Silver Stain Experiments Part 2

[Edit: No idea what this is still a draft. Publishing now, three years later!]

Phase 2 has actually turned up some successful blends!

Detailed below are tests I ran with pure silver, silver nitrate, copper sulfate, and silver sulfate as the active compounds. Binders included a new, "brand name" red ochre, yellow ochre, gum arabic, and brick dust. After doing a round of tests I came up with several new ideas, particularly where pure silver and copper sulfate are used, and had to do another set.

Some notes on the binders themselves:

Silver dust and gum arabic - Almost indistinguishable from pure silver dust. Film formed, gum arabic undoubtedly. Weird to see it plainly, but interesting to get a clear visual of the effects of gum arabic. I've noticed recently, when I added too much water to some matting paint, how there is a "thickness" to the water, as you stir the paint you can see some of the unmixed water jiggle and repel the paint until you force it to mix. I've not tried mixing paint with no gum arabic but I think I'll try it to confirm my thought that that is also the GA (rather than the paint). That may be what they refer to as "body" when talking about other binders mixed with water.

Brick dust - Probably needs to be even finer. Works well. I ground pot shards with a pestle and mortar, but I think I need to get it even finer. I'd love to get my hands on a ball mill to do this, but it's not in any shape period.

And a correction from "Part 1" in that I realized I'm slightly blind. As I began to tag and catalog my samples, I almost threw out a few pieces that didn't take. As I was getting ready to toss them I realized that the copper sulfate chip DID stain:

On two slides it's almost imperceptible (this picture above is not a very good example, but it shows up at least) but it was actually there. Because of this realization I tried a stronger mix of copper sulfate for this round. As detailed below in Sample 6 it didn't work out, but I have a good idea why not (temperature).


The stain samples prepared and drying:

A closer shot of the samples:

Silver nitrate and gum arabic made an incredibly pretty, deep orange color while drying. This continued to intensify as it dried, becoming a dark red

The samples after firing:

Sample 1 - Pure silver dust and gum arabic (1:6). Oddly enough, this did nothing. I suspect it takes a higher temperature to work. I know from Leap's book that pure silver leaf will leave a dark amber stain on glass, I can't imagine the powder not having the same effect. Later review of Leap's book indicated he fired his pure-silver tests at 1500°, a full 500° hotter than I did. I know what to try next, and may throw some more of sample 6 in with it.

Sample 2 - Silver nitrate and red ochre (this time from Vallejo pigments). Clear proof that there was an issue with the red ochre I bought before, this name brand sample didn't have the same hazy effect that the first sample left behind, ruining what results there might have been. Part of the sample is a little darker, but I suspect that may be related to how I used it (no blending, possibly imperfectly even surface allowing oxygen to get in, etc) rather than the mix. I consider this one a success!

Sample 3 - Silver nitrate and terracotta dust. A bit of research indicated most of the bricks before the 14th century would have been very similar to what we call terracotta. I bought a small planting pot, smashed it, and started grinding it into a powder. It seems to work quite well, actually. The one downside was that it must be ground very finely. Small "pinholes" are visible in the sample (close-up later in the post). This was caused by less well ground (larger) bits of the terracotta that inhibited the even spread of the silver nitrate. This also left behind a bit of hazing on the edge, but I again suspect it has to do with handling rather than the compound. I also consider this one a success.

Sample 4 - Silver nitrate and gum arabic. Oddly, this didn't work at all. No effect was left behind. Isenberg's book has a chapter on painting and a page on silver stain. It mentions that the "Reddish material" has minerals which pull the sodium out of the glass and allow the silver in. I find it hard to believe, but at the moment have no other explanation for this chip's complete lack of stain. The silver sulfate and copper sulfate chips, both mixed with gum arabic, had visible staining. Silver nitrate did not. The same book also states that "other silver salts" (presumably silver sulfate) are added to stain powders because nitrate is unpredictable and melts unevenly. I haven't seen that to be the case, yet, either.

Sample 5 - Silver nitrate and yellow ochre (vallejo). This mixture was twice as strong as the same combination I tested in "phase 1" and likewise is a much stronger color. This is 1 part silver nitrate to 3 parts ochre.

Sample 6 - Copper sulfate and gum arabic - This is a 1:6 strength mixture, better than what I had previously made. I discovered, just before pitching the last test chip, that copper sulfate actually had stained the glass. The compound was in such a small quantity that it was in the form of tiny specks. I mixed this more strongly and used more of it to try and get a more visible effect. I didn't get it, though again I got visible effects. I think this merits a higher temperature or longer soaking period.

