Glass Vase Angels

I saw a photo of an angel made with a glass vase floating around Facebook during the holidays and wanted to try to make one for my Mother-in-Law for Christmas. I found out that trying to find glass dishes at DollarTree during the holidays can be a challenge! 


I found some vases only to discover the ones I liked the best, were plastic. I found a different style in glass. The round globes were in good supply but then I could not find the kind of little plate that I had hoped to use for the wings and was about to admit defeat and leave, when another idea popped into my head.... There was an entire shelf of margarita glasses....

I loaded up my cart with enough pieces to (hopefully) make three angels. Once I got home, I kept looking at the pieces over and over, trying to decide how to proceed. Then I remembered a small stash of candle plates I had bought at DollarTree some time back and then I got started... 

This craft is pretty subjective and can altered to what types of glass you can find or what you want to do with them. The materials I used are:

~ glass candle globes
~ glass vases
~ glass candle plates or glass margarita glasses
~ glass stones
~ E-6000 silicone glue
~ alcohol
~ cotton balls

 You may want to wipe the glass down with alcohol before glueing. Using E-6000 glue, I turned globes upside down and glued the open end to the solid bottom of the vases. The vase will be the body and the globe is the head.

Next, glue on one of the plates (or margarita glasses) where you want it. With the plates, I did them on the sides of the vase. With the margarita glasses, I put them towards the back. I did one side at a time, laying the vase on it's side (with the plate on the table and weight of the vase on it) during the drying time. Once the glue was dry, I added more to fill in gaps between the vase and plate for a stronger hold and then let it dry again. Then I did the same for the other wing.

I already had some of the glass stones so I used some to make halos on top of the heads. These are also glued on with E-6000.

The candle plates I had on hand made great wings. I had two different designs so each angel turn out with a slightly different look. I had initially planned on trying to make these so they could be garden accents with a little solar powered light in them, but figured they might get broke very easily and opted to put a little battery powered candle with them instead.

Now, the margarita glasses proved to be a bigger challenge. There isn't as much surface area on the glasses for the glue to hold them on the vase, so it took me longer to do that one. 

First, you have to remove the stem of the glass. There was a seam between the stem and the bowl where it had been put together. They were not glued, more like put together while the glass was still really hot or even slightly molten. I used my utility knive to sort of score the glass on the seam, then put tape (I used painter's tape, but masking tape will work fine too) one the bowl, right up to the seam. I also put tape on the stem side. I then took it outside and laid the glass on log and popped it a good one with my utlity knife, right on the seam. The first one I did, popped apart right on the seam almost perfectly. The second one didn't come apart quite as nicely and required a second hit with the knife. Once I had that done, I sanded the bases of the bowls with sandpaper to remove any sharp points.

Just like with the candle plates, I laid the vase on it's side with props to allow the glue to dry. It took longer with the margarita glasses. I actually had a little trouble with the second wing. I'm not really sure why. it may have been too cold as the glue was curing, but I had to redo it twice before I was satisfied that it was stuck on there good. 

For this one since the wings were blue I wanted to use some blue stones for the halo. I love how the color pops on this one. 

Now that I have made a few of these, there are many other possibilities swirling though my head, like adding more accents with different materials. I would have liked them to have solor lights under them so they could be put in the garden, but the vases I ended up with were to narrow for the light to fit into them. But using the battery and string lights looks really cool in them too!