Mandala Style Glass Painted Lightcatcher.

The Mandala style glass painted lightcatcher (or suncatcher if you prefer) is based on a large peel off design by Je Je. Some people dislike using peel offs in their glass painting but I find the can give you a great  outline. Obviously the outline is quite “low” so you need to take extra care when painting it.

The large peeloff designs come in individual packs and there are eight different ones to choose from. Je Je also do a smaller lightcatcher design and you get 4 of these smaller ones in the pack. (one sheet with four designs on it).

The larger designs are certainly easier to paint than the smaller ones but even within the larger designs there are some which are more difficult than others!

Mandala Style Glass Painted Lightcatcher.

Material and Equipment for making the LIghtcatcher.

• One large peel off design.
• Sheet of thick glass painting film (or an equivalent material which will take the glass paint and is cutable).
• Glass Paints. (Can be waterbased or solvent be should be the flowing type).
• Paint Brush.
• Cotton thread/fishing wire.
• Transfer film (if available).
• Candle
• Paint Brush.
• Scissors.
• Craft Knife.

Technique.

The technique is actually very simple but we shall go through it quickly.

• Take any protective cover off at least one side of your film and give the whole thing a wash in soapy water and then rinse. Leave to dry.
• Scan or sketch out a copy of the design. Work out you colour scheme and have a copy by you to refer to when painting.
• Transfer the Peel off onto the film. Ensure this is the side with no cover on. We did this by using transfer film to start it off. Another method is to remove the peel off from its backing and leave it upside down on the table. You can the place the film down on top of it.
• Use your craft knife to remove any remaining bit from the design which should be there.
• Spend a bit of time ensuring the peeloff is stuck properly to your film. You don’t want any gaps.
• Paint the design one colour at a time. You should let each colour go at least tacky dry before you start the next. To ensure we kept to a design and didn’t paint the wrong areas in the wrong colour, we printed off a colour copy of the design which we could continually refer to.
• Once we had finished and the paint had dried we cut the lightcatcher out. Two important things to note. Firstly we left some film at the top to act as a hanger. Secondly, you don’t have to cut out every little bit. The film is transparent so you can leave little fiddly bits on.
• Melt a hole in your hanger tag and thread the cotton thread/fishnig wire through it in a loop.
• If you  have left it on now if the time to remove any covering from the back of your film!

Summery.

I enjoyed making this Mandala Style Glass Painted Lightcatcher. The peel off meant I didn’t have to worry about outlining and gave it a really professional finish. The actually painting was a bit fiddly but saying that I found it strangely relaxing!

There are other types of peel off available from Je Je and we will be making a dream-catcher from one of these in a later project.