DIY Mercury Glass

After looking at Pottery Barn and falling in love with these guys…

Pottery Barn Mercury Glass Pumpkins…sigh, I knew that I had to figure out how to hack mercury glass.  I googled and googled.  With luck I found a few tutorials and even a few blogs who’ve claimed to diy mercury glass. However, I wasn’t impressed with quiet a few of them.  The one that I knew that was more than likely gonna give me what I wanted was Martha Stewarts Mercury Glass tutorial.  BUT…after trying it..I did not like it at all.  So I tried something different and it worked and I loved the way it turned out.  So I can’t wait until fall to buy some pumpkins and paint away!
Here’s what I did…You’ll need to buy these two things to achieve the look I went for.

I picked the paint up from Home Depot and the craft paint was something that I purchased from Hobby Lobby last year sometime.  You want to make sure that neither of these paints are dull…you want the shiny finish.
You will also need a spray bottle of water.  I just used one of Kelsie’s no tangle spray bottles.  Of course whatever bottle you use, if it had something besides water in it before, rinse it well.
Grab whatever glass piece you want to make into mercury glass and get outside or at least in a well ventilated area. 
first up…spritz the whole piece, all over with the water. Do not wipe the water off!
second up…spray with your spray paint while it’s still wet from the water.  You want a thin coat, and you’ll only want to do this once.  You want that see throughish kinda look.  Now allow to dry. {I have read and even Martha Stewarts DIY was to spray the inside of whatever it is you want to make into mercury glass.  BUT..I tried this and it did not give the metallic look your looking for.  It gave a very dull almost nickel color.  Spray the outside for best results!}
third up…get a sponge brush {or your finger} and get some of the metallic gold paint and sponge away.  Now..hold on a second.  If your glass piece is open on the inside like mine was you will apply your metallic gold paint here and there on the inside making sure that you using a thin, very thin coat.  I sponged it all over and then wiped it off with my fingers to get the look I was going for.  If your piece is not open on the inside just sponge your paint in various places until you get the look your going for.  Make sure that you wipe off any excess, you don’t want thick splotches.  Allow to dry.
This is how my piece turned out.

And with a candle.

You can really see the mercury look at night with the candle.

I have the idea of when I do my pumpkins that I’m going to put a clear lacquer  finish on it to give it a shinier look.  I would have done that to this but I didn’t have any on hand and didn’t think about it until I finished this.
I hope y’all all go about and create a bunch of mercury glass!  Save yourself the money this fall and make your own Pottery Barn Mercury Glass Pumpkins!