Mercury Glass Votive Tutorial

Mercury glass is beautiful and adds a touch of bling to a room. And you know I love my bling. But did you know that you can easily create the look of mercury glass? It’s very easy to do, and once you start creating faux mercury glass, you’ll start to get addicted! To make these faux mercury glass pieces I used faux silver leaf. You can purchase real silver leaf, but using faux is a little cheaper to do and you can get great results.

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Supplies Needed:

–Candle votive
–Silver leaf 3 sheets ( I am using imitation silver leaf sold as 5.5. x 5.5 sheet sizes)
– Metal Leaf Adhesive
–Foam brush
–Metal Leaf brush ( I used a disposable stain brush)

Supplies below are optional:

–Muddy Pond Wax by Heirloom Traditions Paint

Before we get started let’s talk safety.

** I don’t know if this is flammable, if you decide to use a real candle with this you are at your own risk. Follow manufacturer’s instructions, and please read my disclosure policy**

Are you ready to get started? This is super easy, but a little messy. First apply the metal leaf adhesive to your piece, using a foam brush. This will ruin a good brush, trust me use a foam brush. I am sharing this from experience.

Let this fully dry, when it’s dry, the adhesive will look opaque.

Next it’s time to start applying your silver leaf. I don’t like perfection, so I carefully pick up each piece and place it on in no particular fashion. Don’t do this near a fan, open window, or breeze, this stuff will fly everywhere! Try not to breath…..just kidding…sort of. You will see once you work with it how delicate it is.

Take your leaf brush (or in my case I used a disposable paint brush), and start lightly brushing off the excess. Don’t worry about doing anything wrong, you can’t. Just have fun and create! After you cover your whole piece you are done! You can spray on a silver leaf finish spray that’s supposed to protect it, but I always skip that step since it is flammable and stinky.

At this point you are done. Guess what? I couldn’t leave it alone, I wanted it to give it an aged look. I know it’s not that bright mercury glass look, but that’s how I roll. Using a white cotton t-shirt, I dipped my finger/ t-shirt into the wax. Then applied that to my votive. I rubbed in it well and let it fully dry before I buffed it.

You can see the patina, and it also shows all the lines and imperfections in my piece. If you don’t like the look with the patina, you can skip this part 🙂 But I can never leave things alone.

In that brandy snifter/votive I have a faux candle. They make really pretty and realistic looking faux candles now. I love using a faux candle over real candles. I never have to worry about my house burning down if I forget about it.

Not sure I like this size faux candle in my shorter votive. Well, let’s take a closer look at the patina.

Isn’t that pretty! I love how perfectly imperfect it looks. This brandy snifter makes a perfect candle votive don’t you think?

These would look beautiful in a group on a tablescape! Different sizes and shapes. Make sure to look for interesting glasses as they too can be used as a votive.