How to make a glass mirror?

A. Hi Irene. If you want a mirror effect behind glass, I think you want the actual silvering actual process that has been used for that for a couple of centuries, and modified by John Brashear as the Brashear process, rather than trying to formulate a paint to do a poor imitation of it.

Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hello Irene,
I am sorry I did not see your question before. At Angel Gilding we sell the chemicals you need to make a mirror but the import duties in Brazil are so high that we do not often ship there.
One alternative is to buy a commercial mirror, remove the backing paint with paint stripper, and buff off the silver you do not want with extra fine pumice. You would have to plan your art work so you know just where you want the mirrored section to be first.
A final thought is to look for metallic fingernail polish and perhaps thin it with acetone. It would not be as reflective as a real mirror but it might give you the result you want.

A. Hello Irene Goldberg!

This is sort of long because, as a glass (and other media!) artist/"maker" myself, I have several ideas that might be helpful.

For the answer kindly given by Sarah King, rather than stripping all of the paint off of a mirror, you could get some small mirrors or even broken pieces and try some blocking/stencil/"batik"-type techniques:
[1] it's my impression that dried Acrylic paints and resins are resistant to most paint thinners - so it might be an idea to try coating just the areas of mirror you want to retain, and removing the mirror from the rest;
[2] experiment using frisket/liquid rubber, masking tape, or "painter's tape" (that tape that's used to block off areas of walls/baseboards during painting, and yet low-adhesion so it doesn't strip the areas not to be painted).

If you work the paint-thinner/remover gently, in small amounts using a cotton ball or gauze pad or similar (with ALL precautions against fumes of course!), you can see whether any of those methods works for you.

Also, though, you did mention applying the mirror-effect as the last step, so here are some ideas to try on small pieces of glass to see whether they work:

[1] Try paint used on plastic airplane models and the like - I mention that because one particular brand has SUPER-shiny metallic paints. Two potential problems: it only comes in *tiny* little jars, maybe about 10 ml or so if I recall correctly; and I have no idea whether it "sticks" to glass. On the other hand, if I recall correctly (it's been many years...), it does make a good tough film, and you can most likely coat it with clear acrylic to "tie it into" the rest of the acrylic paints.
[2] Application of metallic sheet/film.

I have several things to try regarding [2].

- If you don't mind iridescence, the metal film can be peeled off of a CD, placed onto a surface, and painted over with acrylic paint or resin to give it a firm backing, and another coat to, again, tie it into the neighboring acrylic colors. Something I know works (because I just tried it out of curiosity!) is:
Score around the rim of a CD; very firmly stick a piece of tape to remove a strip from the center to the scored edge; use a thick layer of ultra-hardening Clear Nail Polish to coat the area you want to remove; when it's dry to the touch, run a rounded hobby-knife blade or rounded sharp small pocket knife slowly and smoothly across the entire edge to *gently* tease the desired section away from the plastic disk. This did stick electrostatically to the inside of a flat-sided test-jar I rubbed on the carpet to hopefully increase the charge, so I assume it also will stick to window glass. Start from one edge and gently press onto the desired section of the glass. It can then be stabilized as desired.

Even better:
Actual metal leaf should be electrostaticaly attracted to glass with enough "hold" to allow you to pour acrylic medium or resin over it "in place" / "in situ". I did get this to work on the inside of the above-mentioned test jar using 24Karat Edible Gold Leaf that I coated with a drop of that Ultra-Hard Nail Polish I mentioned above. I assume it should also work with Silver leaf sheets and Copper leaf sheets.

The reason I say to ask about "electrostatic adhesion" is that, although acrylic "size" (I don't know why they call leafing glue "size" or "sizing") can be applied to just about any surface, I don't know whether it would dry with enough clarity to suit your needs. BUT, if it will "stick" enough to stay while being coated with some liquid acrylic, you will just have the glass and the metal leaf with nothing in-between.

LASTLY (yes, there really is an end to this tome, LOL!), if you have a good Artist's Supplies shop you can get to, consider looking into whether they sell powdered metals and other gilding-related supplies. If so, they should be able to recommend an appropriate range of materials and techniques. The reason I thought of powdered metals is that they're compatible with various techniques - I've used thin suspensions of them in clear-coat applied in many thin layers to make a "3-D" type of coating. ALSO, if I remember correctly, the recommended binder for making your own "metal leafing paint" is a form of acrylic. It might even be the same thing that's used to "stick" the tiny glass reflective balls to movie screens and artwork.

OK, that's all that I could come up with.

I hope you find something that works for you! :)

A. Go to shops for some adhesive tape e.g 3M which can apply to glass surface like a surface, sometime we call it one way see through mirror.

A. Dear sir,

Silver has to be powder coated to get a mirror.

Regards,

A. See letter 9550 for more info, please, Chris. The time proven method is the Brashear process: simultaneously spraying silver nitrate and a reducing agent. After applying the silver, a black paint is put on the mirror to exclude air from reacting with it. Good luck.