A MARBLING MASTERCLASS

Seeing as we had such amazing feedback from the mini-mini marbling masterclass in this week's Look magazine we thought we'd elaborate a little with a step-by-step guide. So here you go, gloves at the ready...

Step 1

Buy some ink from an art store or online. We used easy Marbling
inks. I would suggest you need 3+ colours per design.

Step 2

Decide what you want to marble. We marbled 45cm x 135cm silk
scarves, but you can marble pretty much anything.

Step 3

Fill a trough with water. We made some to fit our scarves. They
were 10cm wider all round and only 40cm deep. You only need to fill it up
a few cm, so the whole base is covered. You can get plastic troughs from
garden centres or even a paddling pool, but it must have a larger surface
area than you fabric/ paper as you can't double dip!

Step 4

Quickly sprinkle over the inks onto the surface of the water. You
are literally painting your picture so what you see on the surface will
end up as your design. The inks set so you must be very quick at this.
Swirl them around a bit with a metal fork or something similar.

Step 5

Place your fabric or card on the surface of the water. It must be
flat and pat it down so all of the surface touches the water. If you have
a large surface area its better to get a friend to help. Lift it up after
10 seconds or so and be careful not to touch the water again.

Step 6

Step 6: Hang up you design to dry and stand back and admire!

Top tips

1. Use at least 1 dark colour to gain a strong contrast within your design.
2. Wear gloves - the inks are oil based and tough to get off. You will need
white spirit to remove it.
3. If you print on fabric you can generally hand wash them and they will not
run.

Enjoy!

(You can have a look at some of our SS13 marble print pieces in our online shop...)