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Santa Barbara Design Studios say they have aimed to create beautiful as well as top quality gifts since 1976.  One glassware artist they feature is Lolita, who grew up in Virginia and describes herself as coming “from a long line of family tinkerers”. As well as wine glasses, this artist also  hand paints a range of other glasses and products, such as, wine bottle stoppers, decanters, georgeous martina glasses, shot glasses, coasters and glass ornaments. A unique and delightful feature of her glasses is the inclusion of recipes on the base of the glasses. Wine  glasses are supplied in decorated gift boxes.

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Hand painted wine glasses by Beautiful Glassware. Artist Libbey Raenell creates the hand painted art on glass. Each is one-of-a-kind and signed.

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When you are looking for that special present for somebody then obviously a set of Hand Painted Wine Glasses can be considered an excellent present. However you can make them even more special by personalising wine glasses for spcific interests that the recipient may have.

Personalised wine glasses can come in many forms from the simple initialling of the wine glasses with stenciled letters to the more elaborate portraits of the recipient. It really depends on how cheesy you want the gift to be.

How to choose the theme for the personalisation of the glasses is relatively simple. You need to think about the preferences of the person who will be receiving the gift, their interests, what they love to do, how old they are, what they will be using the glasses for and where they will probably be displayed are just some of the considerations.

I like to personalise wine glasses by doing a combination method, using rather elaborate writing for the initials of the recipient, or the full name if it is not too long, and adding a design around it. That design can depend on the name or initials or can be totally independent of them. My personal preference is to incorporate the letters or name into the design so that it all flows naturally.

The painting of portraits is fraught with probelms as the term “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” has never been more relevant. People have an idea of what they look like and you can clash with that self image when painting their portrait so it is best to avoid this in order to avoid disappointment (Also your art skills or those of the artist commissioned to do it need to be stunning)

So a couple of suggestions to finish off when hand painting wine glasses. My personal preference is to use initials rather than names. Get a design that complements the letters well. Combine the two into an excellent and flowing design. If this sounds too much like hard work or even if that is not within your scope then choose a gift using the same criteria. The majority of companies producing hand painted wine glasses will work with your requests.

Happy designing.

Technorati Tags: Designs on Hand Painted Wine Glasses, Hand Painted Wine Glasses, Long stemmed wine glasses, Painted wine galsses, Painting wine glasses, Personalised Wine Glasses, Stencil work on glass

What you decide to put on your hand painted wine glasses is of course an important consideration. You may be struggling for ideas to start off with but a quick search on the internet will help you to be brimming over with ideas born out of those searches.

The usual designs include those you can see on this page; grapevines, flowing branches, letter designs, wording and silhouettes. Most of these can be done using a combination of stencils and freehand techniques. You could also design things that are specific to the person receiving the gift. For example if they are a cat lover then designs involving cats are relatively easy to do. If you are doing the painting yourself as opposed to buying the gift then make sure to get a signature or logo to place on the base of the glass. This can be very useful when growing your business. Allied to a set of business cards they can be the best adverts for your new sideline. Give ten business cards with each gift so that your clients can become your referrers when their friends drink from them.

One of the most novel ways of decorating wine glasses is by composing a poem and painting this onto the glass. A haiku totally relevant to the person who you are giving the gift to shows a great degree of thought has gone into the gift and therefore it will be more greatly appreciated. Examples of wine Haikus can be found in all their weird and wonderful forms at this site but here are a couple of examples;

A rare butterfly Confronting the infinite Beside a rainbow Like a cheap poster Of a late Van Gogh painting One gets the idea

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Hand Painted Wine Glasses as an Income Stream

Many times I had thought it would be nice to get somebody some hand painted wine glasses as a gift. I actually acted on the impulse eventually and started to earn small amounts of money from handmade gifts by painting wine glasses for friends and family and then moving onto small gift shops and businesses. It isn’t a life changing amount but it helps.

