How to Decorate an Oil Lamp
Oil lamps helpful items to have on hand in your home. During stormy or wintry weather, the power may go out at any time, and light from an oil lamp will come in handy. Oil lamps need not be uninteresting or hidden away on a shelf. Decorate your oil lamps to fit in with your home's décor with glass paint and sea glass. You'll find everything you need to enhance the plain glass lamps at your local craft store.
Things You'll Need
- Glass cleaner
- Rubbing alcohol
- Glass paint
- Artist's brush
- Cookie sheet
- Tin foil
- Sea glass
- Jeweler's glue
Instructions
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1
Disassemble the chimney from the oil lamp base. Remove any oil from the base.
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2
Clean the outside of the oil lamp base with glass cleaner. Clean the inside and the outside of the chimney with glass cleaner. Follow up by cleaning the outside of the chimney and the base with rubbing alcohol. Allow the rubbing alcohol to evaporate. The alcohol will remove any fingerprints from the glass, and allow the paint and the glue to connect better.
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3
Apply a light coat of glass paint to the outside of the chimney with an artist's brush. You can paint it one solid color, or create a mosaic effect with swirls of several different colors. As you paint, hold the chimney from the inside and on the rim as much as possible to reduce fingerprints.
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4
Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and stand the painted chimney in the center. Remove the top rack in your oven and bake the painted chimney according to the directions on the glass paint.
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5
Decorate the outside of the oil lamp's base with sea glass to form a mosaic. Attach the glass to the base with clear jeweler's glue. Place the sea glass pieces close together. You can also overlap them as needed to hide large crevices. Let the glue dry.
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6
Fill the base of the oil lamp with colorful oil to accentuate the colors of the sea glass. For example, deep blue oil will be visible through the light blues and greens in the sea glass.
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