Home Made Glass Glitter

Home Made Glass Glitter

I have always loved vintage ornaments, especially the ones with German Glass Glitter.  After looking everywhere for a source, I quickly realized how crazy expensive it is.  The average price I found was $14 for 1/2 oz!  I saw a post on Pintrest for "making your own german glass glitter" posted from the blog Patina White.  She uses a rolling pin to make the glitter, but I'll be honest, I was hurting myself with the shards of glass that were getting stuck in the rolling pin.  I basically made my own version of a torture devise!  I had lots of little cuts on my hands and decided I was going to try another way.

Here's my take on the process:

I hit the thrift stores as soon as they started putting the Christmas stuff out and picked up several boxes and baggies of glass Christmas balls.  These pretty pink ones came in this baggie, and there was a dozen ornaments for $1.99.  For my little demo, I took 4 of the ornaments (one was already broken) and put them back into the baggie.  Now, let me just say, you want a pretty substantial baggie.  Something like a freezer baggie.  Anything thinner will not survive this process!

Get out your trusty hammer and GENTLY start breaking the ornaments.  You just want to gently tap at the broken pieces until they get to about this consistency.

I have an inexpensive coffee grinder I keep in my craftroom for projects like this.   You will pour the very chunky glass shards, (remember, this is broken glass. BE CAREFUL!)

into the grinder.

Put the top on and pulse the motor about 10 times.  Check the consistency.  If it's still too chunky, pulse a couple more times.

I like my glass glitter chunky, so this is where I tend to stop.  I will admit, there are a few pieces that are too big still, but I just pick them out with tweezers and crush them down.  You can keep going and get a much finer glitter.  Now you just put it into the container of your choice (I like to use baby food jars) and you are ready to add sparkle and shine to whatever your heart desires!

I hope you try this.  I use tons of it for Christmas and Valentines.  I also really love it for Halloween decorations.  I have read that the silver used on the inside of the ornaments will tarnish, as time goes by, which I love, but if you don't want that vintage look, you can spray your project with a sealer, and you shouldn't have any problem with tarnishing.