Sample 7 - Silver dust and gum arabic, 1500°
Sample 8 - Silver foil pure, 1500°
Sample 9 - Copper sulfate and gum arabic, 1500°

 

A close-up of sample 5

 A close-up of sample 3

All 13 test chips I've fired so far

Lesson's Learned

Future Plans ("Phase 3")

Archery Tournament Trophy (A Day of Archery, 2015)

I decided to try working on my painting skills. I grabbed a tiny brush meant for painting minis, and built a small wooden bridge to rest my hand. I got to work:

 It's hard to tell how the lines are doing while tracing, at least for me. Once I removed the original image I was very, VERY pleased with the line work. It has a somewhat irregular, rustic feel but I was ok with that.

Matting, to remove highlights

Matting cleaned up

I'm particularly pleased with this leg. The knee was a great accident.

After silver staining. I also wanted to stain the rock at the archer's feet, for some kind of vertical balance, but I tried three times and it blended "away" from the line too much. I moved on without it.

The finished and framed piece, at the archery field.

Laurel Scroll of Dame Estelle de la Mer

Long, long ago a dear friend said "If I ever get elevated, I want you to do my scroll." It was a tremendous honor, considering she is one of the best scroll makers alive. Suddenly a few months ago Baronessa Estelle de la Mer was put on vigil and it took two days for the panic-screams to abate.

For the design, Estelle said she wanted something fairly simple, her device and a laurel wreath. No calligraphy (she wanted to make it painless on the scribe). She found a wreath she particularly liked (the border in the below picture) and I started working on understanding the shading of the pieces:

For the border I chose a green glass that looks like healthy vegetation. I think of it as a "living green"

I ran into one snag at this point. The pattern I had cobbled together had a somewhat indistinct cutline, and I tried to make it work. I do this too often, and I know it's a terrible idea. I then spent hours trying to grind all five pieces into complacency, and the results were terrible. The gaps were large, irregular. As minor as it seems, I was pleased that I eventually realized the right course was to transfer a clear cutline to new paper and scrap the first five. I was unhappy at having to scrap a square foot of clear, but I would have been infinitely unhappier to give my friend crap work for her elevation to the Laurel. The above picture is the recut pieces.

For the center roundel featuring her device, I could only come up with a few ways to do it. The first and obvious way is just piecing it together. Because her device has a complex line of division (a chief engrailed) and a charge over a line of division (a mullet of nine points) I thought the lead lines would be too much. Discussing it with Molly here at Pennsic, she suggests that it would have been fine, and that the mind would ignore the lead lines altogether (particularly if they were not straight "industrial" lines, a tip she received from my Laurel). I'm going to sketch out a few ideas for paint-less designs and see how I feel about them.

Another alternative (suggested by Kirsten, my laurel) would have been to use flashed glass for one of the two colors, and enamel in the other one. With the terrible lesson I got about this green enamel (See below), I would definitely use green flashed glass and put in the blue with enamel if I had to recreate this piece today.

My past experience with Reusche enamels has been hit or miss. The first time I used the sapphire blue enamel the results were amazing. I've previously done Estelle's albatross badge with it, and they worked flawlessly. The greens I've tried (two different ones) did not give me the results I desired at all. I did some research and found Fuse Master enamels that claimed to have almost the transparency of stained glass sheet and their sample pictures showed the vibrant colors I wanted. I ordered two and did some test pieces:

When I do a test chip for a new paint, I try it spread thin, and applied thickly to try and get a feel for the range of possibilities. They do turn out quite transparent; I couldn't get a pleasing picture of the heavy green test with my phone camera, but held up to the light it was comparable to a dark green piece of glass. The blue picture here shows it well (I used a bit of waste cloth/aida to get a pattern for demonstration, placed below the chips. Just know that the green at full-color is more transparent than this picture lets out).

I mixed these colors with Fuse Master's recommended "Water based medium" for painting, because I wanted to eliminate as many variables as possible. Oddly the ingredients list alcohol, and when I used the "few drops" suggested, it had almost no grip whatsoever. In the future I may try this with gum arabic, and I have an unfired test chip of the colors on opaque glass.

I started with the green half, for no particular reason, and applied the paint and blended with my badger blender. Then I began scratching out the clear and blue areas. I fired two layers of green, trying to build up to the emerald tone I was looking for. I switched to blue at one point, and simultaneously realized I could likely get sharper lines by using a mask to block out the design. So I did... mid piece.

Two layers of green enamel, just before I laid out the blue.

