Scribble
Published On: March 4, 2014

I am not known for my patience.  I do not enjoy waiting, and I do not do it well.  So the less said about the time between when I heard about the sharpie and alcohol thing (Friday afternoon) and when I actually got some markers and started scribbling (Saturday afternoon) the better.  The Boy was napping, I was impatient, I figured I’d experiment.

Now, there were a few flaws with my experimental setup.  First, I didn’t actually have any terribly suitable fabric.  The only thing I had that even came close was a scrap of linen left over from the duvet covers I made last summer.  Second, I didn’t have any sharpies.  I did have three other markers that smelled like sharpies.  And really, I had only these three…the colors were chosen because that’s what was in the maker bin, not because I thought they went together.  So, with that rather inauspicious start, I started scribbling.  This part was fun, even if it did look rather awful.

scribble 1Then came the wadding up and dipping in a bowl of rubbing alcohol.  That was followed by a bit of squeezing.  The alcohol turned bright orange (as did my hands, this part was messy).  The change was dramatic.

scribble 2I sort of thought I’d lost too much of the distinction of the original though, so I decided to opt for more scribbling.  Well, first I let the fabric dry (didn’t take long, rubbing alcohol evaporates rather quickly), then I did more scribbling.

scribble 3Now, instead of wadding the fabric up and dunking it in alcohol, I squirted the lines with a squirt bottle and rubbed them with my finger (my very very orange finger).  It led to much more controlled chaos.

scribble 4When I liked how it looked, I ironed everything to set the colors.  I’m rather pleased with the end result.  Not, clearly, pleased enough to have made the fabric into anything.  But it was an interesting experiment.

scribble 5I’m having this urge to order a bunch of plain white dishtowels (I’m thinking these ones), buy a big package of markers, and have people over for a dorky girl scout craft day once the weather gets warmer (this is a bit messy, so I’d prefer to do it outside).  Tell me that adults need arts and crafts hour too, not just kids.  If you were invited to come over and make stuff for an hour (with a campfire and s’mores to follow) would you say yes?

 

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