Jar cleaning

To prepare the glass jars I bought for these projects, I currently have them soaking in hot soapy water.  When they are dry, I will proceed with the tests.  In the meantime, I am off to Amazon to find citric acid and translucent white glass frit.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

Finding jars and making changes

My first course of action for this project was to find the supplies, so I headed over to the Hobby Lobby.  They had a plain mason jar in their craft section, but I later found another jar at Dollar Tree that was less expensive.  I think I will have no problem with finding a jar to use.

The website instructions said to use table salt.  However, reading the instructions thoroughly revealed the table salt loses some of its color after about a week, so I wracked my brain to come up with a few alternatives to table salt.

• white glitter
• white frit (which is ground glass used by glass fusers)
• sugar
• citric acid

Since the website also said she was “inspired by” another site, I checked that out.  That website used Epsom salts and a spray sealant.  The look was much chunkier, but that can be fixed by simply crushing the Epsom salts.  Now I have several different coatings to test.

Another thing about the coatings is they have to be heat resistant if one is going to use actual tea lights inside the jars.  This will not be a problem for me, though, as I plan to use electric tea lights, which are available two for $1 at the Dollar Tree.

Since I have three of the coatings:  table salt, sugar, and white glitter (from Dollar Tree), I can proceed on the first jar.  I will have to order up some white frit and citric acid, buy and crush some Epsom salts, and locate a flame-retardant clear sealant to use.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.

Frosted mason jar lights

While searching for a way to do faux mercury glass, I came across a blog that showed how to make what they called “frosted lights”.  Their picture of the project appears below; if you click on the picture, you will be taken to the author's website.

I thought this was a very nice Christmas decoration, and it goes along with my growing mason jar decor theme.  Therefore, I have decided to proceed with this as a project labeled “frosted mason lights”.

As always, I welcome your comments.  Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.