Basically the story is as follows. A friend had a wedding coming up and I was really hard up at the time, struggling to make ends meet. I am a great wine lover and had plenty of wine glasses at home some of which were still in the box not having being used. Put this together with some art materials and an idea emerged. I couldn’t afford to pay for something lavish and the wedding was  going to be rather posh so I thought that using my creativity might be better. It was that afternoon that I started painting wine glasses. Many glasses were thrown out in the first few attempts because they just didn’t look right. Painting on a curved surface isn’t that easy for the beginner. Nevertheless I eventually got a design I liked and was able to approve it to myself in a “his and hers” design that looked quite chic. I got a presentation box and ribbons that was lying around too in the storeroom and used a shredder to make paper spaghetti to lay the glasses in. By the end I was quite proud of my presentation. Well, it turns out they loved them and they are still on display at their house and used regularly whenever there is an event to celebrate. Others at the wedding liked the gift too and I got a few small commissions to start with, I thought mainly out of pity but it wasn’t. People offered decent amounts of money as each design was unique. Soon I had discovered the power of stencils and my own designs which I can mix and match for creating different looks for each commission. If you fancy turning your hand to making some Hand Painted Wine Glasses keep following the blog to get more tips and how to’s.  We will also be covering how to paint other items decoratively, which is where I have branched out to aswell. You may be able to make yourself a little sum each time too to keep the wolf from the door. If all you want to know is where to buy them then don’t worry because we will also have this information on the site

Technorati Tags: Gifts, Hand Painted Wine Glasses, Painted Wine Glasses, Painting wine glasses

Hand Painted Wine Glasses

If you want to give someone a special gift that says more about you and your relationship than just, “I went out and blew some cash on something you will say thanks for and remember for about ten minutes.” then you could do worse than buying some decent wine glasses and painting them. Hand Painted Wine Glasses or any other hand painted items demonstrate a little more thought in the selection of the present.

You don’t even have to be too artistic because you can take the lazy route by outsourcing the job to the best painter in the family. Choose a normal wine glass or wine glasses to paint and get them painted for you. You just need to invent a design or an inscription. Painting onto glasses is a rather skilled job but there are tools available to help and even young children can manage it to a greater or lesser degree and as long as they are careful because this is glass and usually wine glasses are a tad delicate. Wine glasses painted with children’s designs can be a fantastic and moving gift that lasts a long time for a parent or relative.

So what do you need to do the job? Firstly, you need a Wine Glass, at least that much is obvious. Usually you will get a long stemmed wine glass so again the need to take care must be stressed again even though it is obvious. You will need brushes of course and a fine brush is usually better with wine glass painting as we usually want to have a delicate piece of work rather than having broad brush strokes.

The paint required is also very important of course. You will need ceramic paints or stained glass paints in a variety of colours. This ensures that there will be little flaking, you may also want to overlay a glaze at the end of the job to give the design more permanence, and also gives it little or no chance of mixing with the wine, although this shouldn’t really happen as the intention is generally to paint the outside of the glass. These are the basics, then there are the optional extras.

If you don’t want to use up about 10 glasses on catastrophic experiments then it is usually a good idea to get some stencils to work with. However for a more personal touch the more artistic among you, or those with more artistic children, can do it freehand. If you decide to work with stencils then you will probably need some masking tape or builder’s tape to hold it in place (What the builder will say about you using his tape I don’t know)

So let’s assume that you use a stencil. You need to tape the stencil design onto your glass and then fill around the outline part of the design with the ceramic paint. You do this quite heavily. If you are working with lines then ignore the next part. If you infill, then the infill should be lighter than the outline to give the project depth. Importantly, if you are using a second colour or more colours then make sure to wait for the first coat to dry before continuing.

Once done and dried take off the stencil and repeat with the next glass the same process until you have finished all of the hand painted wine glasses that you want to do.  This will make a remarkably cheap gift that looks rather classy and exclusive. The personal touch adds to the enjoyment of both the gift and the wine after.

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