Chalkboard Dipped Wine Glasses - DiY FAIL

Well, since Jenny told you all about our successful attempts to make all things chalkboard paint I’m going to share the one with you that didn’t. When we looked at chalkboard projects we really thought these dipped wine glasses would be so much fun. On Pinterest they looked so easy and we added them to our list of chalkboard projects. So on our trial run night we did all our other projects and then attempted to dip our glasses.

What we found that night was that self-made chalkboard paint is too lumpy for surfaces that aren’t brushed out. It was however, thick enough that once dipped and the extra tapped off there was no issue with setting the glass upside down and letting the paint dry, the paint didn’t run. But we weren’t satisfied with the bumps so we decided to try again. So, that was fail number one.

We determined that it would be no big deal to just buy the already made paint and dip the glasses…WRONG! I got the paint and ran home to dip them. First attempt, it was very thin so I held it and tapped off as much extra as I could until I felt the excess was gone and set them upside down to dry. Well, this was an issue because it was so thin it ran all down the glass. So, I attempted to hang the glasses and let them dry that way. Looked ok at first but then pooled at the edge. So I attempted to wipe the excess paint from the bottom of the glasses and rotate the glass while drying so it wouldn’t have lumps. Somehow I still had lumps. URGH!

Soooo, me and Jenny put our heads together again to figure this project out. She suggested I try some primer. Prime the slick surface and that would even it out and help the paint to be smoother. Sounds logical, primer here we come. Got out the primer and did a nice dipped coat. Tapped off the excess, wiped the extra off the bottom, and it looked absolutely perfect. But alas as it began to dry it too started to crack. I held the next one, tapped off the excess, spun it in hand, wiped off the bottom, held it straight up, and tried to really help it along…still cracked. Next I thought I might sand it down just a bit to get the cracks flattened out and the chalkboard paint over it might fill them in. Nope, so I tried brushing it on instead of dipping. The cracks were still visible with almost every process. FAIL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While all of this may not sound or look like it took much time, it did. I probably devoted about 6 hours off and on to this project and I was never satisfied with the outcome fully. The last set I did was the best but still not smooth like I wanted it to be. We decided to opt out of doing these for the class and I would say there is a missing step or three somewhere in those tutorials we looked at.

So I think if I were going to give this another go I would try the spray paint version. We didn’t do this for the class because we were going to be in a non-spray painting zone. I think it would benefit to use a spray paint primer before the chalkboard paint on the glasses to get a good finish. Give it a go and let me know if it works out for you.

Daspri