Reverse Painted Tabletop/Wine Tasting Bar

Paint a glass tabletop with this reverse-painting technique.

That's Clever! : Episode HCLVR-239 -- More Projects »
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Project by Kay Young from Blair, Neb.
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Kay Young has dabbled in all kinds of art forms and expressions. In college she loved weaving so much she had a dream of raising llamas to make her own wool. Instead, she got married, had three kids and taught all kinds of art classes through places like the local parks department—including painting. About 10 years ago she started dabbling in the art of reverse-painting on glass and found a wonderful and successful niche.

Materials:

glass tabletop
sponges
paintbrushes
hair dryer
glass enamel paints
handpainted collage paper
decoupage medium
craft glue
gold leaf foil and adhesive
detail drawing squeeze bottle with writing tip
newsprint
pencil
acrylic sheeting
towel
wood frame

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Figure A
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Figure B
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Figure C
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Figure D
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Figure E
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Figure F
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Figure G
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Figure H
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Figure I
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Figure J
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Figure K
Steps:

1. Wash the glass to remove any dirt and dry thoroughly.

2. Cut a piece of newsprint paper to exactly cover the tabletop glass. Fold the newsprint into equal squares, which will serve as a registering/scale drawing guide (figure A).

3. Draw the tabletop design onto the newsprint paper (figure B).

4. Put the drawing under the clear glass tabletop to refer to as you reverse paint.

5. Paint the gold leaf adhesive in desired areas first. The glue needs to dry overnight to a clear finish (figure C).

6. Paint black border squares for the checkerboard edge of the tabletop (figure D).

7. Cut out the collaged paper designs and draw or paint details on them.

8. Cover the collage paper with decoupage medium on both sides in a very thin coat. Let dry.

9. Using a squeeze bottle with a drawing tip, draw on desired black designs such as dots, squiggles and outlines for the grape clusters and the leaves (figure E). Let dry. Cover the whole top with a towel and blow dry on high heat under the towel to set the lines. Dry for about 15-20 minutes to set and harden.

10. Glue the paper cutouts into a desired arrangement on the tabletop.

11. Paint desired black stripes on the background.

12. Attach the gold leaf foil onto the gold leaf glue areas (figure F).

13. Sponge over the black squares with green metallic paint for a border (figure G).

14. Lightly brush on the four thin layers of color to the leaves and the grape clusters (figure H). When dry, cover with a dark background color (figure I).

15. Following the paper design fill in the rest of the background (figure J). Comb textures or sponge textures (figure K) in a desired fashion and apply a background coat.

16. When everything is completely dry, apply 1-3 coats of black glass enamel paint to finish the reverse-painted tabletop/wine tasting bar.

17. Have a thin layer of clear acrylic sheeting cut to fit under the reverse painted glass tabletop.

18. Adhere a mitered frame to hold the acrylic and the reverse-painted glass tabletop together.

Website: www.KayYoungGlassware.com

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