Lifting the mask from under the blue enamel

Unfortunately I realized one problem too late: the lines on the green portion are less clean, and the rays of the mullet (star) are shorter on that end. I scratched them out by slowly easing out to the edges of the shape and looking for the tracing template beneath the glass. It caused some inexact shapes. The rays created with the mask (which was copied directly off the template) were sharper and longer (more exact to the pattern) but thus different. The differences are a bit more apparent in some pictures. This is the piece going in for a firing:

You can see that the blue-side rays are stronger than the green side's. Here is another shot, while I was cleaning up the blue enamel before firing:

I worked on the laurel wreath at this point. I took the original image Estelle liked and tweaked it so that the cut lines would be evenly on the 45 degree marks. The original had an irregular spacing I don't care for. Here are the leaves painted, before firing:

The one on the right hasn't been cleaned up yet.

I'm still working on good brush technique, but after awhile I got a groove while painting these leaves. I was pretty pleased with how the lines were taking the exact form I wanted, the paint was mixed right where I wanted it. And once I had applied mat paint and begun shading:

The central roundel had three coats of green, and two coats of blue. I don't know if the blue is stronger naturally, or if I had just applied it heavier, but I didn't feel the need to try for more layers of it.

I noticed that the template gave me some grief while blending. The paint could pool a little more right alongside the template, and various variations on blending didn't alleviate that. In a high quality picture or in person you can see a slightly darker outline right along the edge of the mullet/star's rays on the blue side. I came to two realizations; I need larger palettes to get my paint mixed appropriately, and I should try and use a stencil (a suggestion from Molly)

The 3-green and 2-blue piece. I noticed that the enamels appear significantly darker against the opaque stone than when back-lit, prompting me to prepare test chips on opaque glass. I suspect that will give a richer color with fewer layers/firings. Update to follow.


I used my typical silver stain, fired to 1000 as usual. I had washed my other silver stain-only badger blender to improve its performance. I blended the stain but I thought at the time it wasn't as even as I liked. I wasn't sure if I used too little oil (my preferred stain medium) or my blending was poor. Either way, the results were shocking on two fronts:

Firing the piece to 1000 yielded a green that was blotchier than before (the green looked fairly regular), olive, and almost opaque. I was very unpleasantly surprised. I was also unhappy with the uneven stain. I decided to add more stain to try and balance it out, but was unsure about the green enamel. The blue didn't react poorly. I suspected that the green did not like the lower firing, but I didn't expect it to change. Firing it back up to 1250 (This brand of enamels indicate they can be used anywhere above a given range, and may be used while slumping etc, so I used my normal vitreous paint program) would overfire the silver stain, but might fix the green. I decided I would rather have overfired silver stain than keep the green, which I considered a totally unrecoverable mistake.

I was right on both accounts. I couldn't fix the uneven staining with more stain, and over firing it did exactly what was expected and created a darker stain and the characteristic mother-of -pearl scum. It's only visible in reflected light, so once the panel is in her window hopefully it's not as noticeable. Someone has suggested they will hold the scroll up in Midrealm court during Pennsic--the thought is mildly horrifying :)

I had a good talk with my Laurel about how to install the glass into the frame, as I didn't have the framing buttons that came with the oak frame. I settled on caulk (which was handy as I later needed to repair a trailer mirror for a friend and used it again).

After I handed it to Estelle, she pointed out I had caulked it into the frame backwards. *SIGH*. Fortunately an easy fix.

The completed scroll. Click for super-big picture.

Lessons Learned

The haze. It's not purple.

• A mask creates beautiful results, but needs to be used from the beginning for consistency.
• Molly suggested that I try and use a stencil instead of a mask (covering the opposite portion). That hadn't occurred to me, but is worth a try! That would enable me to blend evenly and avoid the "dark halo" the mask caused.
• Don't skimp on paint or stain and blend gently trying to conserve it.  Slather it on and blend it like a daiquiri that owes you money.
• Center painted borders a bit better (that is, double-check the design you are copying :) )
• Multiple firings might be changing the shape of the glass. Discuss with others...
• Watch carefully when you are clearing away matted paint/enamel. I've never noticed this problem before, so I wonder if it might be tied to enamels/this brand of enamels/this brand of enamels' weird alcohol-containing "water-based medium" but after clearing it away there was a haze of it left behind. I caught it via reflected light at one point, and had to get Q-tips and start really cleaning the glass for fear it would fire in and be visible. If you look closely you can see it in this picture, near the top

• A thought I had after is that, since the enamels say they mature somewhere around "1075-1150+" (I find it odd to give a range, and then 'or higher but...') with more time I could have tested firing the stain and enamel to a lower temperature that might not have treated the stain so badly, but which would have still given translucent enamel.
• As if I needed another reminder, you can't use a poor cut-line think "I can just make it work" because then you recut the project :)

The Arms of THL Petrona

In Progress (12/1/14), to be detailed later!

