Painted Vase

I have been going through things lately, getting rid of stuff I don't need or like anymore.

This huge navy colored vase which measures almost 2 feet tall has been in the hallway forever, filled with silk flowers.  I have never liked the color but the size and shape were great and it filled the corner.

One day I was reading on Pinterest that you can color glass with Mod Podge and Liquid Rit Dye.

Alright, what did I have to loose?  It was on the way out anyway, so if I didn't like the results, oh well.

 First off,  I gave it a thorough scrubbing ensuring a good adhesion with the dye mixture. 

As you can see the glass was cloudy looking, not at all attractive . 

This was  definitely an outdoor job.  Sort of a messy getting the color on.  First, in a bowl,  I mixed the the Mod Podge and a little of the liquid Rit Dye. No special measurements.  Just trial and error until I got the color intensity I liked.   I used a teal color dye.  I was trying for a summery ocean theme. 

 I started with a foam brush, loading it with the mixture and dripping it down the vase until the entire surface was covered.  The idea was to leave drip marks on the glass, not a smooth finish.  It goes on very white and dries to a darker opaque color.  When it was dry I dripped a second coat to covered any thin spots where the original glass showed through.  Then let the whole thing dry.

It was still too dark for my tastes. I wanted to add some highlights. I used the dry brush technique to lightly hit the high spots with an aqua acrylic paint and when that was dry I used Rub N Buff in gold to give additional highlights to the raised areas.  Next I hot glued tiny seashells around the top edge, tied a burlap ribbon and bow and added some jute twine with more small seashells glued down the length of the twine.  In the center of the bow I hot glued a small seahorse piece we bought during some past vacation.

close up of  the highlights

Bow detail

Now it reminds me of ocean waves.

I turned this from a piece I was ready to toss into a vase I love.  So glad I took the chance and experimented with this dye technique.