While Glass Stains are very effective on transparent surfaces, they have of late become very popular when used on various treated white or metallic surfaces, where the richness of the colours becomes enhanced by the reflective qualities of the surface through which they are seen.
This means that you can use them on thick card, canvas, wallpaper off-cuts, Dala’s various texture pastes, metal paints, real metals (eg. pewter, tin, aluminium, foils, etc.) The colours will then appear very glossy and brilliant. They also make highly effective wood stains, where the grain of the wood can be seen through the transparent colours. Light woods can be coloured and varnished in one coat.
In the second project, a 20cm x 20cm square of 3.2mm hardboard was wood-glued onto a larger square of chipboard. The edges were painted black with some Dala craft paint. The wooden surfaces were then ‘plastered’ with some Dala white Texture Paste (smooth) using painting or palette knives (like icing a cake!) Don’t use a brush as they clog up with the texture paste.
Stop once you have achieved a surface that you are satisfied with (it stays wet long enough for you to scrape off the paste and try again, several times.) You may also ‘doctor the surfaces’ with any other forms of ‘mark makers’ – remember, any instrument harder than the texture paste is a mark making tool! Have fun experimenting.
While the paste was still wet, several designs cut (with a standard pair of scissors) from a light metal plate (bought from a catering supplier) or the metal from the inside of a coffee tin, or some pewter, and altered by drawing or pressing some designs into the soft metal using any sharp instrument (eg. a dry ball point pen) were squeezed onto the surface. When the paste is dry, the Glass Stains may be painted onto the now uneven, textured surfaces.
The paint will fill the cracks, and cover the higher areas, causing it to have different tones depending on how deep or thick it is painted. You can either have the colours blend by working wet next to wet, or sharper edges by allowing the individual colours to dry first before adding others. (In the Show Me How TV example, Red, Orange, Yellow, Brown and Sepia were used.)
If the texture paste is not completely dry, you may find that surface cracks will appear, due to the two products drying at different speeds, which can be very effective and decorative. You can mix colours on the surface while they are both still wet, or you can let the bottom layer dry completely before painting another layer on top of it. Use a soft brush to spread the paint (like taklon or pony hair) and clean with acetone.
You can use several other items (like seeds, beads or glass pebbles, etc.) to be embedded into the wet paste to create texture, and there are also other texture pastes available (like Dala’s sandy Coarse Texture Paste, and items or surfaces (cloth, textured papers, etc.) glued down with Dala Gel Medium.)
There are so many exciting possibilities that it is important for you not to get bogged down or limited with a recipe. Try to play, and experiment. Adopt the attitude, “I wonder what would happen if…” and see what magic appears.