A good friend gave me a vase with small glass beads on it, asking me if I could use it by taking the beads off and reusing them plus the vase. Of course I said yes and set to work on it in between working on the other things I mentioned in my last post.
Using warm water with a paint brush and digging out the grout and then the beads seemed to be working but was really hard on my hands for very little to show for it after working at it for an hour.
Unfortunately, as I was digging out the grout, I noticed a small crack in the glass and when I pushed on a certain spot on the vase with one of the tools, it cracked a whole lot worse and I knew I had lost the chance to use the vase again!
So I began to nip around the vase, getting small pieces of glass with the beads on it until only the bottom with its large cracks remained.
At this point, I thought soaking the pieces in warm soapy water would do the trick to help them separate from the glass. It didn't really help much but I was able to get a few more beads saved.
What I'm doing now, and what seems to be working, although still very slowly, is soaking them in white vinegar, digging out a little grout around the edges of the beads, then nipping the glass they are attached to a little bit, causing the adhesive that was used to hold these little things in place to disengage from the glass. At that point, I can pop off a few beads around the outer edges and continue to soak the rest. And repeat until it's completely finished.
Not many people realize the hard work and dedicated process it takes to do things like this. This will take at least 3 more days before I have all the beads off of the glass. It's worth it, though, and why I continue. Aren't those little glass beads cool?!
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