Well, we’re down to the last several projects! Today’s project is to make & design yourself a faux Stained Glass Window using Christi’s book as a guide.
See Christi’s Book on pages 58-73 for basics on making and designing your faux stained glass window.
Come Up With a Design
The hardest thing for any artist is to come up with the design that you will remake in clay. You can do this by sketching your design on paper, using a Painting app (as I have done), or even just have a very clear picture in your mind of what you’re going to make.
Materials:
- “Polymer Clay & Mixed Media Together at Last” by Christi Friesen
- Your choice of polymer clay
- Bake & Bond or Liquid Polymer Clay (optional)
- Mica Powders (Several Options – My preference is a Perfect Pearl Set as they are permanent & do not require a varnish due to the resin ) or blending chalks
- Needle Tool
- Baby wipes or soft sponge
- Varnish
- Sculpting tools
- Exacto Knife
- Oven – to bake your finished piece in
- Extruder
- Pasta Machine
Instructions:
First decide on the size of your piece and get a ceramic tile that you can work directly on.- Note: My tile is 6 x 6.
- Make the background to your stained glass window.
- For my background of the sky, I made my own translucent blue blend with oodles of glitter sparkles in it.
- Begin to add fun elements to your scene.
- Remember that stained glass has soldering and joint lines. These lines can be thick or thin, but should surround 90% of your objects.
- Add as few or as many details as you would like.
- Add caned leaves, caned flower petals, and more!
- Be sure that your caned pieces are wrapped in black to look like they have been soldered.
- When all your elements are on, using an extruder, extruder even black snakes of clay.
- Surround your objects that do not have black edges with these snakes.
- Be sure to “divide” up your background making the solder lines throughout the design.
- Bake your piece at 275 for 60 minutes, covered with foil.
- Once your piece has cooled, add a gloss varnish to make your pieces shiny and sparkly like glass!
A Note on Voice
Remember that now that we are nearing the end of our projects, our designs should be a reflection of our own style and use Christi as inspiration and a jumping-off point. Remember that there is nothing wrong with being inspired by an artist, but it’s important that each of us develop our own unique signature of designs & ideas that belong solely to us as artists.
The Friesen Project
The Friesen Project is done in conjunction with Christi Friesen. All tutorials are retaught here with her expressed permission. Please make sure to read about the project here, and get answers to the most common FAQS here.
Sculpting Blessings,
