Blown Alcohol Ink Mugs

I've decorated a few mugs with alcohol ink over the years. As much fun as it's been to create these decorated mugs, I never really know how best to seal them so they can be used as mugs. I've used some as pen cups, but you only need so many pen cups. So, when I found some white mugs at Dollar Tree, I decided to try to decorate some mugs and test out some sealants.

To make sure these mugs could be used as mugs, I started by cutting a strip of permanent vinyl about an inch wide to wrap around the top of the mugs to keep sealant and inks off of the part of the mug that would touch your lips.

I selected some sailboat blue for my first ink to apply on the mug. For my past mug projects (using mugs from Big Lots), I was able to drip the ink onto the mug and control the way that it traveled by carefully rotating the mug. I was even able to thin it a bit and control it's movement. The glossy finish on the mugs from Dollar Tree made it much more difficult to control the movement of the ink, so my ink kind of went all over the place.

I opted for a more saturated color to see if it was a bit easier to control for the second color attempt. I used boysenberry--a deep purple.

Then I added some botanical to add a darker green to the mix. By this point, I was pretty unhappy with how the inks were looking, so I decided to shift gears.

I got out my needle tip bottle filled with rubbing alcohol and the hand bulb and started thinning the ink and moving it around to mix the colors. It started looking a bit better, so I added some limeade and continued mixing, adding inks, adding rubbing alcohol, and blowing it around until I had most of the mug covered in inks.

After the mugs were covered, I let them dry a bit so I could handle them. Then I used a paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol to clean the handle, the bottom of the mugs, and a bit along the vinyl taped tops of the mugs.

I let my mugs dry for a couple hours before I sprayed them with a couple of coats of Kamar Varnish. Kamar Varnish is made by Krylon and sold in the art or craft supply sections of stores (not in the spray paint section). It doesn't react with the alcohol inks, so it works great for setting the alcohol inks. It isn't a terribly durable finish, though. It works great for decorative items, though. So if you only plan to use your mugs for pens, you could quit after a couple of layers of Kamar.

After the Kamar had a chance to dry and set, I sprayed on three coats of Krylon's Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze.

I let the sealants cure for about a week and then tried them under cool and hot water. The ink stayed put and the sealant did not get tacky. I'll try some more tests and report back to you, but this sealant combo may be acceptable for hand washing and dishes that get light use (assuming the ink and sealant are all in noncontact areas). Some other options that I haven't tried for sealing mugs include a Lacquer called CrystaLac and food safe resins. This method is much cheaper and simpler than both of those options, so I'm going to see how durable the finish is and let you all know!