Jul 15, 2014

Craft Lab: "Tie-Dye" Tiles

Swirling colors make infinite designs in psychedelic hues.... groovy. 

Craft Lab Project:  Tie-Dye Tiles
Supplies:
Sharpie markers in as wide a variety of colors as you can afford
blank ceramic tiles
eye droppers
91% rubbing alcohol
small plastic containers for holding alcohol
(optional) clear spray paint

Today's class was guest taught by the multi-talented Karen Corbeil of the newly founded "The Bodgery."  Thanks, Karen!

 What we did:
1.  Color a tile with Sharpies.  Start with the lightest shade so you don't ruin all your yellow markers.
 2.  Drip drops of rubbing alcohol onto the marker spots and watch the colors swirl!
 3. (not pictured) Allow to dry and seal with a coat of clear spray paint.  We instructed kids to do this step at home because it would take longer to wait for the spray paint to dry at the library.  Plus, paint fumes + alcohol fumes in the library seemed like a bad idea.

Variations:
Some kids drew beautiful designs with the markers:
 

 Some tried dripping from a tall height:
 And got some great splatter results!
 This tile started off with a more squiggly pattern,
 But after adding enough alcohol, it all blended into a smooth color which reacted nicely to having drops of alcohol added strategically:

After they were dry, some went back to add more drawn elements:
Blowing the alcohol around produced interesting effects:
 
 And some tried drawing with the eyedropper tip dipped in alcohol, to drag the color around more precisely.
We had a great turnout and everyone LOVED this simple project!  Thanks for introducing us to tie-dye tiles, Karen!


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