Testing a New Craft Technique

Hello!  Well, I keep saying this, but long time no see.  I don't know what gives, but I just can't seem to get myself motivated enough to sit in my craft room and get something done.  I've made a couple little things here and there, but just really haven't had the mojo to put them up on my blog.  But today is different.  I was looking at a couple things I saw on Pinterest and saw this post on Yvette's blog, Abernathy Crafts, for a white cup decorated with Sharpie markers.  Now I had tried to make something similar a couple years ago and coated my image with a clear ceramic sealer by Delta called Air Dry PermaEnamel.  Well, it didn't work.  Everything came off in the dishwasher.  I was so disappointed with the product.  Another $8 down the drain.  Being the hard-head that I am, I bought another ceramic paint called Vitrea 160 by Pebeo about 6 months ago, but hadn't used it - until the other day.  While my results weren't perfect, I think that I may have to try a full scale project now that I've seen the results of my test.  Here's what I did:

I used a Sharpie marker and drew on the bottom of a white cup (I didn't want to ruin the whole cup in case it didn't work).  I let the ink dry (probably about 30 min just to be sure) then I painted over the image with Vitrea 160 Gloss Medium.  It smeared the ink a little, but that might be eliminated by setting the ink by baking it (20min @ 350F).  I followed the directions on the bottle for the Vitrea 160 and let it air dry for 24 hrs., then I baked it for 40min @ 325F.  I noticed that the ink colour had changed when I took the cup out of the oven.  The black ink was now a dark purply-bluish colour, but its kind of pretty.  I let the cup cool and stuck it in the dishwasher and washed a load of dishes (one way to get me to load the dishwasher).  I was very surprised, and pleased, when I took the cup out of the dishwasher.  The image was still there.  The last thing that kind of didn't turn out is that there are those brown marks on the cup.  Trust me, they weren't there when I started - this is a brand new, never used before cup.  I think the water/detergent and heat from the dishwasher kind of turned the coating brown at the edges or where it was thin.

All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with my test results, so I think I will make the cup project I had planned on doing a couple years ago.  I will post pictures of the finished project when its done.

So that's all for now.  I'll try to come back sooner than later.

Talk to you later....

Cat

P.S. I just did another test on the cup and used one of those plastic pot scrubber thingies on it and it didn't scratch any of the ink off.  That's promising for those of you hand washing your dishes.  It did scrub off some of the brown marks (which is what I was really trying to do).  Just thought I'd let you know...

See ya...