Village fete - glass jar painting stall

shell_girl

If you do go ahead with glass painting I would suggest that you prepare several beforehand by doing the lead outline yourself, and letting people choose a design to fill in themselves. I say this as if it's a popular stall you will very quickly find yourself with a queue of kids clamouring for a design to be drawn on by you, or all waiting for the liner. Even if you have a few liners and let people use them, it will take a while for each person to do their own design.

I second the person above who suggested acetate rather than glass.

It's quite a fiddly thing to do to be honest. Have you thought about getting plain canvas shopper bags and fabric paint? I did this as a free activity for kids recently and it was incredibly popular. You could also grab a load of plain value kids t shirts/ vest tops from a supermarket and paint these.

Flowers23

I have done lots of glass painting in the past. Although I really enjoy it, it does require a steady hand. I think many young children would struggle to be honest, it is not really something that is easy to pick up and do on the spur of the moment. Also, the paints are quite pricey.

meritaten

I have come back because I really think its a BAD idea for little ones to paint on glass! its going to be expensive to get the equipment (I know how much those little bottles of glass paint cost and the brushes cannot be cheap ones - I tried those and effect was awful!)
If you want to do a painting stall then the cheapest way would be to get some acetate sheets (ebay is good and some office supply stores sell them, craft stores can be expensive but check out www.createandcraft.tv you may find its cheaper to buy all the supplies on there), buy a 3 inch circle cutter (otherwise it will take you HOURS to cut out enough) and a hole punch. For paint use poster paint mixed with PVA glue (ordinary is ok but 'dries clear' is much better!). Then run the acetate sheets through the printer with SIMPLE designs on them about six to a standard A4 sheet. Cut out your circles, Then you can use the cheaper paintbrushes and they only take about half hour to dry. punch a circle on top and buy lots of thin cord for them to be hung up. you will have to buy some sticky labels to label each childs work to identify to take home later. I hope these instructions are clear enough - its not easy to explain artwork in words!!!! but I have done these with 4 yr olds and the results were pleasing to the kids anyway!

balletshoes

if there isn't something already similar being done at your event, I'd second the canvas/fabric painting - my kids did bags and pencil cases at fairs a couple of years ago, they loved it.

Eliza_2

I think after all this advice I might go back and tell them it isn't a good idea. I'm rubbish at anything vaguely art or crafty anyway. It was a great success at the big event we saw it at, with no mishaps and the kids loved it, they weren't at all bothered that their works of art were merely splodges, sorry patterns.

If the organisers decide not to go with this, I'll probably be sent back to find an alternative so thanks to those who have made suggestions. Thanks again.

meritaten

Eliza - at a village fete the kids need something they can take away with them, and is cheap for the organisers. But kids do like to paint and glue and use shiny things etc. if you want to do something like that, then do paper masks perhaps, with pots of sequins, feathers, faux gems. stuck on with glue sticks or pva. its a suggestion you can put to the committee. the acetate suncatchers could work too - it depends on how much prep you are prepared to do. dont be discouraged - kids love crafts and there are loads of ways kids can craft without it costing a fortune to set up. You are on the net so search for kids crafts - fete crafts - free crafts - there are ideas out there. a few hours research and you may hit on the perfect one for YOUR fete!

Violetta_2

What about these suncatchers? the paint's aren't cheap though at £12.30 a set.
The pen's are only £2.30 though,which is a bit better.

bestpud

I don't see any problem with children painting a glass jar! Have we really got to a point where people see danger in everything?

DD has done some with patterns made from stuck on tissue paper instead of paints - might be an option for younger children?

I've never seen a child fall on a jar or bottle from local fetes. Worst outcome is they drop it and it smashes, but tbh, it is more likely to crack or chip instead.

Looby_Lou

We've just done this at a local museum/art gallery. They had collected lots of jars and old glasses in different shapes and sizes. They had different pictures of the size to go inside the jars, and they had permanent markers to draw outlines on. For paint they had poster paint mixed in with PVA glue (so not expensive glass paints). They also had glitter (both glitter glue and powder) as well as tissue paper to stick on and shinies. Poundland have some cheap bags of sequins in different colours. PVA glue can be bought cheaply in v large containers as wood glue from DIY places.

As long as the kids sit down and are not running around then I can not see there is any safety problem for primary school age children

emg

Although I don't see a problem with glass jars, this website do lots of craft packs for kids and seem to have lots of suncatchers and other acrylic 'glass' items for painting (do a search on glass painting). They also have pens instead of painst which might be easier, especially if you are not that arty yourself. Depends on the type of event you are running but if the organisers are willing to spend a bit of money to set up the stall I'm sure you could easily make a good profit using some of this stuff.