DIY Designer Plates – Can You Make a Lasting Impression With a Sharpie?

Every once in a while, I come across something on the boards that seems too good to be true. For a while, I had been seeing claims about DIY Designer Plates that could be made with just a Sharpie and an oven set at 350 degrees, so I decided to give it a try. The photo on Pinterest looks like this:

 I got a serving bowl at the Home Goods store for $7.99. It was hard to tell exactly which material the bowl was made of (i.e. porcelain, glass, etc.), but I figured it would be good since it was dishwasher and microwave safe.

I put a few designs on the bowl,

but before I even got it to the oven, some of the writing had smudged.

I fixed it, but my point is, before you put it into the oven, you need to be very careful with the designs. The bowl then went into the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, and after it cooled, the writing no longer smudged. However, before using the dish on the table, I washed it by hand, and that’s when the hope that this would be a permanent addition to my serving dishes began to fade.

It was even worse once I used the plate and ran it through the washer. Maybe you’re not supposed to do that, but after the hand-washing debacle, I was kind of hoping the machine would wipe the whole thing clean, so I could start over.

Bottom line: Sharpies don’t make for long-lasting DIY plates. You’d probably be better off using a pen with ink specifically made for porcelain, and these are readily had at the craft store, especially if you want it to be a gift or some kind of keepsake like the photo at the top of the post.