Faux Mercury Glass Tutorial

I am so very excited to share this tutorial, because I love the look of mercury glass (especially during the holiday season) but amassing a collection of it could get pretty expensive.

About a month ago I actually tried to recreate the look with regular metallic spray paint, but I wasn't thrilled with the results (I'm picky!) so I was tickled when I stumbled upon Krylon's Looking Glass spray paint.

(Do people still say they're 'tickled'? Because I was.)

Step 1: Gather some glass that would benefit from mercury-ization (to use a technical term).

The larger hurricane I got ages ago at Walmart or JoAnn or something for less than $10, and the two smaller ones were from a dollar store.

Step 2: Start spraying the Looking Glass paint onto the inside of the glass. I held the hurricanes in my hand so they were laying on their sides and applied the paint in quick bursts, then rotated the glass to get the next area. The key here is to be very light in your applications -- this paint is thin and runny and doesn't leave much room for gloppy errors. 

Let it rest for about a minute (it dries fast) and repeat. The instructions call for 5 applications with 1 minute drying time in between each.

After one coat, the glass will just have a bit of a reflective shimmer to it, but you will still be able to see through it.

And here below you can see the squeal-inducing magic happening. As the paint dries, it turns from the classic spray paint metallic look to the actual mirror-like finish. You can actually watch it happening, it dries so quickly.

Loooooooove it!

Here are the hurricanes after 5 or so coats:

Now here comes to important/tricky-ish part (don't worry it's not really difficult, just pay attention):

Step 3: Start distressing. (you'll want to read this section, I promise)

I remembered reading on the great blog Vintage Revivals how Mandi had achieved an Anthropologie-like finish on a mirror by using some sort of chemical or acid to eat away at some of the metal on the backside of the mirror... and that gave me an idea; I figured I didn't need any harsh chemicals, since this was paint and not real metal on the back of the glass, so I made a mixture of 50% vinegar and 50% water and put it into a spray bottle. Acidic, right?

After letting the paint dry for 5-10 minutes, I sprayed the vinegar-water solution lightly into the inside of the hurricanes just to cover the surface with little beads:

 I tried to get the vinegar only on the bottom half so my hand inside the hurricane didn't accidentally rub off the finish on top while I was distressing the bottom. I did the top part of the hurricane after I was finished with the bottom.

I let the beads of vinegar-water sit for 20 seconds or so, depending on how long I had let the paint dry, and then it was time to begin!

For the purposes of this tutorial, I recreated the distressing process on a piece of glass from a small picture frame so I could take photos to illustrate how I achieved this specific finish:

• I sprayed on the vinegar-water:
  

• I took a paper napkin, folded it up and dampened it with the vinegar-water solution. I wanted everything that came in contact with the finish to be soft (kind of like fine sandpaper instead of rough, get it?)

• I took the damp napkin and gently dabbed (up and down, not side to side) the beads of vinegar, and voila! The vinegar had started to eat away at the paint (this worked better if I only let the paint dry a few minutes rather than an hour or so... I had to rub a bit more on drier paint).

• Then I gently started to rub the damp napkin in circles to widen those distressed areas and start sloughing off more of the paint. I found that using the pads of my fingers when rubbing with the napkin, versus the tips of my fingers, helped lessen the pressure and the chance of giant flakes of paint coming loose:

•  Use your judgment to achieve your 'ideal' look -- I sprayed a bit more vinegar on and then rubbed very lightly because I wanted a scattering of very tiny holes too, not just the larger ones I had rubbed off:

• I finished it off with one or two very light coats of the Looking Glass spray paint, to add a bit of dimension to the spots that had no paint -- I still wanted them to glow, shimmer, look a tad mirror-y... pick your word!

Step 4: (Optional, but recommended) Apply some sort of protective coat, like a clear spray to the inside of your glass. (And remember, don't put live plants or food into a container that you've sprayed)

Here's the finished product:

Update: Wondering if the Looking Glass spray paint is necessary? Check this post out...

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