Before it ever appeared on a piece of glass, a plate etch design was first etched onto a steel plate. While a few glass plants etched their own plates, this job was generally handled by an outside firm. The design was transferred from the plate onto the glass bell via transfer paper. With the design in place, the rest of the bell was once again covered in wax and dipped into an acid bath. Once removed from the acid and cleaned, the transferred design was in place.
Reverse painting is another striking technique employed to decorate glass bells.
Artists would use fine brushes and delicate strokes to paint beautiful scenes or designs upon the interior of the bell. The images were painted in reverse to appear correctly oriented when viewed from outside. Once finished, no clapper would be added to a reverse painted bell as it would mar the fragile, hand painted design . The Italian Millefiore technique from Murano involved applying small pieces of colored glass over the still hot glass body of the bell. Continually heating the glass and working the colors into place in stylized flower forms eventually merged the original glass and the colored pieces into one colorful layer.