Alcohol Ink Mason Jar Revisit


Three or so years ago, I inked the inside of a mason jar that I had lying around. I put the jar on my kitchen window sill pretty much immediately after inking it, and there it sat for 3 years. I loved to watch how the colors changed depending on the light in the window. Well, alcohol ink fades in the sun, so it needed a refresh.


The colors had been bright blue and aqua and had faded. (My etched bird candle holders have lived on the window sill for quite some time too, with their heads turned permanently towards the colorful jar.)


In addition to the fading, some of the ink had turned grainy. I'm guessing it was what was left over after the lighter areas of ink had faded.


So the first thing I did was use a pipette to drip a little bit of rubbing alcohol into the jar to reactivate the inks. I turned the jar and let a little run out onto a napkin. I wanted to make sure I wasn't just adding ink over top of the grainy looking bits. After I had the ink free flowing again, I turned it several times and then left it to dry.


When I came back to it, I added drips of bright green, pink, and purple alcohol ink to try to break up the blue and aqua that was leftover in the jar. We've had a stretch of very dreary winter days here lately, so it was really hard to get enough light to take good photos. But I did manage a fun shot of the inside of the jar as I was finishing up adding inks. You can tell just how much brighter the colors are with light behind them.


When I felt like I had good coverage and some brighter colors added to the jar, I put it back in its place of honor. Hopefully, it will stay bright and beautiful for another 3 years!

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