I am a HUGE fan of thrifted dishes (to be safe, I always check that they’re not contaminated with lead glaze before I buy). Thrifted white dishes are cheap and go with any decor, and some of you will probably say that they’re perfect just the way that they are, but you aren’t tacky like I am. I need all my stuff to be crazy awesome (or just crazy!), so I like to pretty up my thrifted dishes using the most simple, most brilliant craft supply that you’ve ever heard of: ceramics markers. You can use ceramics markers on anything ceramic or porcelain–cheap plates, fancy plates, coffee mugs, vases, bathroom tiles, etc. Your dishes will remain food-safe and dishwasher-safe, and they’ll have a ton of personality. Here’s how to do it: To begin, make sure that your dishes are squeaky clean and dry. I like to hand-wash them just this once, so that I can make sure that there’s absolutely no residue on them. Next » After decorating the dishes, let the marker cure for 24 hours, then put them in a single layer in a cold oven. Preheat the oven and bake the dishes for the time and temperature noted in the ceramic markers’ instructions. Once the dishes have been cured, baked, and cooled, they’re ready to enjoy. You’ll definitely want to use ceramics markers for this project. I’ve seen some projects floating around the internet that use baked-on Sharpies to decorate coffee mugs, but I don’t get why. Ceramics markers are designed to be baked on, whereas baking on Sharpies is more of a DIY hack, and it doesn’t always work. I’m not super skeezed out by weird chemicals, but I know that many of YOU are, and although I’m not writing about the chemical make-up of various markers here, I’m just going to assume for the moment that a set of markers that is designed to be baked onto foodware is safer to use than a set of markers that is not designed to be baked onto foodware. Anyway, off my soapbox.
