I love working with metallic leaf and foils and decided that a stencil on the glass shelf on this end table would be really pretty. I measured the glass and went to the modellodesigns.com website to search for a stencil pattern. I didn’t want anything too traditional so when I saw this design, I thought it would be perfect.
Modello stencils can be custom-ordered to fit the size of any project. There are so many to choose from!
The variegated metallic leaf is from jerrysartarama.com. Metallic leaf comes in “books” of 25 sheets that are 5″ x 5″. The most common colors are gold, silver and copper. It’s very delicate and needs to be handled carefully because is can easily fall apart. Here is a photo of the variegated leaf I ordered from the website
I was expecting more coppery browns, golds and a few colors; what I got was an array of beautiful colors that really make the pattern stand out! Pleasantly surprised.
Before
After
The stencil has a back, a front and a middle. It’s a vinyl stencil that is thrown away after use. After removing part of the backing, I placed the stencil on the back side of the glass and carefully pulled off the rest of the backing. I then rolled on a couple of coats of Wunda Size which allows the metallic leaf to adhere to the glass. It took about 6 sheets of leaf to cover the design. Once all the leaf was applied, I took it down to my workshop and sealed the design with two coats of a silver spray paint. After that dried, I carefully peeled off the vinyl stencil and discarded it.
It was hard to take a picture and be able to show all the beautiful colors without getting a lot of glare. There’s green, blue, copper, gold, silver, and even a little purple! Gorgeous.