to see I'm not the only one trying to learn the old arts before they're lost to the computer age



Meg
Consistent in being Persistant