New Piece: Dragon and Girl

Holy shards, I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! It sure has been a while. I won't go into all of the excuses I have for not writing (*cough*health issues*cough*) but I've got some photos of the newest piece I'm working on with the mentorship of my amazing stained glass painting teacher, Brian James Waugh.

In this piece I'm working with "flashed" glass, which is a layer of coloured glass fused in a kiln onto a layer of clear glass. The way it works is, you cut vinyl "resist" for the parts where you want the colour to remain (you can also paint bitumen onto those parts, but we've been using vinyl resist). The resist is like a big sticker, which sticks to the glass and prevents the acid from reaching the part you want the colour to remain. The acid etches away the coloured layer wherever there isn't resist, which leaves you with clear glass in the areas where you'll be painting.

This is the drawing, or "cartoon" as they call it, which is in pretty battered shape. I've included it so you can see the idea of the image I'm going for. The border pieces are red flash glass which has been acid etched. I'll post more pix as I progress on the piece.

Another shot of the "cartoon."

The border pieces are red flash glass which has been acid etched. This is from before I did the line painting and firing on the leaves and vines.

The dragon and the girl are on green and blue flash glass, which has been acid etched. You can see in the green part, the acid has not yet taken all of the green flash glass away. Those pieces will go back into the acid.

This is what I did today - I finished the line painting on the leaves and vines and fired it, then did a matte wash on the background.

Another shot of the "cartoon."

Here are all of the leaf border pieces in the kiln. I've now done the line work on the dragon's face and wing, as well as the castle in the distance.

I've now done the line work on the dragon's face and wing, as well as the castle in the distance.

Here are some of the leaf border pieces in the kiln.

Here is the dragon's face in the kiln. The line has a bit of an "echo" where the lines of paint are casting a shadow on the white bottom of the kiln.

So, that's the progress so far! I've actually joined Brian's studio as a member now, which I'm very excited about. It will be good to see what all of the other studio members are doing and be inspired! Pin It Now!