I found a really easy way to make milky frosted glass for light fixtures 

A lot of this is "Watch Alec handle an orb" *I have some more advice after this attempt* Something went a little wrong with this pour and I think it was that I didn't spend enough time twirling it around and/or there wasn't quite enough glue in the mix so the coating didn't thicken as much as I needed. The appearance as it dried wasn't perfectly opaque. I cleaned it up and started again with better results. So here's my overall guide in written form: 1. Mix equal parts by weight water, acrylic craft paint, and PVA glue. Consider going a touch heavy on the glue. 2. Stir thoroughly while avoiding introducing bubbles. 2. a. If ya gotta vacuum chamber, have at it. Or you can try some other methods to reduce bubbles. Some bubbles are OK as many will pop, but too many and you'll have speckles here and there. 3. Pour mixture onto inside surface of glass. _Spend a long time (at least 15 minutes) moving the object around and repeatedly re-coat all areas as the mixture begins to thicken._ You'll see what I mean. 4. Elevate item and allow excess to drip out. Allow to dry overnight. Good luck!

I love how this channel is part history of a hardly known format, part how complicated tech works, and part Alec's apparent obsession with light bulbs

When you showed the original lamp, and then brought out the frosted version, I felt like there was a missed opportunity to talk about the magic of buying two of them.

I've been designing and building lamps for 35 years (professionally) and I am TRULY impressed with your results!

Alec I don't know how you managed to pull it off but you finally made watching paint dry interesting. Cheers to you brother

As someone who often thins paint for transparency, my recommendation instead of PVA glue and water, would be to just head to your local craft store and pick up a bottle of clear acrylic paint medium. It will still be thinable with water, but it will dive a more durable finish that will absolutely not yellow with age.

Alec found a unique way to make his audience watch (literally) paint dry! 😁 Excellent video! I'm wondering if there's a way to give it a mat finish (inside) to help with diffusion of light (ideal for LEDS)

Couple of suggestions: For people who do not have a vacuum chamber (we do, for metal casting), you can use a "small device that vibrates at high speed", usually battery powered and available in multiple sizes and shapes. Applied to the base of the container it will encourage small bubbles to merge and move to the surface. Next - a mixture like this can stand for a long time if tightly capped. mix in a jar that is "just large enough", cap it and let sit for a day. virtually all bubbles will come out. next - to pop bubbles have some toothpicks handy. And in place of cups, purchase model maker stands at a craft store. They are just small wire or plastic pyramids that are designed to support something with minimum contact area.

This is very similar to what my Dad does for shading his greenhouse in the summer when it gets too hot. He uses PVA mixed with powdered chalk and water. It's handy because the whole thing can be peeled of in one piece when the temperature drops back down.

This would be fun to see in green for me. I always loved the old desk lamps with the green glass.

From a person who paints with acrylics, bleached titanium white pigment is opaque, zinc white pigment is translucent, you could use unbleached titanium to get a warm white. As a side note I use a mirror as my palette when painting so I can figure out just that, the transparency, and it peels right off to be used again and again. Perhaps zinc white may give a more frosted appearance. Acrylic gel medium can be watered down, the dif between liquid, gel medium and paste is the length of the molecule; liquid is short and runny, paste is long chains and is thick. All can be watered down. Acrylic artists mediums tend not to yellow.

Finally! Watch paint dry episode 😃 Love your work, the attention to detail, thoroughly researched topics and the level of interest you bring to mundane appliances. Dishwasher episodes have been my favorites and I've forced many people to watch them to boredom 🤪

I love these channels because it feels equally relatable and like a kind grandpa is leading everyone through a project.

Painter's tape around the edge to make a lip might buy you some time before the drips get too out of hand. Another tip is doing a high pour to prevent bubbles. If you don't have a vacuum chamber and you want to get the bubbles out of a thick liquid mix, pouring it high so it makes a thin long stream helps prevent them.

PVA glue is very similar to the "medium" or binder in acrylic paint... so if it ends up yellowing, some "fine art" grade acrylic paints and mediums that are specifically formulated for light fastness and to prevent yellowing would probably work. Like... Liquitex basics titanium white and use either matte medium or gloss medium to "dilute" the white (to adjust the transparency). Optionally throw a layer of varnish over the top to help protect it and add super extra yellowing protection.

About the oven drying attempt: "White PVA, Polyurethane glues, contact cements typically fail above 150 f or 80c." Woodworkers will usually use a heat gun to take apart glued joints. You reflowed the glue when you heated it up.

