Shear Necessity

I am a wine drinker.  I am also a self-taught decorative painter.  I have been known to do both at the same time.

I am just starting to paint again after leaving it behind for a few years.  I enjoy painting and I miss doing it.  I don't have a creative bone in my body, but I think I do an adequate enough job.  I am my own worst critic, so if I can get past that, I would probably do a lot more painting.

I will paint on anything.  Sand dollars (thank you, Dad), eggs, and even rocks.  Ice skates, too (thank you, Jon)  Over the past twenty some years, I have painted hundreds of wine glasses and have given away most of them.  In my advancing years. I have come to the conclusion that one doesn't need many quantities of the same item.  Unless it's underwear.

Unfortunately, I have learned the hard way that wine glasses do not bounce when I knock them over on the granite countertop.  As a result, my personal supply of hand-painted stemware has dwindled down to just two lonely wine glasses and a gaping space on the cupboard shelf where the rest of their friends used to live.

My plastic wine glasses are reserved for outdoors use and since I don't plan on giving up drinking wine inside the house anytime soon, I have spent the last couple of days replenishing my wine glasses collection.  The biggest problem for me is thinking of a design.  As I said, I don't have a creative bone in my body and look to my paint books and pictures for inspiration.

The paint I use is made specifically for glass.  I clean the glass with rubbing alcohol, paint the design and let it cure for about 10 days.  Or a year, considering on how often I have painted in the last few years.  After it has cured, it is then baked in the oven for a bit.

As long as I treat the glassware nice, hand wash it without soaking it, and not use anything abrasive on them, the paint has held up very well.  They certainly do not go into the dishwasher.

I am more of a wash-by-hand kind of girl.  We had no dishwasher growing up.  Dad always said he has three of them (my mom, Deb and myself) why did he need to buy one?  When we were old enough to help, Deb and I took turns rinsing when Mom washed.  As we got older, Deb and I took turns washing and rinsing.  I actually like washing dishes.  There is something that is comforting to me in getting my hands in hot, really hot, soapy water.

Anyway ~

I knew that it had been a long while since I have used my glass paints.  So long that some of colors had dried up completely.  I spent the majority of the afternoon going through all of the bottles, shaking them up, opening them up and then picking paint boogers out of the the ones that were salvageable.  I am hoping that whatever paint is left over isn't too old to adhere correctly to the glass.

I am going to be going through a whole lotta boxed wine for the testing.

Have the BEST day ever.

~ Dorothy