As Fall Arrives, Make The Mercury Rise!

I've been walking into a few stores lately, where I have seen mercury glass amongst their displays.  It's very pretty-- yet very expensive.  (Ironic for something formerly referred to as Poor Man's Silver.)  I found out that mercury glass was introduced back in the 1840's, where its popularity started to fizzle out in the 1930's.  (And the glass wasn't really made out of mercury.  The glass would be double-walled, where a silvering solution would be applied in between (usually made of silver nitrate or sterling), and then closed up at the bottom of the piece.  It was only named mercury because the element was used to make the reflective surface of mirrors with at the time.)

Anyways...

Pottery Barn offers a few of these items, however, they are mostly sold out~

And not bashing Pottery Barn-- because they INSPIRE me...  but you can come across unfinished hurricanes at a craft store for $20 or less.

And again, it's not something I can really afford.  And never mind my five year old, it's my husband whom I always have to worry about destroying my objects de art with.

Because of that, I've been left to only walk by those displays, putting them on the shelf of my dreams-- along with the house that I would put them in.

But last week, I came across a website, offering a tutorial on how to make the glass.  They seem to be very detailed in the tutorial, and because the holiday season is approaching, I wanted to share it with you asap!  The site is http://lovelylittledetails.com/2011/04/07/guest-post-diy-mercury-glass-tutorial-kelley-maria/.  (I would love to post her photos of how her work turned out, but I notice that there is a "©" on a photo, so I wasn't sure of the legalities (if any) there were of copying and pasting.)  But with the one (or rather dozens) of vases all of you must have, laying around in the back of a cupboard, it might be interesting to give this project a shot.

Isn't that such a great idea though?  And this process can be used for just about anything, and not just seasonally!