UN-recommendation: make your own mercury glass

I realized I haven't posted anything significant in a while, I think I've been a bit down because all of the projects I've been trying lately have been duds. how unmotivating, right? to put time and effort and money into a project and have it utterly fail? well, i at least owe an explanation, if for no other reason than I don't want the same to happen to you and I know how quickly projects circulate on pinterest and Facebook. my next three posts will be about failed projects, so while these seem like UN-recommendations, really they are recommendations in disguise - i recommend you NOT to try these projects!

1. make your own mercury glass

inspiration:
(Professional on the left, my two DIY on the right)

Mercury glass has been all the rage lately - or at least over the holidays. I saw it in so many of my decorating catalogs - pottery barn, west elm, in department stores and at almost every tjmaxx and marshalls. I'm kind of obsessed with it - its shiny and has this vintage feel to it. My in-laws got us two candle stick holders from PB that I just L-O-V-E for our anniversary. And we found this great lamp at HomeGoods for our living room. To carry the mercury glass throughout the house, I wanted to add a few vases for decoration. At some point in time I had seen a pin about 'make your own' mercury glass so I googled it and found a great tutorial from Take The Side Street. Seemed easy enough.

steps:
Here are my supplies:
- 2 basic vases from the dollar store (as mentioned in my Make you own Kitchen Art post, I always like to try cheap first after realizing that a lot of projects don't turn out, I hate wasting the money!)
- Looking Glass Spray Paint (this is a direct contradiction of what I just said. There is no cheap version of this. Its a tiiiiiiiny can, I found it at Michael's, and all of my stupid 40% off one item coupons were expired, so I spent $12 on it!)
- Newspaper or plastic tarp
- Spray bottle (I got a few last time I was at Home Depot) to make vinegar/water mixture
- follow directions on Take The Side Street website

final product:

I was disappointed. I followed directions but the paint was drippy - it seemed too wet and every time I sprayed the glass in the five times it took, it just ran to the bottom and it took forever to swivel the vase around to spread it out. it just looks sloppy. didn't turn out very professional. maybe it was too cold out and i need to try again in warmer weather? i did attempt this on a unseasonally warm day in January.
i will say one HUGE mistake I made was dabbing the glass with a paper towel... most paper towels have some minor pattern on it, if not just a weave, and that showed up on the vase when I dabbed it, it left a honeycomb impression, which makes it look even sillier. I also think I should have gotten a wider mouthed vase from the dollar store. Mine was on the narrow side and I couldn't fit my hand in without touching the sides. The one in the tutorial is more like a hurricane vase so I think would have worked much better.

recommendation: go to HomeGoods and buy a vase for $7.99! cheaper than this whole project!