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Trash To Treasure

Shattered Mirrors?

16 years ago

Has anybody ever seen (or done) "shattered" type mirrors. I don't mean accidentally! LOL

I once saw a mirror hanging over a mantel in a magzine layout and it was gorgeous! It was totally shattered into all different sized pieces, intact in a frame. Can you visualize what I'm describing? It's hard for me to tell ya.

Anyway....I'm wondering how or what you would use to apply adhesive back behind the mirror. Say you have a mirror with one large crack. How do you finish breaking the rest of it and keep it attached to the backing?

Lord, I need to go back to bed! LOL

TIA

Comments (11)

patches_02
16 years ago
Seen them do this on of the decorating shows. They put a towel over the mirror and completely broke it. Then glued it to a thin piece of wood. Let glue dry then they grouted it in. Said, if they didn't do that the edges would be to sharp. Then put it in frame. was really cute. was on one of the hgtv shows ( thinking decorating cents) you should be able to go to hgtv and do a search.
lucy
16 years ago
The trick of course is to do everything from the back, then flip it.
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Adella Bedella
16 years ago
Have you thought of putting contact paper on the back and then shattering it? Maybe that would hold it all together.
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
16 years ago
That's an idea, adellabedella, thanks.
Carol_from_ny
16 years ago
Remove the mirror from its current frame, flip the mirror over on to a thick towel so the front is laying on the towel then cover with another thick towel and smash it with a heavy object like a hammer. I wouldn't use contact paper I think you will find it makes the job harder than it needs to be. Wear gloves. If you are going to work on it over a period of time I'd slip a board under the towel so you could move if you needed to.
Whatever board you decide to mount it on I'd make sure it was bigger than you need and you have a edge around it so you can put it into another frame should you decide to go that route.
luvstocraft
16 years ago
Patches is right, they did one on an episode of Decorating Cents. And it turned out beautiful and they put it back into the original frame. I saw this (might have been a rerun) just a week or so ago so hopefully you can find it on the HGTV site. Be sure to post a pic for us when you finish it, okay? Luvs
msjay2u
16 years ago
too supersticious to do this. aren't you afraid of 7 years bad luck? LOL
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
16 years ago
Naw!!! LOL Thanks, everyone, for the ideas and suggestions.
scgrdnr
16 years ago
I taped over the front of the mirror and then shattered it. the tape holds all in place. Then glue from back to whatever wood you are using and when dry remove tape. I moistened it to make removal easier. hope this makes sense
ashli
16 years ago
Break a mirror on purpose... Wow...but I can 'imagine' that it would be pretty.
des_arc_ya_ya
Original Author
16 years ago
Nope - not on purpose but I constantly see large broken (or cracked) mirrors put out for trash pickup and I always wonder what one would look like done that way.

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