Mermaid Suncatcher

by Kathie Camara

As I’ve stated before, I play with fused glass A LOT.  I recently made up some suncatcher blanks that I intend to use at a painting convention that is coming up soon.  I made them by inserting the hooks and fusing the two pieces of glass together in my kiln so that students could etch and paint on the blank and it wouldn’t need to be transported back to my home studio and fused.  The students can etch, paint, and take the finished Fused Glass suncatcher home with them.  The first blanks that I made were clear.  I wanted to give students an option to have a colored background, so I painted the blanks with a special glass bubble paint.  It came out really nice.  

Here’s what I did:

I designed a mermaid pattern, cut it out on my Silhouette machine, and after cleaning the glass with alcohol, I attached it to the glass blank.  After removing the parts of the stencil that needed to be etched, I applied the Etchall etching cream and set my timer for 8 minutes.  After 8 minutes, I moved the cream around to make sure I had applied it correctly, then I waited another 7 minutes.  With the plastic stick tool, I scraped off the etching cream and put it back in the jar.  (YES, you can reuse this cream over and over?)   Then, I removed the outer stencil and wiped the glass off with an unscented baby wipe, polished it with a paper towel and washed and dried it thoroughly.

The etching came out so nice.  I then taped the mermaid pattern onto the back of the Suncatcher so I could see it through the glass.  I picked out my colors of DecoArt Glass Paint, and painted the mermaid.   The Etchall gave the glass just the right amount of ‘tooth’ to hold the DecoArt Glass Paint on the surface.  

The DecoArt Glass Paint can be baked in an oven to cure, but it can also be set aside for a couple of weeks and it cures to a hard, non scratch surface.  That’s what I always do.  I just put it aside to let it cure.  

The combination of the Etchall Cream and the DecoArt Glass Paint works so well together.  I am glad that I can share this method of painting with my students.

I will keep trying new projects so that I can share them with you in my blog.  Please let me know if you have any questions about these projects or if you have completed a project, send me a picture of your masterpiece.