Glass Paint Comparison

Watch the video here.

I have been planning to do this video and blog post for a while but hadn't gotten around to it. I decided that the time had to come to get myself in gear and get this done because I have heard reports from several people that their Michael's stores are in the process of discontinuing the Gallery Glass that we all use so much.

So far I am happy to report that the Michael's I shop at has not started to discontinue their supply.

The reason I wanted to do this comparison in the first place was that I had noticed that there are currently 3 brands of glass paint in my local craft store and I wanted to know for myself how they compared. I decided to do this as a video/ blog post because I thought you might find the process I use to test this kind of thing helpful. Also hopefully the results will be useful to you also.

The brands of paint I am testing today are: Gallery Glass, Martha Stewart crafts, and Deco Art Glass Stain. I kept the test to 2 colors from each line. Since the 2 colors of Gallery Glass I use the most are Amber and Clear I was hoping to test those. However, only Gallery Glass has an Amber. Both of the other brands have an orange and brown and Amber falls in between those two colors. Since I already had a brown in the Deco Art brand I chose to try the orange color in Martha Stewart. The prices of the 3 brands were comparable at my store with Gallery Glass at $2.79, Deco Art at $2.99 and the Maths Stewart didn't have a shelf tag but rang up at $2.44 on sale (30% off regular price, you can do the math) 

 

I didn't really like the packaging on the Martha Stewart brand because it seemed to be overkill. The bottles were both shrink wrapped and there was a paper/foil seal on the bottle. Also the opening on the actual bottle is really small as is the opening on the nozzle top.

The Deco Art just had the paper/foil seal on the actual bottle top and I think that is sufficient.

If I remember correctly Gallery Glass just has the shrink wrap not the paper/foil seal.

As for the openings of the nozzles on the bottles the Gallery Glass seems to be the middle sized. The Deco Art is a bit large and I can see where the product could come out too fast from the bottle. On the other end of the spectrum the Martha Stewart nozzle is really too small. I actually had trouble getting the product even out of the bottle.

To set up for the test I decided that the bacon and fried eggs that I made recently would be good tests for the paints. I mentally divided up a paper plate into 3 areas and put one egg and one slice of bacon cane in each area. I used some TLS to adhere the clay to the plate so they will stay in place after baking so even if I manage to drop the plate I will still know for sure which is which.

After the clay was baked and cooled I labeled the three sets of clay with the initials of the product. Any notes you need to keep your info straight works here. I do the same thing when I am testing color mixtures of clay but I write down the colors or brands of clay used.

Next step was to apply the paint to the clay pieces. I used my finger being sure to clean up between colors/brands with a wet wipe.

Now we needed to just wait for the paints to dry. I found no information on the bottles on how much time to expect this to take so I just had to wait and check back every once in a while.

The paints all were dry in a short time I'm not sure how long it took since I had to leave the house to run some errands and all were dry when I returned.

The Gallery Glass is definitely the winner in this test. It dries smooth, the color is just what I need for projects, etc.

 

Gallery Glass sample as applied

Gallery Glass sample after drying is complete

The Martha Stewart, the dried finish on this one is a bit on the grainy side and I really wish it had a bit more shine. The biggest downfall though is the lack of an amber color. Also I really dislike the bottle! This one runs at a distant 2^nd to the Gallery Glass.

Martha Stewart as applied

Martha Stewart after drying is complete

The Deco Art is really grainy in my opinion when dry, for some uses that might be a good thing but not for the applications we are testing today. I do prefer the bottle but because of the texture of the product once I dry I have to place it last in the ratings.

Deco Art as applied

Deco Art after drying is complete

I hope this was helpful to you, if there are other products you would like to see me test let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Also as a side note, I am looking into other sources for Gallery Glass for all of you. If it does become harder to locate I have a few ideas but that is in the future.