Spoiler Alert! Wedding Favors Ahead
Today is a big day for me, and I have been working towards this day since November! Many who know me well, know that hand-painting wine glasses has become a bit of a hobby for me. It is one of the many skills I haved added to my crafty resume in my life. In the past, I’ve painted wine glasses for 3 bridal showers and as gifts for friends. When it came time for my wedding, I always knew that I wanted to hand-paint champagne glasses for the favors for my guests, but a wedding is much larger than a shower! I knew it wouldn’t be easy, and many people thought I was crazy for attempting it (but remember #honeybajgierbridedontcare folks). After months of painting, I am happy to report that I am finally DONE!
Well sort of…
I have 10 dozen finished. When I ordered the glasses in bulk I was only able to order 10 dozen at a time. So, I figured I would wait til my final head count comes in and see if I will have enough. If not I will have to do the unthinkable and turn my oven on in July! You see, once the glasses are painted, I air dry them for 1 hour and then put them in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour to cure the paint. Today, however, I don’t mind turning on the oven, because it is so chilly outside (and consequently it’s super chilly inside as well!)
How long did they take you paint?
This is the question I get the most about my glasses. The answer… they took me about 3 and half hours per dozen. In all they took me approximately 35 hours to paint all 10 dozen! This was my first attempt at painting roses. I was nervous at first, but I was pretty happy with how they turned out in the end. The roses took me more time than flowers I had previously done in the past, and I learned a new technique of “one stroke” flowers in which you load an angled brush in 3 different shades, and it allows you to achieve an ombre look to each stroke. I gave each and every last stroke a double coat to make the flowers more opaque, which in effect doubled the time. I started with the flowers, adding strokes and going over them. I repeated this process until the flowers were completely formed, and then I went back in and added some detail and highlights. Then I painted the leaves and vines in pale green, and then I went back over them with a darker green.
See Me in Action!
To celebrate being “finished” I decided to videotape myself as I painted the last dozen! Here is a timelapse video of me painting. I compressed almost 4 hours of video into a video that is a little over 2 minutes long. I knocked a couple of glasses over at the end off camera, but they ended up being OK! I look pretty down in the dumps throughout the video, but I promise that I really enjoyed making them; I was just concentrating! It is so nice to get into that peaceful zone I go to when I am creating. These glasses were a labor of love; I wanted my guests to know how important each and everyone of them are to us! I loved taking them time to paint them, and hope our guests love them and will think of us when they drink out of them in the future. See the before and after slider picture below!
