DIY Faux Mercury Glass

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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!

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 paint. While researching this project, I was made aware that the spray paint would be hard to find. I did not find it at Michael's, but I did find it at Wal Mart. There are also numerous sites online that have it in stock. 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?