How to Decorate a Wine or Martini Glass

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One way to completely personalize a party is to paint the martini glasses. The possibilities for creating themed glasses are practically endless. You can paint them with the theme of the night, such as a pumpkin for Halloween, with the names of a bride and groom or you can paint them to match your china.

The first thing you need to do is completely clean the glasses. Wipe them with a paper towel that is soaked in alcohol and let the glass air dry. It is best to use brand new glasses as older ones sometimes have residues on them that prevent paint from sticking to thesurface. Make sure the glass is big enough to paint on in the first place!

There are many different paints you can buy to use for this project including both opaque and transparent paints. You can also get paint that gives glass a frosted or spackled effect. You can get very creative as glass paints come in every color imaginable. If you are not good with a brush you can also buy markers that contain glass paint that can do a good job. The markers are especially good if you want to create detailed designs with a lot of intricate touches.

If you are talented, just go ahead and paint an image on the glass free-hand. You can also use a pattern or a stencil on glass. Simply tape the design you want to use on the inside of the glass and then just paint the outside of the glass as the pattern shows.

You usually have to bake the paint on the glass. You put your finished glasses in the oven and heat to the temperature advised by the paint company. Once the glasses are done having the image sealed into the glass by the oven heat you take them out of the oven and let them air dry. Note that you do not have to do this but using bake-on paint allows the glass to be used in the dishwasher and survive daily wear and tear for a longer time. However for best results you should always hand wash the glasses carefully which will help preserve the design.

There are several different paints you can buy that allow you to be very creative. Opaque paint doesn’t allow light to pass through it, but transparent paints do. You can also get paint that makes the glass look frosted or crackled. Glass paints come in every color of the rainbow–and considering that a little goes a long way, you’ll have plenty of paint to experiment with on other projects. You can also buy glass paint markers that allow you to letter or make intricate designs.

Most paints are water-based and are easily cleaned off of your brushes, skin and other places with a little soap and water.

How to Decorate With Mod Chandeliers

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Some people might be surprised to find out that Mod is not just one style. In fact there are mod styles to decorate most decorating schemes.

One of the most well known of all of the mod styles is the all white Austere Elegance type of style. These are chandeliers that are a cold bright white color that are made of wood, paper and cardboard.

Chandeliers made out of paper are also very mod. You can get spiky natural looking cardboard chandeliers that look like they are made out of iron when really they are made out of twisted and dried white paper.

Baroque styles were popular in the mod era of the late sixties and early seventies. These a wrought iron, beaded pieces that look a bit Victorian and are festooned with shiny beads.

A mod Avanti grade style is the four-sided armature that boasts big round balls of smoked glass. These look great with late seventies and all eighties styles of furniture.

The Carousel style is also an armature that looks like a cage. Inside the hanging cage is a pendant of wrought iron leaf lighting fixtures. This style usually comes in color combinations such as powder blue and red or red and gold leaf.

Another classic is the Sputnik style of mod chandelier. These are chandeliers that are round balls with spiky arms sticking out of them. They look like silver satellites hanging from your ceiling.
The gentrified rustic style of chandelier is usually made out of finely bent polished wood with candlestick style lights. One single fat crystal usually hangs from the base of this style of lighting fixture.

The “industrial revolution” style of lighting is basically a bundle of black shelled torch lights that are hung in a clump from the ceiling.

Unusual wagon wheel styles made out of iron and glass are also very mod and look good with more rustic styles of décor.

Another approach is to get balloon lighting made out of paper. These are called bubble lamps. They have been around for decades and are made by spraying a layer of translucent plastic over a wire armature.

When it comes to picking out a mod chandelier it should be more than just a light source. It should be an accessory and a focal point that makes as much of an impact with the lights on as they do with the lights off.