Materials:

• Premo! Sculpey in black 001 or color of choice if making a framed cling painting
• Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS)
• Sculpey Diluent for thinning TLS
• Tempered glass or ordinary glass with cut edges ground or taped for safety
• Artist's Oil Colors (any brand is fine. The more expensive brands have fewer fillers than the student grade. Because so little actual paint is used to tint the TLS, it probably doesn't matter at all which brand you use. Note: DO NOT thin oil paints with solvents or paint thinner.)
• Sculpey Super Slicer or cardstock for spreading TLS
• Small artist's brush, synthetic bristles
• Alcohol for cleanup
• Toothpicks for applying paint
• Pen and ink drawing or copy of Dover Books that is placed UNDER glass
• Disposable small paint cups or palette
• Heavy wire and wire cutters
• Texturing Tool
• Faux patinas and accents (if desired)

Directions:

Tint several puddles or paint cups full of TLS with small amounts of Artist's Oil Colors. Mix well with toothpick so that no streaks or spots are apparent.

Review "Getting Started with TLS Bakable Transfer and Color Medium" in the Projects section of our web site.

Mix and soften the clay that you will use to simulate the leading and frame. Pull of small pieces and roll it into fine ropes or worm shapes, trying to keep the diameter of the ropes fairly close to the same size.

Looking straight down onto your pattern, follow the lines of the pattern, reproducing those lines. Press the ropes onto the glass, but do not flatten so they will "tack to the glass. Curing the clay as soon as you have finished the "lead" design will keep you from disturbing it as you add layers of color.

Fill in areas of color. You can add visual texture by swirling in deeper tints of the same or contrasting colors. The browns were made from cadmium orange, yellow ochre, and sap green.

The greens in the feathers have small areas of cadmium red medium almost mixed in, to tone down the brilliant green. If you want the glass to look milkier or more opaque in some areas, such as I did for the sky, apply the TLS to heated glass. Warm it in the oven at 200 degrees F for five minutes or so.

This is a half-and-half mixture of Sculpey Diluent and TLS.

I apply this after the last color coat to make the surface more level. I also apply another thin layer of it after I've made the frame, to make sure that the frame is well attached to the pattern.

After you've applied the above mentioned layer, let the painting sit undisturbed for an hour or so, to allow small air bubbles to migrate to the surface and pop. Some bubbles won't pop by themselves. just poke them with a toothpick.

This piece is large, and I plan to put a "hanger" at the top, and it may sag over time. So, I've cut a piece of heavy wire from a coat-hanger to embed in the top of the hanger. It's a little shorter than the width of the piece, but will extend past the hanger attachment points.

Lay the piece of wire next to the top of the design. Make a rope of your "leading"/frame clay and smooth it into place around the perimeter of your design, covering the wire at the top.

Make two more ropes to create the hanger to simulate wrought iron rods. Attach each hanger in two places on the frame, and attach the two parts of the hanter at the top.

Decorate the joint of the two parts with a stamp or a small ball of clay. Create a similar decoration for the bottom of the frame, if you like.

Use your favorite texture tool to create texture all around your frame or only on certain parts of it

Simple coarse sandpaper looks nice, as do a variety of rubber stamps. This is just a finishing nail that went through the manufacturing process at the wrong angle, embedded in a clay handle. Buttons, leather stamps, coffee stirrers... all can add nice details to your piece.

When you like the way the frame looks, apply a final thinned layer of TLS to the piece and let it sit for an hour or to to settle out and become smooth, and to ensure that the frame will be well attached to your design area.

Cure the piece in a preheated oven at 275 degrees F for 20 minutes, then turn up the temperature to 300 degrees F for the final ten minutes to clarify the TLS.

Finally, you can remove your "stained glass" piece from the glass sheet you've been working on.

You can leave the piece as it is, or you can embellish the frame with faux patinas or enhancing paints. You can use it as a window cling, as seen here, or you can hang it from the loop you created in the hanger.

Many variations are possible at any step along the way. Instead of oil paints, you can tint or color the clay with mica powders, metallic powders, pastel dust from soft or oil pastels, crayon shavings, pieces of colored clay, glass beads chopped flower petals, and glitters, to name just a few!