3D Printed Faux Stained Glass With Resin

Stained glass is a beautiful art medium, but can be quite expensive, not to mention fragile. Definitely not safe for households with small children or clumsy people. This project shows you how to make a fake stained glass art using a 3D printed outline and coloured resin.

Once finished, it can be hanged on the window or a wall, both work great, but create completely different effects.

3D printer

clear resin + colourants

spray paint (black, silver, gold, brass) to paint the frame and tough, spray-on varnish

disposables: small cups, stirrers, toothpicks

pvc tape or strong masking tape

milliput putty (if you print large frame in part

Find your stained glass design online. There are a lot of websites with downloadable PDFs, have a look at pinterest for more modern, unconventional designs or design something yourself.

I downloaded my butterfly from a colouring book, but it turned out that the outline was too thin for 3D printing. I thickened the outline of the butterfly by hand, scanned it and converted JPG into SVG (https://convertio.co/jpg-svg/). I used Tinkercad to convert SVG file into STL.

I wanted the butterfly to be rather large but my 3D printer's bed is too small, so I had to cut the object in half and print it separately.

My print was quite messy, so I took a small scalpel and cleaned it up. I used milliput to connect two halves and left it to dry before I sanded it and smoothed the putty to blend it in with the frame.

I wasn't sure if I wanted black or metallic, in the end I painted it with black acrylic and then changed my mind and spray painted it metallic. To protect it from any scratches I also sprayed a layer of tough, non-yellowing varnish.

Before I started pouring resin I had to test it to find out what surface will be best to use. Resin drop on the left cured on a sheet of self adhesive plastic ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/Style-Adhesive-Sticky-Pla...) and ended up being clear and see-through; resin drop on the right I left to cure on a sheet of waxed baking paper and it came out cloudy and not at all see-through.

I applied a layer of plastic film on my work surface, placed the butterfly frame on top and used pva tape to keep it flush and secure. I mixed and poured small quantities of resin, starting from the middle of the frame and slowly moving outwards. I poured next colour once last one was set to make sure it didn't leak.

I continued mixing different colours and filing the frame outwards. I tried to keep the amount of resin level with the edges of the frame.

You can add things like glitter or small beads to the resin to make it more interesting. Or experiment with swirling different colours or shades.

Once resin is cured, I used a thin, rigid plastic spatula to help peel the butterfly off the plastic sheet. I added a thread to the frame so I could hang it. It didn't need any cleaning or polishing, was good to hang immediately.