Staining Those Maccona Jars.

I showed off the Maccona jars that I coloured for my daughter's 18th party, last week, so this time I will show you how to stain them.

Here it is on the table, with the battery operated lights in it. I also had fresh leaves placed around the base of the jar, so that you  couldn't see the battery pack, but I didnt get a photo of that, unfortunately.

So the process of staining the glass is quite simple, it just takes patience & time.

All I did is make sure the labels are all removed & the gum from the jar is completely cleaned off & they are dry.

Next I dropped 3 drops of blue &5 of green food colouring in the bottom of the jar & then an amount of PVA glue. As I continued with each jar, I learnt how much to put in. It's easy enough to add more along the way, or even tip out what you dont need from each jar.

Then you simply roll the glue and food colouring around & around & around, until you get the coverage & colour that you want.

You can manipulate the glue to ensure it covers the whole area of the jar & just be cautious when you are near the neck of the jar, as it can tip out, obviously.

I preferred to not have any white showing, as I knew when it dried, it would simply be clear & not coloured, so I just took longer to ensure the glue & food colouring was mixed properly.

I loved the ombre effect & I almost didnt want it to dry clear... (Perhaps if I mixed white paint with it, it may not dry completely clear?)

And for some jars I added more green or more blue to the glue, so they were all slightly different, as you looked around the hall.

I stood the jars up-side-down on a cake rack & allowed the excess glue to run out, (or balance it on top of another jar, to use the excess glue for that one) & when it had stopped dripping, I simply tipped it the right way up, cleaned the mouth of the jar & allowed 48+ hours for it to dry.

Make sure you have a sheet of baking paper or similar under the drying rack, it's quite surprising how much drips off.

You can see here how the strength of each jar is different :)

The beauty of doing this is if you want the jars for another project, you simply soak them in hot water & the glue comes off!!


Thanks for reading my instructions on how to stain glass jars, be sure to show me what you make from my ideas too...

Stay crafting,

Jo