In 1927, a wayang collector visited Jro Dalang Diah, and brought him a glass painting from Japan depicting a woman wearing a kimono. The collector was eager to obtain a glass painting of a wayang, and asked Diah to make him one. Jro Dalang Diah's curiosity was piqued, and he began to seriously look into glass painting, learning the technique of painting in reverse ' (for the painting is viewed from the unpainted ed side), and becoming increasingly productive as he progressed. By the 1980s, Jro Dalang had developed two different styles. Jro began painting in both the Balinese and West Javanese styles.

Although he had begun his career painting scenes from the Balinese wayang, in 1950, when he received an order for a wayang glass painting, it was not the Balinese but the West Javanese Sukaraya and the Jelekong style that he choose to use.