DIY Faux Mercury Glass
I think mercury glass instantly makes a space feel more elegent and romantic. It was a wonderful accessory for our winter wedding. We borrowed the majority of our mercury glass pieces due to its high price tag.
Therefore, today I am going to show you a very easy way to avoid the high price tag, and make your own mercury glass pieces out of recycled jars. I followed Todays Creative Blog post featured on Tidy Mom highlighting the simplicity of this project.
I have been saving some glass juice jars with beautiful details at the top for an upcycle project. I thought applying the mercury glass technique would be the best way to bring out the detailing on the top of the jars. I am so glad that I did!
But first, I would love to show you an interesting way that I removed the glued label from my juice jar. This site had some wonderful options. I decided to try the peanut butter option, because I honestly thought it sounded neat and I had some peanut butter on hand. I added a sterling silver scrubber into the mix to ensure all of the glue was off. To my surprise the peanut butter worked very well!
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Now for the fun part. For your faux mercury glass effect, you will need: equal parts apple cider vinegar to water (I used 3 tablespoons of each for my two juice jars), spray bottle, cotton towel, jar, and Krylon Looking Glass Mirror-Like Spray Paint. While researching this project, I was made aware that the spray paint would be hard to find. Luckily, Amazon has some in stock. Rustoleum carries a similar line, but I haven't tried it. This paint is crucial to the process, so I would suggest investing in some. It also creates a wonderful effect on its own.
One thing to remember while creating this project is to not take yourself and your artistic abilities too seriously. Take a cue from real mercury glass and its imperfections, and have fun with it.
I would highly recommend taking this project outside, and wearing gloves as you spray paint the jar. The spray paint recommends painting the inside of the jar. I chose to paint the outside because my jar opening was not large enough, and I wanted to be able to place fresh flowers in it afterward.
My favorite part of this project was the dabbing process. I was very abstract with my technique, and the transformation took only seconds. It was a lot of fun!
This project is wonderful, because it does take less than 30 minutes to complete all steps. I love to watch the transformation process take effect. Have you ever experimented with mercury glass techniques? What process did you use?
