Textiles: Marbling

This semester in textiles we are printing our own fabric. We have been learning various techniques and will make an end product with the fabric. Recently I have been learning how to marble fabric.

We are learning: to create a printed fabric which represents our culture and identity.
How does this show my learning: I am learning new techniques to use in my print.
I am wondering: how the idea of marbling fabric using shaving foam was invented.


Reflection: Marbling worked out really well and I plan to use it as one of the techniques for my end product. I don't think there is a way to fail at this technique. When I used food colouring to colour the fabric, it worked best on drill (rather than cotton) because it was thicker and the dye didn't sink in too much.

How marbling works:

First, I needed a table cloth, a plate, shaving foam, a scraper, a skewer and some dye.

The first step was to create a layer of shaving foam in the plate. The layer needed to be even so I used a scraper to even it out. This took a while, seeming that the foam was so uneven and moved very easily.


Next, I added drops of dye to the shaving foam. This was then marbled with a skewer. There are so many different ways you can do this. This part is really fun and you can get really creative with how you do it.
                                     

Then, gently press the fabric onto the shaving foam, peel it off and scrape the excess foam off with a ruler. (This part does have the risk of smudging the dye). 


The end product seems to always turn out great.