The Arms of Livith Northwode

In Progress (12/1/14), to be explained shortly!

Book Hoard: Stained Glass Primer Volumes 1 and 2

While teaching "Glass Cutting - All Levels" with Molly at Pennsic, she mentioned two books she recommends for new glass artists, different from the one I usually recommend. I grabbed them this week to look over.

Stained Glass Primer (Vol 1): The Basic Skills
Peter Mollica
4/5
All around an excellent book, in my opinion. As Molly had told our students, it IS dated. He described, at depth, the creation of leaded panels, and gives an overview of copper foil technique. His glossary is worth a read in it's own right. The dated portions are the tools and chemistry (well, and the typewritten text); he uses tools that are very traditional, and I think most people learning today use newer versions (lead cutting pliers instead of a lead knife, for example). He also references oleic acid as a flux, which works fine but is greasy and hard to clean up. More modern chemistry provides fluxes that are much easier to clean. The technique was all good, however! I appreciate the fact that he prefaces the book with "There are many alternatives, but this is what works for me" in essence. A skinny but packed book, I read it in under an hour.


Stained Glass Primer (Vol. 2): Advanced Skills and Annotated Bibliography
Peter Mollica
4/5
Also an excellent book. This one covers painting and staining heavily (Me being me, I noticed his date for the discovery of silver stain was 100+ years late. Research is a LOT easier for me today than it was for him in the 70s though!). He covers actually installing your window, which I've never seen before and, frankly, has always been a mystery for me. I've never tried to fit an existing embrasure because I had no idea how to do it and no one seems to cover it. He also discusses reinforcing, saddlebars, etc that is of definite interest to a SCAdian glassworker. He gives a recipe for easel wax but I'm not going anywhere near it...

He has some interesting books in his bibliography. I look forward to ordering some of them, too! Have to make Amazon Prime worth it.

SCA A&S 50 Challenge: Stained Glass Heraldry

1 - The Populace Badge of the Middle Kingdom

2 - Memorial Panel for Bryan (In progress)














 3 - Badge of THL Estelle de la Mer

4 - Cross Pattee (The badge of the Knight's Templar)

 5 - Populace Badge, Barony of White Waters, Lantern

6 - Roundel of the Arms of the Barony of White Waters

7 - Device of Alexander Adelbrecht von Markelingen

8 - House Shadow Dragon suncatcher

 9 - Vickie's device
10 - My device
11 - Ayreton Roundel
12 - Baroness' device
13 - Baroness' husband's device maybe
---
14 - Aggie's device
15 - Eadric's device
16 - Ed's device

 ---
17 - Dayle's device?
18 - Purple Fret suncatcher

19 - Estelle de la Mer Scarab Badge
20 - Dragon's heart
21 - Konrad
22 - Calybrid?
23 - Dougale
24 - N. Oaken Heraldic Display Prize - Tudor Rose Suncatcher
25 - Dr Best
26 - Savage Badge Plates
27 - Device of Konstantia Kaloethina

28 - Silver Acorn Scroll (The award badge is heraldry)
29-  Lilith Northwode

30 - Device of Mistress Elena de Vexin
31 - Device of Mistress Kirsten Thorsteinsdottir
32 - Chicago Star*

33 - ODH Scroll for Zafirah of the White Waters, Baroness White Waters

34 - Master Gailen Alric Ros
35 - Laurel Scroll for Mistress Estelle de la Mer
36 - Badge of Jean-Yves de Chierbourg
37 - Barony of Ayreton Populace Badges

38 - Barony of Shattered Crystal
39 - Archery Pheon Prizes

40 - Badge of Baroness GenRose de Glendalough 
41 - Badge or Device of Quenild of Mercia
42 - Arms of Mistress Gianetta Andreini da Vicenza
43 - Baroness Laurencia of Carlisle, OL
44 - Kendrick Cameron
45 - Petrona!
46 - Kriemhilt
47 - Catarina
48 - Crespine de la Vallee
49 - Purple Fret Scroll for Kat the Green
50 - Midrealm Plates/Bowls

* I rendered a Chicago Star in stained glass for my office. It's purely modern both in subject and construction. Still, it IS stained glass heraldry. I'm including it in the listing unless I reach 50 and have the time to substitute something I feel is more appropriate.