Upcycled Life: Liquid watercolors

We have all experienced the disappointment of dried out marker pens. The color doesn’t flow anymore and what are you do to with them now? One answer is to make liquid watercolors.

Group water based marker pens by color. For example all the blues together and all the reds together. It’s not essential that all of the markers are the exact same hue within the color group.

Remove the caps and place the markers tip down in a jar. I used pint sized jars and filled the jars with as many dried out markers as I could.

Carefully add water to the jar. If the markers have been well-used start with a small amount of water. Sometimes markers dry out before much of the pigment has been used so in that case add more water to the jar when the water becomes saturated with color.

Let stand to soak at least a few hours or overnight. If the water level is high and the color is dark you may even be able to extract pigment an additional time by putting the markers in a new jar and starting again.

Remove the markers and store the liquid watercolors in a well sealing jar. There are marker recycling programs that will take the now fully-used markers. Look for one at a local school, office supply store or online.

To use the liquid watercolors you can pour the liquid into a jar with a dropper, small spray bottles or simply use a paintbrush.

Katie Patterson Larson is the director and founder of Art Salvage. Art Salvage keeps usable materials out of the waste stream and makes them accessible and affordable. For more information, visit artsalvagespokane.com.