How to Create Alcohol Ink Rings For Gorgeous Pieces of Art
One of my favorite types of art to make with alcohol ink is Ring Art. Each ring sits on top of another, just a little off, giving a multilayered appearance which is so interesting to look at. In this post I will show you how I make my “ring” alcohol ink art.
Supplies
The supplies you will need for this project are:
Yupo paper or photo paper in the size of your choice. Heavy Yupo works best because of the amount of ink, alcohol and heat used.
Alcohol Ink in your favorite colors. Almost everything I do is in shades of blue.
91% isopropyl alcohol. (4/03/2020, this will be almost impossible to find right now. You can try Everclear which I haven’t used but have read it works great or blending solution)
Glasses in a variety of diameters. I found mine at Goodwill, The Dollar Store and some I already had but never used.
A hair dryer or embossing gun.
A mask or respirator.
The Process
I always set my paper on a piece of glass before I start, it gives it a bit more stability. I also fill a small dropper bottle with some of the alcohol. Make sure you have everything near your paper and ready to go.
The first step that I take once I am all set up is to go ahead and make a very light center for each of the circles I want to make. Using the smallest diameter bottle, I drop my lightest color, just a little bit, around the edge and then drop a very small amount of alcohol on top. Then I push it around and dry it with my embossing gun.
Make sure it’s dry before your lift the glass up. You can tilt it to get underneath. If your smallest glass is short you can just leave it down but as you can see, mine is tall, too tall for my next size glass.
On top of each ring add the next size glass you would like to use and repeat the steps. The larger the glass the more ink and alcohol you will need to use. When dropping gold, get as close as you can to the glass.
Keep adding your glasses one on top of another and adding ink and alcohol around each one. When you are finished adding glasses and you are happy with the ink around the outermost glass you can begin taking them off, one
at a time, making sure the outer edge and underneath is dry using your embossing gun or hair dryer. Tilt the glass up a bit to get underneath. The glass may also move a bit but if its does it will just add more rings to the piece.
As you take them off, if you feel you need a bit more ink, now is the time to do it. Just be careful you are not pushing it into another outer circle.
Once all of the glasses have been removed you are finished. Let your piece dry overnight and then seal the next day with Three coats of Kylon Kamar and three coats of Krylon UV protective coating.
There is a process video below this post included from another piece.
Where you can find supplies
(The following are Affiliate Links which should you decide to use them we earn a very small commission at no cost to You)
There several brands of Alcohol Ink available on the market. My preferences are Tim Holtz Ranger and Copic Alcohol Inks.
Dick Blick Art Supplies
This is where I purchase most of my supplies. Generally the pricing is less than others and they always have some sort of promotion going on. There site is difficult to navigate on so if you have any questions let me know in the comments or feel free to email me at Thirteenchairs13@gmail.com.
Amazon
Yupo Paper here and here
Why do you list a respirator in the supplies?
Isopropyl Alcohol can be pretty toxic and the fumes overwhelming for some causing headaches and lung damage. There is a lot of extra alcohol being added in this project. I also don’t want to suggest to some one they do a project without proper safety whether I choose to or not.
Thank you for so generously sharing your process. Beautiful work!
This method is different from may other artists.. Great work.. Thank you..
Lovely style, will be trying this when the weather cools down (my studio is far too hot to use my embossing gun in at present!)…
I need to remember to not use the heat gun too close to the yupo paper as it ruins it by sort of burning or rippling up (cannot think of better description sorry!)
Love working with alcohol ink, so any new projects are great – THANK YOU!!
Thanks so much for sharing! I loved not only the technique but the video! Great music and filming! I didn’t want it to end.