Marbeling

 

Fabric ready for dying

Goal number 11 on my August list was to document my marbling experience. Rosanne had prewashed the fabrics weeks before our dye date. The day before, she soaked the prewashed fabric in an alum solution and hung the fabric on the line. The fabric is 14 inches by 22 inches. The fabrics are cut that size because that is a little smaller than the size of the tray.

Dying station

Rosanne also set up her garage with three marbling stations. The thought that she put into organizing the station shows how much she has learned from her experience with marbling.

The bucket on the right had a solution in it to dip and rinse the marbled fabric after it was printed and before it was hung on the line. The bucket on the left contained the solution that you float the paint. The best part of the photo, is that garbage bag. I used that often as it was so convenient!

Clearing the tray of bubbles

Once the solution is poured into the tray, there are a lot of bubbles. Using a piece of folded newspaper, Rosanne demonstrated how to scrape the bubbles to the end of the tray and into the garbage bag.

Adding color to the train

Adding color to the tray is fun. It is fun to watch how the color changes in the tray. Sometimes, it bullies or takes over the color. Other times, the color doesn't move at all!

Adding more red

After adding the color, it is time to make a design. There are pieces of wood that have metal spaced evenly across the wood called a rake. Sometimes raking in one direction is all the design one wants.

Design after raking in one direction

Sometimes, raking in both directions is a better design.

The rake at the end of the pass

Sometimes, jiggling the rake is the design.

Using the rake once again

The challenge is stopping as you can't go back if you liked the previous design better!

Design made after "jiggling" the rake

Once the design is made, In one gentle motion, lay the fabric on the surface of the medium. Let the fabric soak up the color.

Fabric absorbing the color

It doesn't take long for the fabric to absorb the color. To remove the fabric, slide it over the lower edge of the tray. 

Removing the fabric from the try

Place the fabric in the bucket and gently rinse. Hang on the line to dry. Let cure for a week. Wash in a machine that doesn't agitate. Dry.

One of my prints before removing it from the tray

Unfortunately, during the last wash, a lot of our paint came off of the prints. The fabrics lost so much of their vibrancy that we decided that we would over dye the prints. In other words. we would try again! We determined that the reason for the paint coming off the fabric was because the acrylic paint was old and had been stored in an environment of hot and cold temperatures which made the paint unstable.

One of my prints after curing and washing

It was a fun activity and I look forward to giving it a go again. I did order some new paints which will be shared between us!