This may truly be the best RU-vid channel ever created. Mostly subjects I don't remotely care about and yet I'm still watching the whole thing with all my attention, and still end up remembering and using what he explains in my life somehow

A few tips from the miniatures side of RU-vid: Like James Wood said, matte medium would be a good substitute for PVA, but so would Mod Podge (very similar to Elmers, with slight differences that might help out, not sure in this case). Also, to help with the bubbles, pour your mixture from height. The long stream it will form will help keep bubbles from traveling down from the cup. For other colors, alcohol ink might be worth trying. It's gained recent popularity for painting because it's more translucent.

For the bubbles after pouring, you might have better luck using a small torch (eg. a creme brulee torch) and very quickly sweeping over the surface. Be careful not to hold in any one spot for any amount of time. This is what artists who do acrylic pouring do, and it seems to work really well. Otherwise, it looks like a great job! Well done :)

I'm curious how it'd look with green since you mentioned coloring. Sorta like those old brass desk lamps with green covers.

You can use a palm sander to get bubbles out of liquids! Just turn it upside down and remove the sandpaper, then hold the cup on the sanding surface. The vibration agitates it enough to make the bubbles rise quickly.

Pouring tip: when pouring silicon liquid tooling into a mold, we would always pour from high up to allow the silicon to "ribbon", or pour out in a very thin sheet or stream, as it would squeeze out a lot of the bubbles, and usually wouldn't entrain more when it pooled. Your mixture may not be thick enough to do this properly, but it's worth a shot?

A couple of bubble-popping tips from the world of silicone/resin molds: - pouring the solution from a higher position so the stream is very narrow which can pop bubbles mid-stream - hitting the bubbles with a heat gun/hairdryer to inflate and pop them

The "Milk Glass" fixture reminds me of all of those real Milk Glass ceiling lights and table lamps that my grandparents had in their 1950's constructed home, and they all eventually got replaced over the years. The clear fixture looks like the dome on top of the robot from the original "Lost In Space" TV series. 😉

Really tempted to try this with green paint, I’ve always loved those old brass library lamps with the green glass shades.

You are not only mixing paint in the basement at 10:43 but making new friends all over the world and hanging out with the old ones. It's like an introvert friendly warm reception.

If you get a vacuum chanber, don't vacuum it TOO much because the water in the glue can boil and turn it into a bubble bath. Also get a silicone cooking sheet and hold it between the opening and a board. You then have a closed bowl and you can really speed up the coating process

Honestly I *love* that lamp design in general save for the colourless glass - very easy to see how that not only looks weird but also how it makes the light less pleasant overall. I wonder how much more popular it would have been if they'd used milk glass or some other colour instead.

I'm impressed by how nice this looks. I have to admit, I don't really like the lamp with clear glass, but with the white color applied they are quite pretty.

15:34 - there is a technique referred to as high pour. You lift up the container high and pour the liquid slowly in a thin line or band and it minimizes the bubble forming and if there are already bubbles, you can get rid of them that way. Sometimes gently tapping the container can agitatet the bubbles to raise to the tip and it helps them pop (you can try the container that holds you mix or the bulb in this case). You an also introduce some heat to the bubbles but I'm not so sure about those details. The Crafsman (yes, no T in his name) has some videos on silocone that can help you.

FYI this is the IKEA ÅTERSKEN lamp, no longer available in table lamp but they do have a similar ceiling lamp, and also some wall sconce lamps (oddly already with white/frosted glass)

17:11 I'm unreasonably happy to learn there's someone else out there in the world that feels the exact same way about owning a vacuum chamber as I do.

FYI I find ethanol (I use methylated spirits) can thin PVA glue quite nicely, either instead of water or in combination with water. I find it makes it quite smooth and makes it dry a little faster as the ethanol evapourates.

+1 to what others have suggested: give acrylic medium a try instead of glue. Medium is the glue and thickness of paint, you can actually make your own paint by mixing pigment power right into medium to create exactly what you need!

A similar mixture can be used to give 3D PLA prints a metallic coating. Use very fine metal powder instead of the craft paint and a little less water. Works also very well. It's a mixture we used long a time ago in the 70s to pimp small objects around modell train landscapes. 🙂And yes, build milky glass lights for modell street lights.

A friend taught me a painting tip when working on smaller pieces that don't weigh too much (such as your lampshade); I've been using it on ceramic planters. When you're trying to paint something all at once, there's always the problem of the paint being messed up where it comes in contact with the surface it rests on, in your case the plastic cups. Find a couple pieces of quarter-round molding at the hardware store. Home Depot sells one made of white plastic which is even better than the wood (at least for this use). Set the molding down on its rounded side, so when you place your painted item on it, it has only minimal contact with the surface, resulting in a much smaller area of paint that gets disturbed while drying. This has worked really well for me and has drastically cut down on the amount of touchup work. Good luck!

