I know there has been much discussion online about Frixion pens. I am not a great believer in erasable pens or those that disappear so I did not pursue this pen. However I know some that think it is great and I feel I should pass along this info from a great quilter Charlotte Warr Anderson regarding the use of these pens.
Here it is......
Erasable pens...
Charlotte Warr Anderson. Here she is:
"I thought I'd give you all a heads up about Frixion Erasable pens. A
student showed me hers at Road to California in January. She drew a
line, thin but quite black, and then ironed it and the line totally
disappeared. It looked like the coolest thing ever!
So I went in search of these pens, which you can get a Staples. I bought the pack that has three colors in it - black, red and blue. Being quite the skeptic about things that are too good to be true, I read the back of the package. In small print it says: "Do not expose to extreme temperatures (<14degrees F;> 140 degrees F). If pen is exposed to temperature that reaches 140 degrees F the ink will be colorless when writing. To restore color, cool to at least 14 degrees F and the ink will again write in color."
Aha! I said to myself. If you iron the ink it's going to be way over 140 degrees so it's going to disappear. So I took some fabric and scribbled on it with all three colors. Then I ironed it and, sure enough, all the scribbles disappeared. But then I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes and all the lines reappeared. I left it for about a week and a half while I went travelling and today I tried to wash the ink out. It didn't come out with soap and hard scrubbing and not even after I put rubbing alchohol on it. So then I ironed the piece dry and all the lines disappeared and then it went back to the freezer and all the lines reappeared (perhaps just a bit fainter).
This experiment was enough to persuade me that these pens are too good to be true and even sort of creepy - the ink is always there even if you can't see it. I wouldn't use them on any fabric or quilt you really cared about.
If I had a blog I would have put this on there but since I don't any of you who want to pass on what I've written can feel free to copy and paste this post
Charlotte"
So, there you go. Charlotte did some great research for all of us and so we don't have to. Thank you, Charlotte!
So I went in search of these pens, which you can get a Staples. I bought the pack that has three colors in it - black, red and blue. Being quite the skeptic about things that are too good to be true, I read the back of the package. In small print it says: "Do not expose to extreme temperatures (<14degrees F;> 140 degrees F). If pen is exposed to temperature that reaches 140 degrees F the ink will be colorless when writing. To restore color, cool to at least 14 degrees F and the ink will again write in color."
Aha! I said to myself. If you iron the ink it's going to be way over 140 degrees so it's going to disappear. So I took some fabric and scribbled on it with all three colors. Then I ironed it and, sure enough, all the scribbles disappeared. But then I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes and all the lines reappeared. I left it for about a week and a half while I went travelling and today I tried to wash the ink out. It didn't come out with soap and hard scrubbing and not even after I put rubbing alchohol on it. So then I ironed the piece dry and all the lines disappeared and then it went back to the freezer and all the lines reappeared (perhaps just a bit fainter).
This experiment was enough to persuade me that these pens are too good to be true and even sort of creepy - the ink is always there even if you can't see it. I wouldn't use them on any fabric or quilt you really cared about.
If I had a blog I would have put this on there but since I don't any of you who want to pass on what I've written can feel free to copy and paste this post
Charlotte"
So, there you go. Charlotte did some great research for all of us and so we don't have to. Thank you, Charlotte!
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