Alcohol Ink Coasters - for alcoholic drinks of course

This one is short - and hopefully sweet...

You may have seen these – coasters made from ceramic tiles decorated with alcohol inks. They are all over Pinterest and a search with Google Images shows more examples than is comfortable.

I saw the original tutorial here: http://52weeksproject.com/post/29302076841/guest-post-alcohol-ink-dyed-coasters. And I thought it would be a fun little "make" for house gifts around Christmas time. Besides, I had all the alcohol inks left over from updating my kitchen back splash last year.

Well, Christmas came and went and it was well into January before I actually got around to having a go. A quick make? Not for me. They took way longer than I expected. There is a lot of waiting around to see what happens, during which time you get to inhale alcohol fumes. And not the good kind either. And then inevitably you have to wash the ink off the tile when the result is ugly and try again. And wait again. I found these hard to make look good!

And yet the process is strangely mesmerizing. Essentially you apply some rubbing alcohol to a 4" ceramic tile and float some drops of alcohol ink on top. And wait for them to spread and merge. Or not. Or merge too much and get muddy. I also had to fight the overwhelming urge to poke at the ink which I learned is not a good technique (more washing off).

So, only 4 got made in the end. They were hard to photograph – at least with my limited skills – so I scanned them instead. The colours are more intense in real life. I guess they're kind of pretty in a Hubble-telescope-picture-of-a-nebula kind of way.

You can pick the one you want to use next time you come over for drinks.







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