Concerning paint for Christmas lightbulbs, make sure to look at art student grade paints, those usually have more specific information on their characteristics, while also not becoming too expensive for what is a cheap use, as opposed to artist grade paints. There's certain pigments which are transparent, and those can let light through when applied in thin layers. Some examples: - Naphtol red (look for cadmium red hues if the pigment isn't explicitly stated) - Diarylide yellow (a yellow-orange, like the one seen in modern pavement markings) - Pthalocyanine blue (a highly saturated and really intense blue, still transparent) - Greens made by mixing Aryline yellow (light yellow color) with Pthalocyanine green (dark and highly saturated turquoise color) - Dioxazyne violet

I do acrylic paint pouring art all the time which is essentially what you did. To get rid of the bubbles you can immediately grab a small butane torch like the ones used for cooking. Run it quickly over the painted surface while it’s wet. Be careful not to touch the flame to the paint and watch the bubbles pop. Also I wonder how well it will last as the bulbs still put off heat even though they are led. I would recommend skipping the glue and water and use flotrol that u can get from Home Depot or Lowe’s. Also acrylic paints don’t usually yellow or crack as they are somewhat flexible. You can also try fabric paint or leather paint as it’s meant to be flexible. Anyway you had a fantastic idea. Hard to believe they don’t make a spray on milk substance.

‘Pass me a popsicle stick please’ would be a totally understandable phrase here in New Zealand. What I’m not so sure of is why I’m so into this video, when I know I will never perform the process myself. Excellent work.

has the coating yellowed over the past 11 months?

“As I said, this is messy, you will make messes, embrace the mess. Life is messy.” Thank you, I needed this today.

Nice! For cleanup and/or starting over, isopropyl alcohol should easily dissolve both the acrylic paint and PVA glue.

If you're really concerned about yellowing, the magic word is "archival". Searching "archival pva glue" does reveal some results, so I believe there are options. May cost more, though. For reference, light bulbs use powdered white silica.

I tried your recipe and it worked out pretty well! I don't know if it truly improved on the technique but I set the lamp bowl on a bowl of water. The humidity prolonged the drying and allowed the paint suspension to flow to a more consistent coating thickness. It took longer to dry but I think using humidity allows the bubbles to work their way out. I don't know how to send you a picture but you probably get the idea.

If you want to do colours, I recommend using acrylic ink. You can even get these inks in varying opacities. Also, mixing with water tends to cause the paint to bead up, as water has high surface tension. Add a drop of dishwasher rinse aid (I know how you feel about this...!) To defeat the surface tension. Finally, on bubbles, you can pop them all with a lighter or if you have a kitchen torch - makes very light work. Great work on this - looks like a really effective method!

As a longtime fan I just have to say, I really love the unrelenting positivity. Your snark is delightful, but the sheer joy was entirely contagious.

I'd suggest using an acrylic paint reducer instead of water and maybe airbrush transparent paint instead of craft acrylics. It might get rid of your bubble problem but it may be thinner and require more coats. There are also UV protective clear coat additives you could use instead of glue, that would keep that white from yellowing and help with durability but it would mean taking the paint off would be more work. Of course if you could get this done much nicer and faster with a spray gun but that's not exactly as cheap and simple as this.

This is the first time the secondary channel has been recommended to me, and though the first channel is my favorite, I love how informal this one is and how relaxing it is to see Alec like this

I really liked the style of this video! It has a different vibe than normal. I enjoyed the DIY aspect of it, and it felt like you were more connected to us. Well done!

I'm glad you pointed out it's equal parts by weight, because I usually think of equal parts by volume

I use lineco pva glue for my book binding that's supposed to never yellow. It's a little more expensive than Elmer's but if yours does ever yellow it might be worth it to look into lineco.

About the bubbles - a common way bakers and concrete crafters will use to pop bubbles in their mediums is by picking up the container and tapping it against a table/horizontal surface. (Unless you're making macarons, where they'll violently slam the cooking sheet on the bench) It brings any bubbles from deeper in the batter/cement up to the surface to pop!

