Hand Painted Glassware

I love painting on canvas, but there is something about painting on shiny glass that I find mesmerizing! Glass is tricky. First of all, it breaks! Finding the right paint is also an experiment. There are wonderful paints out there for painting glass; however, some are just not suitable for the effect I want to achieve. I am playing around with different non-toxic enamels, and my favorites so far are Liquitex Glossies and FolkArt Enamels, which can be found at art supply stores like Jerry's Artarama, Michael's, and A.C. Moore.

I have been "upcycling" old wine glasses around the house...some had a tiny crack, some were just too flimsy to use...now they have a happy home on a top shelf in the dining room (out of the reach of little hands) as pretty, shiny things.

In the very near future, I plan to sell these as sets with various themes (involving trees, of course). I would not be using my old broken glasses, those are just for practice! I would like to have a few sets in time to sell for New Year's Eve, but that may not happen as this is an incredibly busy time of year.

If you have any glasses around the house that are cracked or just not being used, why not experiment with glass painting? Even if you do not consider yourself an artist, you can stick with very simple designs or even use a stencil. Be sure to clean the glasses thoroughly before painting, then wipe them down with rubbing alcohol. After painting them, you can bake them in the oven (follow the directions on the paint bottle) to "set" the paint. This is especially important if you are going to be using the glasses and washing them. Older kids would love this project, supervised of course.