Hobnail Milk Glass

Hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day. Personally, I received such a nice present yesterday and it wasn't from my valentine of over twenty five years (okay, I did get a very nice poem, he writes me one every year, and I do love them and him!) but this is about the blog! Desire to Inspire, a very popular blog whose "Monday's Pets on Furniture" post was just mentioned in ElleDecor's magazine, mentioned me AND posted three of my pet portraits! Thank you Desire To Inspire!!! 

Now that I'm done boasting, remember yesterday I told you that I was going to be working on a little project with my son. We got it done and, as I mentioned, it's remarkably chic for a kids project. A tutorial is at the end of this post.
What do you think of the vintage glassware known as Milk Glass? Milk Glass is gaining popularity again, especially for weddings for obvious reasons.  Mostly, the images that I've chosen are a hobnail pattern (our project was inspired by this pattern). 

There are several brands of milk glass. Fenton, Anchor Hocking, Brody, Westmoreland, Imperial and Fire 

King are all popular.

Apartment Therapy
(Images: Susie Nadler; Lydia Daniller)

Apartment Therapy, in a recent post, suggested a tip if you want to make sure that you are buying the "real deal" meaning the glassware that is collectible. When you hold the piece up to light, you should be able to see the outline of your fingers through the glass. Real milk glass is somewhat translucent, light and more fragile versus floral grade milk glass which is heavier, opaque and essentially white glass.

Hobnail glass is available in a variety of colors. I favor the white but I think any color can look great in the right setting. 

This is actually amethyst. How lovely! 

I thought these were interesting with their simplified hobnail design. They are new and are available through Home Decorators catalog. 

A good source for vintage milk glass and hobnail glass is eBay, flea markets, antique shows and Etsy.

That brings us to our hobnail, milk glass inspired project:

Aren't they hobnail glassware-ish?! Maybe not as elegant but they are bottles covered with split peas for Pete's sake! I will be honest with you, they took about an hour. I did the larger one and my seven year old did the other. I intended to do at least three but you know how that goes! I think a group of three or five would be super chic.  I wrapped twine around the top to cover the threads (they had screw on caps) and I think it makes them look a little beachy. I can imagine using them this summer, each with a single flower, like Queen Anne's Lace. Here's how we did it:

Supplies needed:

Various condiment bottles

Mod Podge or other white glue

Split Peas

Paint brush

Spray paint

Simply paint on a little glue and start adding the peas flat-side down. Its easier to start from the bottom and then slide the individual peas down as you go.

Every now and then, paint over the top of the peas to seal them into place.

The bottles before they are painted. They look very organic, don't they?

After painting, twine something around the top to cover the ridges.

I know I will be trying these around the house, creating different tablescapes for the next couple of days and when I find one I like, (it will probably come to me in a dream or on a run!) I will post it.

Hope you enjoyed your visit,

Michelle