Painted Stained Restoration Experts For Your Austin Church Windows

Scottish Stained Glass:  Austin’s Premiere Painted Stained Glass Artist

Painted stained glass involves a difficult but rewarding process that we, at Scottish Stained Glass, have taken years to master.  The process for painting stained glass is absolutely fascinating but requires years of extensive experience to become proficient in, which is why we have spent almost 30 years learning this age-old craft. Whether the painted stained glass in your Austin church is old or new, at Scottish, we can readily handle any scope of work–even restorations. As such, we are the specialists in original and restoration painted stained glass. To get a better understanding of the intricate processes involved in crafting your one-of-a-kind painted stained glass masterpiece, we have outlined a few of the particulars below.

The Long and Lovely Tradition Painted Stained Glass Tradition

There is no question as to whether painted stained glass is a perfectly unique way to add character and charm to your  Austin, in fact, you may already have some in your church.  However, while it may appear simple, this art form is actually achieved through a complicated, and arguably, scientific method.  This is because colors you see on painted stained glass are brought about through the use of complicated chemical interactions of different minerals and oils.

Painted Stained Glass Method 1

The artist starts with colored glass and paints special black paint made of oils and minerals onto it.  This piece of glass is then fired in our kiln at 1250-1450 for a couple of hours until the paint melts into the glass.  The paint then becomes part of the glass and will never rub off or be removed.

Painted Stained Glass Method 2

The second method involves clear glass.  During this process, colors are painted on a clear piece of glass one at a time and fired in between layers of color to build up layers of shading or color. Any color that involves the use of yellow can be particularly difficult in this method as the chemical used for yellows color (silver staining) is very toxic and will destroy other colors.  For this reason, when trying to achieve the color green for instance, the toxic yellow must be painted on the opposite side of the glass as the blue paint in order to keep the yellow from damaging the blue paint.

Scottish Stained Glass: A Painted Stained Glass Specialist For Austin, Texas

Matching styles on restoration projects is always a challenge and involves figuring out exactly what type of techniques the original artist used.  For example, sometimes artists would black paint on their glass and then use a dowel to rub off part of the black paint–giving the piece texture.  This same method was also used to scribe in individual elements like blades of glass.  Whatever the original technique was used our in-house artists do work hard and sometimes do multiple iterations to exactly mimic the original look of your chapel’s stained glass.
Learn more about the history of stained glass here or watch the video below.

Difficult as it may be, we love a challenge here at Scottish Stained Glass and take great pride in what we do. Contact us to find out more about original or restoration painted stained glass for your Austin Church today!