DIY Mosaic Candle Holder Project

Don’t you just love to set a warm and relaxing mood during the evening by lighting a lovely candle. The glow of candle light is simply mesmerizing. Why not step it up a notch and create a visually stunning holder out of scrap stained glass and beads?

I found this candle holder on clearance at a craft shop. I probably won’t use the iron base that came with it, but will use it for another project perhaps later on. The lovely thick amber glass holder is what I’m really interested in working on.

I’ve decided on a turquoise, tan and pale pink color scheme for this little gem which is 4 inches wide and 6 inches tall. I’ve also decided to work with irregular cuts of these colors of stained glass but will trim the top and bottom edge in very pale pink squares. Glass pink beads will weave around the cylindrical base.

Materials Need for DIY Mosaic Candle Holder

• Clear glass cylindrical candle holder
• Turquoise, tan, light pink and pale pink scrap stained glass pieces.
• Pink opaque glass or acrylic beads
• Glass cutter
• Running pliers
• Mosaic cutters
• Clear water resistant adhesive
• Black grout
• Latex fortified additive
• Mixing bowl, spoon, sponge and some old rags or towels
• Garden gloves

How to Make Your Very Own DIY Mosaic Candle Holder

Below you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to make your own lovely mosaic candle holder at home.

Step 1: Gather Your Materials and Tools

Before you get started, make sure you have everything you’ll need for your project within arms reach.

I found a very basic candle holder for a few dollars on clearance. I’ve got  my four different colors of stained glass  and tools. So let’s get started!

Step 2: Glue on Your Glass/Acrylic Beads

Begin gluing on an irregular line of your glass/acrylic beads. Continue gluing until you’ve wrapped a row of beads continuously around your base.

Step 3: Cut Your Glass

Firstly, let’s cut up the three different colors of glass that will make up the body of our candle holder.

Take your glass cutter and create a score line through the center of your light pink glass.

Line the center of the tip of your running pliers up with the score line and apply enough pressure to break the glass.

Pick you glass cutter back up and create irregular score lines all over one of the pieces. The idea here is to provide yourself with a variety of different shaped pieces of glass to work with.

Again, line the center of the tip of your running pliers up with the score line an apply enough pressure to break the glass into many smaller pieces.

Repeat this process with the other two colors of stained glass.

Now it’s time to cut the pale pink squares that will create the top and bottom border of your candle holder.

Begin by scoring the pale pink glass vertically with your glass cutter.

Then score it horizontally creating squares.

Line the center of the head of your running pliers up with each vertical score line and apply just enough pressure to break the vertical scores.

Do the same for your horizontal scores breaking out each individual squares.

Now you have all the glass pieces needed to create your stunning mosaic candle holder.

Step 4: Glue Your Glass onto Your Base

Begin gluing on your three different shades of irregularly shaped glass.

You’re going to hug the line of glass/acrylic beads with your pieces of stained glass.

Take pieces and mark them accordingly to fit. Then cut them with your mosaic cutters and glue them in place.

Cut the tip off with your mosaic cutters and cut the piece in half. The reason that you need to cut the piece into two pieces is so that the pieces lay flush against the glass. The longer single piece will not lay flush on the cylindrical base and the glass pieces need to not only hug the bead line but your base as well.

Glue both pieces in place.

Continue marking, cutting and gluing on pieces of your three different shades of irregularly cut glass.

Line the top and bottom rims with your pale pink glass squares that you cut.

Mark another piece to fit. Remember that you’re simply staggering colors to create a nice color variation on our base.

Cut the tip off with your mosaic cutters and glue the piece in place.

Mark a square light pink piece to fit.

Score the piece with your glass cutter and then break the score lines with your running pliers.

Glue the piece in place.

Continue marking, cutting and gluing until full mosaic coverage is achieved!

This is a shot of the mosaic candle holder lit prior to grouting. I wanted to show you the dramatic difference once it is grouted.

Now, Time to Grout!

You’ve full covered your plain old candle holder base with gorgeous pieces of stained glass and glass beads. To complete your project, you’ll need to prepare your grouting mixture , apply the mixture all over this surface that you’ve covered and clean the surface thoroughly.

If you’ve never grouted before, check out my post on how to grout your DIY mosaics here.

Step 5: Gather Your Grouting Materials

To grout, all you’ll need is your dry grout, latex additive, mixing bowl, spoon, cloth, sponge, garden gloves and water.

I would recommend covering the surface you’re going to grout on with either newspaper or old rags or towels to prevent any of the grout from staining your surface.

Step 6: Mix, Apply and Clean off Your Excess Grout

You’re ready to grout! First, mix enough latex additive into your dry grout mixture to achieve the consistency of oily peanut butter.

Don’t worry if you pour too much latex additive into the bowl and your mixture is runny, You can always adjust to the proper consistency by adding some more dry grout.

Once your grout mixture is ready, cover the entire surface of your holder with grout.  Then, with a moistened sponge, clean off the excess grout. Make sure your close to a water source as you will need to rinse your sponge out repeatedly.

Final wipe down of your surface should be done with a dry rag or microfiber cloth.

As you can see, you can achieve a number of nuances with your stained glass mosaic candle holder by selecting different types of lighting sources such as a tea candle, battery operated single flame candles, and strings of fairy lights.

You’ve created such a stunning mosaic piece! I hope you enjoyed this project and it leads you further into the world of DIY mosaics.

*Tips regarding cleaning and detailing stained glass mosaic lit projects:

• Before ever grouting your piece, take a pair of tweezers and remove as much glue as you can from between the joints. This saves time having to do so after you grout your piece.
• Light your piece right after grouting so that you can see where there is glue blocking a joint where grout should be so that you can make your corrections by removing the glue with your tweezers and replacing grout in the joint.
• Even after grouting and cleaning with a moistened sponge and rag, go back to the piece a half hour later and clean with a both again as grout leaves a fine residue that needs to be removed.
• Make certain to create a nice grout line on the top and bottom edges of your piece. If need be, paint the edges to complete the piece with acrylic paint and a sealer.
• If you see the next day that you have left grout in place that you shouldn’t have, take a sharp edge or tweezer edge and remove the grout by scraping it off the glass pieces.
• It’s imperative that you use only latex additive mixed in to your grout when working with glass on glass mosaics. The latex additive allows the grout to adhere to the glass. Without it the grout would eventually pull away from the glass.
• It is also imperative that you use a clear water resistant adhesive. Attempt to cover each piece you glue on with full coverage on the underside. You will always get some seepage of grout under a few pieces of glass here and there but you can minimize this by making sure that you completely cover each piece prior to gluing it down.
• Select glass that isn’t overly textured as this will cause much work with the cleaning process after grouting. It’s also more difficult to score and break. For beginners, work with glass that is lovely but easy to score and break and clean after grouting.

In ending this post, open your minds to the amazing possibilities of what you can create with scrap stained glass on glass bases and some cheap battery operated fairy lights. Any time you’re at your craft store or at a garage sale, keep your eyes wide open to that glass object that could become your next potential gorgeous stained glass mosaic lit piece!