Spray Painted and Alcohol Inked Washer Necklaces


After sharing the washer jewelry projects collection last week, I had an idea I had to try. I've inked on spray paint a few times before, but I've never started washer necklaces on spray paint. I figured it would make the ink pop and provide a contrast if I let it peek through the ink.


Since this was a bit of an experiment, I went through my stash of washers and picked out some dinged ones, and then I used a piece of sandpaper to scuff them up to get the spray paint to stick better. I used an all-purpose spray paint and gave them a couple of quick coats and let it dry overnight.


The next day, I put down a silicone craft mat and grabbed my inks. I also got out my rubbing alcohol, a couple of paintbrushes, and a hand bulb blower.


Since this was a new way to ink washers, I started inking without taking pictures. I covered the whole washer in purple ink and then came back with more ink and rubbing alcohol to get the ink to move around and create patterns. Unfortunately, the paint underneath the ink reacted with the alcohol ink (I think it was where the first drop of ink landed). I'm not sure why. Maybe it needed longer than a day to cure, maybe it was all of the rubbing alcohol on the spray paint...who knows.


I attempted to hide the bubbling area with metallic ink and then darker ink, but that just made it peel up. So, I carefully used a paintbrush to remove the paint that had peeled and set the washer aside to dry.


On the next washers, I intentionally used less rubbing alcohol and allowed the ink to dry between layers as best as I could. None of the rest of the washers peeled (even the one I ended up starting over and drowned in rubbing alcohol to get most of the ink off), so I'm not really sure why that washer peeled.


For this washer, I started with blue and then added in some green ink and layered it overtop until I liked the way that it looked. I used the hand bulb blower to move the ink around on the washer.


I decided to leave some of the white paint showing through on this one to provide contrast.


After all of the other washers were covered in ink, I went back to the purple washer and added a bit of ink to hide the bare spot where the paint peeled. With the washer mostly dry, the ink hid it pretty well.


Since they were pretty tacky from the ink (and possibly the spray paint reactivating), I let them dry for a few hours before I came back and sealed the tops. I used UV resin. (Another good method of sealing them is to use Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. Check out these flamed washers to see the difference.)

I made a couple of rings around the larger ones and just a single ring around the smaller washers with the uv resin.


Then I used a toothpick to push the ink carefully up to the edges of the washer and to pop any large bubbles. Then I used a lighter to pop any small bubbles. Be careful not to put too much resin on the washers as it can break surface tension and run off the edge if you're not careful.


Then I used a UV light to cure the resin (mine took 3 minutes to cure hard, then I set it in a sunny spot to finish curing)


I used some faux suede cord to string the washers up into necklaces.


Even though they were a bit tricky, they came out pretty nice in the end. I think I'd sand a bit more and let the paint dry for a few days before attempting this again. As I went back to look at other projects I did with spray paint and alcohol ink, I realized this was the first time I tried dropping ink onto spray paint. I have used the plastic wrap method and spray painted over dry ink in the past, so I think I may need to do additional testing with this drop ink method to figure out what was going on.

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