The Glass Painting Book

Just beginning glass painting and swayed by the previous glowing reviews, I purchased a copy of "The Glass Painting Book" by Jane Dunsterville. Also, the photo of the gorgeous painted mirror on the back cover certainly helped! I will say that I am VERY disappointed as the book didn't meet my expections.Since this book is geared towards "the first-time glass painter", I anticipated some discussion about different kinds of glass paints, different techniques, ideas, etc. The book only glosses over these introductory subjects.For example, in her "Materials and Equipment" section, she discusses different kinds of glass paints. Some paints need baking and some are air drying only, or that some are more translucent than others. This is all fine and good, but I want to know what types and brands of paint are currently on the market, what are the benefits of using one kind over another, how many looks can I achieve (like stained glass), etc. There is a supplier index in the back, and it may be useful to those people residing in the UK, but there is only ONE supplier listed for the US. And I didn't realize QVC was a major supplier of glass paints to the US! NOT!Introductory paint projects should be written as scientific experiments: very detailed and easy to replicate. This is not the author's approach. She doesn't even tell you the color paints needed or how to replicate the "look" of the project. For the painted mirror project (as pictured on the back cover) she states a GENERAL list of materials (mirror, your design, glass paints, etc). There is NO instruction on technique in the project steps! They are trivial ... clean mirror, transfer design, paint over black outline, etc. I suppose the author relies soley on the 1-2 pages in which she discusses techniques in the beginning of the book. But how some of the projects looks are achieved remain a mystery as many of the "techniques" discussed should not be categorized as such. Cleaning the glass and paint smudges are not painting "techniques". The author gives artistic license to the new student prematurely by advising to "experiment" which actually disguises the lack of teaching direction from the author.On the upside, the book has beautiful pictures of the projects and useful design stencils.Overall, I do not recommend this book. I was very disappointed especially given the previous reviews. I have learned more about beginning glass painting on my own than through this book.

These instructions were easy to follow and this volume answered any questipns you might pose I strongly recommend it

I found this book to be very useful and informative

Excellent! Good, fast service from the seller. The book contains many gorgeous project ideas and easy instructions. The only difficulty is that since it is by an English writer, the products used are not the same as are available here in the U.S. But with a little research and experimentation, all the ideas do translate!

Has soon good points on glass painting.

Book is in great shape, but the projects aren't really toward my liking.

I bought this used so the price was very good and it gives lots of good information about glass painting.

Very good book, i must have really been pressed by the cover, as I accidently purchased twice. Nice book

Shipping was great but the book is not that great. I didn't find anything worth painting in it.

Interesting

great

This is a great hard back book of glass painting, from 1996-1998 as it was re published 3 times, which is unusual for craft books, but it just shows how popular this book was I expect.This book isn't bogged down with too much information I'm glad to say.There are tons of pictures to trace off. For the big projects you will need to have them professionally copied.The pictures are varied, for different ages, children included. I will say the pictures do reflect the period the book was published, but some styles carry through ok.I am a multi skilled crafter. I have done a lot of glass painting at home, decorating large windows, doors and mirrors.I bought this book as I also do silk painting, and I make silk painted greeting cards and was looking for some fun motifs I could use. Books like these are very handy as they can span many different crafts.I gave it 3 stars only because the author decided to print the motifs on coloured paper which is a bit dark when trying to trace! This will make tracing the designs more tricky than plan black on white paper specially for children, or people with any visual impairment. To over come this hopefully, it may be best to photo copy the designs, and attached that to your glass work, or plastic OHP (overhead projector) sheets, which can be trimmed off with scissors after.Happy crafting!

I was very disappointed with this book, it had an inscription in the front and said 80p in the corner. The pages were damp and I had to separate them, luckily the book was for me and not a gift otherwise I would have returned it.