September 06, 2017

Repurposing Markers

So after my last post on MARKERS ( http://www.artwithmre.com/2017/09/markers.html ), and the amazing response/discussion on Facebook that came out of it......I thought I'd share about my repurposing of markers into liquid watercolor (I thought I'd done this recently..but I couldn't find it...only a post from 2011 when I first tried it - http://www.artwithmre.com/2011/05/as-seen-on-blogspot.html ).


So a couple years ago I started repurposing markers WITH my students.  I brought in empty water bottles(washed & dried)...and filled them about half full with tap water.  The students and I took our box of dying/dead markers...and started coming up with color combinations we wanted to try. We made predictions of what colors we thought they'd make.  It was science, writing, and art all rolled into one fun experiment!!


You can easily drop 6 markers into a standard water bottle...possibly more depending on the thickness.  We noticed our colors were pretty light the following week.  So I told the students we'd allow evaporation to happen...and that should make a more concentrated color.  We left them for over a month before we tested them again.  The color was deeper/richer when we retested them.  Then I just decided to leave them...and see what would happen.  


A few grew mold.....but most became great liquid watercolor to use in our classroom!  The best part...they were already in a bottle!! Easy to pour..easy to store!!!  





1 comment:

  1. You can also try to pull out the ink-middle part of the markers and drop them into glue bottles. It's pretty fascinating to watch the process, and the colors will separate. Then you have colored glue! Some markers work better than others. With Crayola markers, you can pull out the tips.

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