Glass Painting

I have been doing glass painting for a while now, not quite sure how I got into it, but I quite like it.

I tend to recycle glass jars, vases etc, you can get them cheap from car boots and charity shops- even use a cooking sauce jar. Just make sure you thoroughly clean and dry the glass first. Sometimes labels are tricky to remove, try soaking the jar in hot soapy water, most of the time that will loosen the label, if not you can get products now which help remove labels, I think Lakeland Plastics has some.

You then need your glass painting equipment.

I tend to use the aqua glass range for paints and outlines. These paints are water based so any item you paint should not be washed, to clean they should be gently clean with a dry cloth and not rubbed. The bonus here is that if you make a mistake whilst painting you can correct it. I have permanent paints too and use them on occasions. The outlines can also be brought, although outline stickers used for card making work aswell, or if you have a steady hand you can use the outliners in the tube and draw directly onto the glass (you have to allow this to dry before painting).

Once you have your design and all your equipment including fine paint brushes and water, you are good to go.  Painting on any round surface does mean the paint will go where it wants, so my advice is to put the glass jar in a different position every few minutes to try and get an even spread of paint, it will never be perfect, but that all adds to its unique handmade nature!

Here are are a few of my most recent designs.

This was a drinks bottle, now decorated with red and black hearts, could be used for decoration or as a candle holder.

An old sauce jar, re-used and created into a storage jar or tea light holder.

This was once a cider bottle! Now a fairy wonderland with flowers, butterflies and dragonflies galore!

Butterfly and Daisy design which sits in my bathroom. Some bottles like this I do fill with my aromatherapy blends, it looks lovely and brightens up a room.

If anyone else glass paints and has any ideas or thoughts please comment!