’18 Rabbit’ With Painting Instructions

Maya King Panel

Maya King Panel by Larry Stout(Ozarkistan)

This piece, dubbed “18 Rabbit” in allusion to a Maya king of Copan (a wonderful place to visit!), illustrates what I’ll call “poor-man’s stained glass painting”. I experimented with all manner of non-firing glass paints (we didn’t have a kiln, much less the know-how to do traditional glass painting) until I discovered a line of paints called Pebeo Vitrea, which come as small plastic jars and as markers. The company doesn’t promote these paints for stained glass use, but they are the ones to use if you can’t or don’t know how to paint glass the orthodox way! Non-toxic, bake in kitchen oven after overnight drying, proof to flux, flux-remover, alcohol, etc. etc., and quite hard enough on the glass to last “forever”!

For “18 Rabbit”, I downloaded the image, a king’s effigy from actual Maya art (but not 18 Rabbit, actually!, and printed it out at production scale. I then cut out the effigy and placed it on a sheet of medium-amber cathedral glass, overpainting rather thickly the area surrounding the effigy with Pebeo Bengal Pink; next I more lightly and unevenly daubed the area of the effigy itself with the same paint, and let the piece dry overnight. Next day, I cut out self-evident sectors of the effigy printout, placed them sequentially in proper location on the glass, and outlined them by scraping away the paint along the edges with an X-acto knife point; removing the paper, I then scraped out details freehand. The glyphs (taking liberties with the Mayan paradigms) were drawn on the small squares with a Pebeo black marker (much easier to control than the gummy pot paints), likewise dried overnight, and then all painted pieces were baked in the kitchen oven at 325 deg. F. for 45 min. (put the glass in when you turn the oven on, so it warms up slowly). Then, the elements copper foiled, soldered, framed, patinated, as usual.

Milly’s reply:
Wow, you’re nothing if not creative in your approach, brilliant! I particularly like the amber glass that you chose to paint on – it really gives that ancient, precious feel to the whole panel. Just goes to show that you don’t need all an expensive glass kiln to get the effects you’re looking for, just a creative approach. If you want to learn permanent painting (although I suspect you already know!), here’s the link to my free tutorial pages that teach painting the traditional way: Painting Tutorials. Thanks for posting your work for us to have a look at, and being so generous in sharing your techniques.

Comments for ’18 Rabbit’ With Painting Instructions

Pebeo Vitrea glass paints
by: Larry Stout

Neglected to mention something important: the baking paints emit a noxious (but putatively non-toxic) odor, so turn on the vent fan full-blast!

 

Leave a Comment

Affiliate Disclosure

I get a small % from selected suppliers (not you!) if you purchase any shiny new tools after clicking through from my site. Thanks in advance for your support.
AMAZON – As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.