Monday, January 21, 2013

Pinterest Fail: Baking Sharpies onto Porcelain

Oh, I wanted this to work. I wanted this to work so badly.


It seems so simple: draw what you'd like on porcelain with a Sharpie, bake it, and enjoy it! The website I got this from even said I could run it through the dish washer.


So I got an adorable pitcher, some Sharpies of various colors, and went to work.


I found a pattern I loved online and slowly drew it on the vase, careful not to touch that areas I had already drawn, lest I smudge my masterpiece before baking it.


They had suggested 30 minutes at 350. I decided to err on the side of overdone and left it in for a solid hour, placing it gently on a heating pad to cool fully after I was done.


I returned to it about 5 hours later, when I knew it was completely cooled. I picked it up with my hands -- which happened to be damp -- only to find that my thumb was already smudging some of the artwork. Uh oh.


I decided to give the project the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was just excess Sharpie that I had smudged off. And I wasn't about to put it in the dish washer, in case it needed a more gentle cleaning.


The problem is that it could withstand no cleaning. After a simple rinse in the sink with soap, water, and a sponge, I was left with maybe 40% of my design.


This number dropped to 10% once I ran it through the washing machine.


The plus side is that, since it was so easy for the pattern to wash off, all I needed was a sponge to get the rest off. At the end of the day, I do now have a beautiful new water pitcher for my plant and my cat's water bowl. I guess it'll just have to be design-free.

3 comments:

  1. I had to wash my dollar tree vases with rubbing alcohol before the glitter and mod podge would stick to them. Maybe the pitcher has a chemical coating on it? Your vine drawings were really pretty, though!

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  2. I have heard from others, who have tried and failed at this as well, that you need to use oil based Sharpie markers in order for it to bake on properly. I'd love to try this myself, plain mugs are a dime a dozen at thrift stores :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. also, I heard you had to let it cool in the oven

    ReplyDelete

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