We call them paddle pop sticks in Australia, but we're so infused with American culture here that popsicle stick is also completely understandable. I love the precision of your thinking and work. It's a breath of fresh air

An idea to get the edges without drips (at least at first)... Use some plastic wrap to "seal" up the opening long enough to roll the mixture over all the interior surface area then remove the plastic wrap for the drying process

I love green glass lamp shades, so I will definitely be trying this technique out using green paint. Also, you can make a really simple vacuum chamber if you have a vacuum sealer and a mason jar adapter. Use a wide mouth jar that the cup fits inside of.

I swear, Alec has an bet with himself at this point. "Ok, what mindbogglingly boring topic can I make a video on that everyone will still sit through and be entertained?" Seriously, he is an artist with these topics. He shows us the art and beauty of the mundane.

I was diagnosed with insonnia, i take 2 different medication: zolpidem and trazodon, but in the last few months your videos change my life. You have a calm, relaxing voice and mood. I love your contents, you are my new bed time story :) keep going and thanks

Oh boy I was wondering how we were following up the christmas light painting insanity. Glad there's another entrant in the "Alec goes insane over lights" lineup. Just to be clear I'm 100% behind this. It looks great.

I don’t often get first but when I do, I’m glad it’s here

I appreciate that you didn’t speed up your process. This is what doing arts and crafts is like, and I find it delightful 😊

I love how chill and conversational this video felt. This is a great format and I love no effort november

This whole darn video is like watching paint dry!!! Actually I watched the whole thing in real time thinking what an awesome idea this was and how much I enjoy the look of milk glass and thinking of crafty projects where I could use this.

You might consider using mod podge instead of pure PVA, it's more designed for this kind of application and easy to find in craft stores.

less bubbles is more better... words to live by. Those lamps look fantastic, thanks for sharing this.

A technique for bubbles I’ve seen in epoxy pours is to hit the surface really quickly with a torch. The heat seems to make the air expand and pop the bubbles. Plus you get to play with a torch and that’s always fun

In the UK, we call "popsicles" either "ice lollies" or just "lollies" - with lolly being short for lollipop, and the sticks are called "lollipop sticks".

I am pretty impressed by your result, particularly because the lamp light in the finished product becomes far more comfortable to look at without having to squint or feel like the direct light is overwhelming close up, so I would probably want to use something like this if I ever get a lamp with a clear glass top, especially because of the comfort it would provide to my eyes.

I began a course on watercolour, having never ever used it before, and I find these unedited videos to be very therapeutic. It helps me concentrate and feel not so alone. Thank you for 'talking to a camera' in your spare time.

Pro tip: tape the edge. Masking tape can help resolve drips going on the outside, and you can score whatever widths you need with a craft knife before scoring the end and ripping it off that way for thinner edges if you do not want to create a higher edge.

A one day build? Not what I expected but even more delighted, brilliant idea. Btw for anyone curious, the lamp is called ikea ätersken table lamp if you can manage to find one.

Omg. You are a savior. Lol. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for to update a 1990s light in my kitchen until we do a full remodel. Much appreciated.

Use a a torch or fireplace lighter to pop those bubbles without traces. That's how it's done after pouring larger surfaces of resins. Also, I believe that using more of your liquid would make it easier and more evenly covered as well as more evenly dripping while drying. Small computer fan blowing into the center from beneath would probably help it dry faster as it will force moist air out.

Honestly, I've been watching your videos for ages and I have to say it's good to see you smiling. It looks like you really enjoyed making this one. Looking forward to more videos!

I love your channels so much. The combination of you finding interesting things to say and teach on topics I’ve often never even considered before, and explain yourself clearly, while being so comfortable speaking on camera, is just such a winning combo. Also, I’ll almost certainly use this technique someday. So thank you for that! Now if you could come up with some way to make ‘smoked glass,’ I’d be eternally grateful.

Interesting technique. I have collected a few miniature glass bottles for an LED desk lamp project but hadn't figured out how to frost them yet. Going to give this a go!

Alec -- I love you, man. What a cool video getting to see you more casual and "no-effort" while still excitedly and methodically talking about your interests and fun nerdy things you learn about. Keep up the great work; I have nothing but good things to say about you :)

Do let us know how it goes after like a year - I'd be interested in an update on how it ages. But as it is, looking great!

It's always nice to see Alec experience the occasional win.

This is VERY useful for me, i love making decorative lamps, and is always on the look out for nice glass pieces and light diffusers, im gonna try this :)

As others have mentioned, you can vibrate to help get the bubbles out, and one other trick is to pour the mixture in a thin stream from a height, which allows time for bubbles to pop before they reach the surface. Just an idea for the next lamp. :)

Love how you had to emphasize that while you are applying paint to a light fixture, you're not doing a Christmas lights video

This was the most relaxing DIY + vacuum chamber purchase justification thought process I'll see all year

Currently, I am in the process of remaking a light fixture and changing the glass to resemble milk glass. But I didn't know how to do it. You are the only one doing lightning milk glass. Thanks for the tutorial and showing how to mix the products. I'm so excited to try it after watching your video. Thanks and wish me luck!😊❤

No we definitely need a Christmas light video.

