Mercury Glass

According to Wisegeek.com , mercury glass is a glass with a silvery appearance but contains no mercury. Whew! That’s good to know since buildings and schools have been evacuated  and closed for several days while HAZMAT teams do their thing all because someone dropped a thermometer.


The real mercury glass never contained mercury because it was too expensive to produce and was hazardous. Instead the glass was double walled and infiltrated from the bottom with liquid silver nitrate. For more views of mercury glass you can always visit PINTEREST.


I really like the look of it so I scouted the NET and went to source after source to see how they achieved the faux mercury glass look. 



I bought this heavy bell shaped vase
at a flea market for 75 cents. It measures
10" x 6"



After faux mercury. The light you see is from
the flash of the camera. (Why do bathroom
photos always turn out so great?)

Just as an experiment I decided to silver glaze a sea shell and a wooden knob I had laying around.

The materials I used were Krylon Looking Glass spray paint, half and half  water and vinegar in a mist type sprayer,  You will want to have droplets on your vase or whatever so that the paint will have the distressed look when it dries.
 If there are streaks, that's good too.



Materials needed

 Paper towels or rag to blot with and gloves (optional). 

Once again number 2 photo is MIAI did this project outdoors because I didn't know how noxious the fumes might be.
Tutorials on the WEB were inconsistent as to whether to spray the paint inside of the vase or outside of the vase,   I chose to mist the outside.

In photo 3 as soon as I misted with water I sprayed the vase lightly with the looking glass paint. 

• After about 45 seconds I lightly dabbed the area just painted. I did this all the way around the vase, left it outside in the sun for about an hour.
• I came back after the hour and redid the entire process.

I took this photo outside under the
 shade of the porch after I'd done the
treatment a second time.



Inside of the vase



The shell turned out great but
the wooden knob not so.



Unfortunately great photos by amateur photographers is difficult but the lamps give the vase a  cozy look.

The paint is a little pricey  ($8 for about 5 ounces)  for the teeny bit you get but  after spending 75 cents on the vase, who's complaining?

I will be trying this technique with more glass items.

THAT'S IT***