My Mercury Glass Look

I am loving the fresh white winter look with splashes of sparkle from silver, crystal, and mercury glass. I have seen several techniques for that imperfectly perfect look of mercury glass and choose to use one for myself. If you want to try it, all you need is silver spray paint, spray bottle with water, and your glass pieces.

I had picked up this glass Christmas tree from a thrift store for $.75 and had a clear glass ornament leftover from previous projects. I also had a clear glass window pane I took out of a patio door to make it into my headboard. That is a project I keep meaning to take pictures of to show you. One of these days… Anyways, here is the window pane freshly sprayed. All you do is sprits the glass with water and then spray on the silver spray paint. It makes the paint stick differently depending on the concentration of water giving you nice textures.

I was really just using the window pane to test out the technique but now I like to use it to put other display pieces on top off. Basically what I found was that flat open piece like this works easier than anything else. Trying to spray into anything makes a mess on your hands. (Gloves aren’t a bad idea).

I also found that I like the look on the side you actually spray on rather than the other side. Looking through the glass to the spray paint really flattens the color and texture which was a problem on the tree and ornament. I tried to spray some of the paint in a bowl and then use a small paint brush to flick some paint onto the outside but that didn’t really work so don’t bother to try that.

So what am I going to do different next time?

• I am not going to bother to try to spray into the ornament but just do the outside. But I do like seeing the thickness of the glass on the tree so I think I would do a light layer inside and out.

• Use acetone or something else that will take some of the paint off just after it is dry to give a better texture and splotchy look. This is supposed to give you a more antiqued look.

• Krylon’s mirror finish spray paint is supposed to work well for this so I want to try that.

But really, I like the pieces I made and enjoyed using them through out Christmas. The window pane is still out and probably will be for a while. I might even make a few more of those. You will notice it still has the putty from the windows stuck on it. I think it adds to the texture quite nicely. Or at least that is what I am going with for now.

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