Marbling Cloth Napkins + Workshop Announcement

Marbling napkins with Textile Paints

Today, I am excited to announce my next workshop, Holiday Gift Marbling! I have been working with this technique for years in my studio and teaching it in the classroom. This holiday season, I wanted to try my hand at marbling cloth napkins along with marbling large-scale marbled art prints for gift wrap. I really hope that you can join me for the workshop on December 10th at Domain in Weho. It is going to be a lot of fun. With the holidays just around the corner, this is will be the last creative Sunday of 2017!

Here is a little preview of the techniques that I will teach at the marbling event! Now, who is ready to marble something with me?  

For this project, I used: 

• Textile Marbling Inks 
• Pipettes 
• Lumiere Gold textile paint
• 17" large plastic tray (I got mine at the Container Store)
• 16" cloth napkins 

I have to admit that marbling on cotton with textile paints can be more challenging than the marbling on paper that I have tried in the past. Please read on, if you are interested in learning more and would like to see the final results on fabric! 

In the morning, I prepared the ma size and it was ready to use by the afternoon. I used 2 Tbs of caragenean to 1 gallon of water. I began by dissolving 1 Tbs of caragenean at a time in 3 cups of warm water in a blender. Below, is a picture of the marbling size as it began to clear itself of bubbles. Later, I popped any small remaining bubbles. 

At the workshop, we will be marbling cotton cloth napkins. For fun, I pre-dyed a few in indigo blue for a blue-gray background prior to marbling them. I also checked the temperature of the size to be sure it was room temp. 

Once the marbling size is ready, I started by dropping the textile paint onto the surface and watching it spread. Many artists like to begin with black as it creates contrast in the designs and the first color used actually appears the faintest as you layer in additional inks. 

In this case, I had to trouble-shoot the marbling size a bit. The mixture was too thick in the tray, so I added an additional cup of water to thin it out. Next, I dropped more paints onto the surface and watched as the inks began to spread. When the paints are spreading 2-3 inches on the surface of the marbling size and they appear light in color almost pastel, then the textile paints are working correctly. 

I used a simple palette of black, purple and blue with a hint of red. I like to flick the size with a thin wooden stick or paintbrush in order to create some movement in the design. 

Overall, I am pretty happy with the marbled results on fabric. Once, I got the marbling size the right consistency it was fun to explore this technique on cotton. I like the way the colors appear on indigo. I would like to explore a broader palette and using additional paints. 

If you are in Los Angeles, I hope you can join me for the Holiday Marbling workshop in West Hollywood. These workshops are designed to explore a technique in an afternoon in an inspiring environment and to unite creative people from across the city. 

Until next week, please check out the marbled envelopes and paper sets that I did last holiday season.

​Be sure to stay tuned next week, to see how I marble paper with Suminagashi water-based marbling inks to make large scale art prints that can be used as gift wrap.