Very nicely done. That looks amazing. And getting a vac chamber changed my life. I use it mostly with silicone and resin for model making but it has 1000s of uses. One thing that might help in the absence of a vac chamber (for anyone out there following along) when you pour it in do so slowly and from a higher elevation. Just a few feet and a gentle thin ribbon will pop tons of bubbles as gravity stretches them out. That's what we used to do with silicone per-aformentioned vac chamber.

This came out looking really really good, I have to say, visually at least on camera it fools me pretty good. A few small tips. After you mix, pour it into a second container. You start close to the container them pull it up higher up as soon as you stablish a stream. Does two things. It will reduce bubbles (the mix will drip in a long thin stream, which will make it easier for gas bubbles to leave the liquid on its way down), and also guarantee you only have the well mixed parts in your final mix, because stuff near walls is always prone to not mix. You can also use the same pouring technique when putting it inside of the glass. You probably can do it in two layers. First a apply a version of the mixture with a paintbrush as a thin layer (I am assuming a thinner mix is better, but messing around is worth it), so that it can dry fast. Once it is tacky, you then do something like you did here to fill in the gaps in the brush strokes and make it perfect, but hopefully needing to worry less about the edges, they can be done entirely by brush later if needs be. Alternatively, just cap the bottom hole with packing tape, make a hole at the center to pour the mix in, do how you did, then when you flip it upside down, put a cup under said hole to collect the extra goop. After dry, cut the tape off rather than just peeling it off to avoid tearing out your freshly applied coating.

This is fantastic, like that is a SHOCKINGLY even coating! And it has an easy to remember formula of common materials! And most importantly, it's reversible, you can scrape it off the glass if you ever change your mind! And you could make the craft paint ANY COLOR TOO. The possibilities have me really excited :D Thank you so much for sharing your discovery/methods

What I like about this is the idea of being able to rejuvenate some older light fixtures where the milk coating is worn out. I imagine on a flatter type of glass you could try masking to create patterns as well. I wanna experiment a bit

This reminds me a lot of a current popular painting technique called "acrylic pouring" - I'll echo some of the other comments and say that (for a bit pricier, but more durable) result, you could use "flow acrylic medium". It's meant for exactly a situation like this

This was so much fun to watch! Your excitement is really contagious! Thank you for sharing!

I would love to see a follow up video in a year or two about how well this holds up

Oh yeah, for the christmas light painting thing, I'd rec Tim Holtz alcohol inks. They're basically liquid sharpie, it's not as fade resistant as I'd like but you can buy it at the craft store and it comes in plenty of colors. Also for the bubbles, a Hitachi wand has many uses and adding a little vibration to things makes the bubbles in thicker liquids come out.

Actually love this chill art attack style of content! Connects attack, you just need a "and here's one I made earlier" 😂

You, sir, are a true DIY genius. The essence of, "I'll bet I can figure this out".

My preferred method for popping bubbles is with a small catering blow torch. Lots of artists will do something similar when varnishing

This year I discovered the infinite adjustability of Mogul/six way floor lamps and have bought and restored two and given another to my sister as a housewarming gift. They are just absolutely a joy to fiddle with and find the right combination of settings for any situation, all the way down to the really fancy ones that have the nightlights in the base. Soooo, if you’re still feeling enthusiastic about highly customizable and extremely useful lamp designs, I’d recommend looking at one!

For the Christmas lights, you can buy straight pigments that haven't been mixed with a binder, and then I imagine you could just add a little of that straight to the PVA. They produce very intense colors

This is something I’ve been looking to find a good way to do for the last few months! Well, less for glass, but for acrylic light diffusers. I don’t see why this wouldn’t work for that!

I love PVA glue! I used to mix it & baby powder to make spackle, and would make small gems from it too. I even made a pretty big gem for a Sailor Venus cosplay (the gem on her chest). Never finished that cosplay, but I did make a sucessful wand and gem for it!

If you want to cut messes, carefully mask a temporary lip so you can move the paint to the edge that you create with the masked lip. Since your shape is so open, this is easy but even if it was smaller, apply the masking after adding the paint (definitely remove the masking before the paint dries)