I’m not sure this is really a “how-to” or more of a crafty public service announcement. We recently had a purple pipe cleaner emergency in our house. (Does anyone else have trouble calling them chenille sticks?)
The project was a rainbow with a pot of gold. We had every color of the rainbow except purple. I suggested we go ahead and make the project and fill in the missing color later. Our Artist in Residence balked at that idea. How can you make a rainbow without purple? Details, Mama, details!
So, in an act of desperation, I grabbed a white pipe cleaner and a permanent purple marker. A Sharpie probably would have been best, but all I had was a dry erase marker. It worked remarkably well: I just colored it, waited about a minute and wiped it down with a tissue to make sure it was dry. Crisis averted!
Crisis averted indeed! Made me smile that other artistic projects also need some creative thinking and not just ours!
You just simply CANNOT have a rainbow without the purple! (even for moments!) So glad the crisis was averted.
Only a mom can appreciate what a crisis it is to not have purple pipe cleaners! Great save!!
I too refuse to call them chenille stems, they’re PIPE CLEANERS!
we color our PIPE CLEANERS all the time here at the library. there is never enough of a certain color to go around for a large group, so i end up buying large quantities of white, and dipping them in diluted paint. works great! love to see i am not the only one!
I was googling where to buy colored chenille sticks and came across your article…how smart..you saved me money and time…many thanks