disasterof the day

[jille]

i've had one of those days today. i eventually cut the aluminium sheet into smaller pieces, cleaned with meths then did a watercolour effect with dyes,and boiled them up. Then when i put them under the tap all the colour washed off, where did I go wrong??? Could it be the aluminium, I bought it from ebay, it is meant to be anodised.

[MuranoSilver]

Anodised Aluminium doesn't mean that it's ready prepped for colour
(unless the seller explicitly said it was) ~ maybe it was already sealed?
Nic x

[jille]

I didn't realise that Nic, do you or anyone else know of a supplier of prepped aluminium? or what do I do to it to prep what I have?

[MuranoSilver]

There's lots of web info I found a few on google Anodising Aluminium at home - Dye (http://astro.neutral.org/anodise_dye.shtml) is quite detailed.
Afraid it's not something I've tried so don't have any suppliers to suggest.
Hopefully there will be help along shortly ;)
Nic x

[lynnm]

I have loads of aluminuium here ( well hubby does anway) so what is the difference? I have been checking it out in his workshop and am quite prepared to 'steal' some if I can use it

[caroleallen]

I'm not sure why you used meths. I just use mine straight from the packet. I get it from GSM Industrial Graphics but you have to buy large quantities.

[jille]

Thanks I will have to look up suppliers, I paid a fortune for the inks. The guy told me to use meths as a dillutant instead of the one they sell, so I decided to clean the metal with meths because it had sellotape goo all over one side and I thought it would remove grease.