A new year and a new dimension to adding designs to my handmade soft furnishings. One of the challenges of hand sewn embroidery is the time it takes to bring your designs to life. I was looking for an effective, quick alternative to embroidery and I happened across an advert for permanent fabric markers on Facebook.
Never one to be completely led by advertising, I read the reviews for the product and searched the internet for alternatives and settled on these two products with the best feedback.
This blog is my evaluation of these products and what I discovered.
The two products I will be reviewing are:
- Arteza Fabric Markers, Assorted Colours – Set of 30
- Ponlcy Permanent 22 Paint Pens
Arteza Fabric Markers, Assorted Colours – Set of 30 – £15.57 Direct from arteza.co.uk
Ponlcy Permanent 22 Paint Pens – £26.99 from Amazon.co.uk
Ponlcy Permanent Paint Pens
The first product I purchased was the Ponlcy Permanent paint pens form Amazon at £26.99. There were 22 pens in the set so this equates to £1.23 per pen.
The set arrived quickly following order via Amazon Prime, and I was keen to get started. Upon reading the instructions they recommended shaking well before use, and then using a scrap of fabric to get the paint flowing through the nib. At first use the large nib seemed to inhibit finer detail, however, for large images, thick outlines and block coverage the pens were fantastic.
I started out on cream canvas fabric and the results were very good. Very quick drying, little or no bleed into other colours and good tone coverage across all elements. I then moved onto 100% cotton fabric, here the results were not quite as positive, each colour required 5 minutes drying time before introducing another colour alongside it, there was also a significant amount of seepage into the fibres around the image.
The second time I used the pens, the results were similar, however, it took a significant amount of time for the colour to come through, and there was a certain amount of bleed. There was a definite benefit to having the scrap fabric to pull the colour through, as oil from the acrylic paint came thorough onto the fabric despite shaking well before use.
Overall these pens were great for large simple images that required bold simple colours.
Arteza Fabric Markers
The second product I purchased was the Arteza Fabric Markers direct from Arteza for £15.57 for 30 pens, equating to 52p per pen. These pens were significantly cheaper than the first set, however, the reviews were very positive.
These pens took much longer to arrive (7 days) however, I was quick to get started. The pens had two nib sizes which meant finer details were much easier to complete. However, all was not rosey, each colour took 5 minutes to dry and even once dry there was a significant amount of bleed between colours when placed next to each other. The other down side of these pens is that their colour clarity is not as bold as the Polncy pens. The effect looks very much like felt tip on fabric, which is not as effective for large items, although it is very effective for small detailed images.
Therefore in conclusion, it became apparent to me that a single set of pens would not be able to fulfil the wide and varied nature of the bespoke designs that I create. Both sets I tested have good application for their specific niche area, but neither are adequate to fulfil all requirements.