Mimic stained glass with glass paint

If you’ve gotten a glass paint project under your belt (a backpainted backsplash, maybe?), you might be wondering about other opportunities to incorporate glass paint into your decorating scheme. Glass paint is very versatile, and while it was designed to work with glass, it can also be used on other surfaces, both interior and exterior.

Glass paint makes it easy to mimic stained glass

If you’ve fallen in love with the look of stained glass, you may be tempted by the idea of creating your own stained glass. Stained glass is an art form that has evolved over more than 1,500 years. Silica is the primary component of glass, but it melts at only very high temperatures. Early glassmakers knew that by adding certain components, they could lower the melting point of the silica, which made it easier to make glass. By mixing different metallic salts with the raw materials for glass, artisans produced glass with different colors.

As the technique evolved, clear glass was painted with different colors, stains and dyes and then kiln-fired to bond the color to the glass. Perhaps not so well known is the fact that many stained glass pieces incorporate paint. For the most part, details in stained glass pieces can only be achieved by painting and firing the glass. Stained glass can be fired a number of times during production. Not surprisingly, true stained glass is really expensive!

You can use Glassprimer™ glass paints to mimic stained glass. Backpainting is a great technique to mimic stained glass panels! Applied in thin coats, Glassprimer™ glass paint dries to a translucent finish, which allows the light to shine through. Glassprimer™ glass paint has the added benefit of offering superior UV-light resistance. That means your finished piece will stand up to direct sunlight without fading, peeling or cracking.

Glassprimer™ glass paint bonds permanently to glass. Glass paint also works well on Plexiglas. If you don’t want to permanently alter the surfaced of a window, you can create a Plexiglas panel that you can bond temporarily to the glass. Because Plexiglas is so durable and versatile, you can easily create backpainted Plexiglas panels that sit in any window. When you want to return the window to its original state, simply unmount the Plexiglas panel!

If you’d like more information about decorating with Glassprimer™ glass paint, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Kerem Yucel, via FreeImages.com