Flamed Alcohol Ink Candle Holders


One of my favorite new ways to apply alcohol ink these days is to light it on fire. You read that right--I light it on fire (if you immediately thought of Beavis and Butthead--then you too might have been a teenager in the 90s). I've done a few projects using this method, so I've worked out most of the kinks, and I'm starting to feel fairly comfortable with the process. Because of this confidence, I decided I could totally flame alcohol ink on rounded surfaces like candle holders--why not? It actually turned out pretty well, but there were a couple minor hiccups.


I chose some small votive candle holders that I picked up for 79 cents a piece at Walmart to give it the curved surfaces thing a go. I set up a cookie sheet with foil on it (mostly to keep ink off of the pan) and then rolled some foil up to make a little cradle for the candle holder to keep it from rolling. I also put a cork trivet under my pan so I could work on the kitchen table. I have also set up on my ceramic stove top with good success in the past. The flames don't get terribly large, and the things you're inking don't get too hot, but be sure to clear your area and take precautions.


Then I dripped ink on the candle holder and set it on fire. Now you're probably thinking--wait....what....that's it? Yep, pretty much. I tried adding rubbing alcohol with an eye dropper to make it light up a bit better and make the ink move more, but on such a curved surface,  the ink just ran off the sides. So I tried just squeezing a little pool of ink on and lighting it up with my long handled lighter right away, and that seemed to work better. The flame sort of stopped the ink from running as much and dried it in place.


Even so, some of the ink ran down the sides, so I did my best to light it on fire--or sometimes just run the flame over it to dry it in place (even if it doesn't visibly flame up, if the ink is wet and you run the flame over it, it will spread a bit and dry up as it does). If ink ran under the candle holder, I did my best to flame the side that was up, waited a few seconds (it doesn't stay very hot, but be careful), then turned it and ran the fire over any ink that was still wet.


In the end, they turned out pretty cool. It's nice to do a drip ink project and have the ink create horizontal lines instead of the usual vertical drops. I stuck with a blue/green color combo for these candle holders and used Mermaid, Sailboat Blue, and Clover. My only surprises with flaming the ink on this rounded surface were that the ink runs too much to get the really good flame up that a pool of ink and rubbing alcohol on a flat surface will get you, but it still works and the result is still pretty cool.



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