More Marbling: Making A Pattern

You know marbling has gotten a hold on me lately. However, this will be my last post about the process for awhile. I have some other projects that need my attention. However, first I wanted to tell you about my favorite of the marbling books I’ve been reading in case you want to come along with me on this obsession!

marbling books
My two favorite marbling books

“The Art of Marbling on Paper and Fabric” by Galen Berry focuses a lot on paper but fabric marblers can also learn from it. Check out his website to order his book and supplies. The “Marbling on Fabric” by Daniel and Paula Cohen is an older book, published in 1990 by Interweave includes lots of pictures and illustrations. You can purchase it for next to nothing through Amazon. Both books are strong on patterns, so for this last marbling session I tried my hand at one pattern.

The marbling pattern I have been making on my fabric is called Stone. That makes sense.

Now to make some patterns I needed to make a comb. Since I was in a hurry I made a comb out of cardboard and some wood picks. It worked but I’ll make some good ones for future marbling sessions. Since I’ll be teaching marbling at a local library in June, I’ll make some nice ones for the students to play with.

Marbling Comb
Marbling Comb

I was trying to make Uncombed French Curls. This was my first attempt and I can see I need much more practice to achieve this pattern in Galen’s book.

After dropping paint on the size making the Stone pattern, take the marbling comb and make spirals. Start on one side of the pan and make a spiral, lift the comb and make another set until the whole area is done.

Making spirals with comb
Making spirals with comb

I came up with this which is my rendition of the French Curl.

French Curl Marbling pattern
French Curl

I say it’s my take on the French Curl because it really doesn’t look that much like it. Now to make the  Uncombed French Curl I dropped paint onto the pattern and got this.

Uncombed French Curl
Uncombed French Curl

And this:

Uncombed French Curl

Looking in the “Marbling on Fabric” book this design looks much more like the Zebra pattern. Anyway, it was fun and there is more experimenting to be done.

Oh, before I close, the Pro Marbling Paints are not as vibrant on fabric as either of the acrylics I used here and here. They look awesome on paper, but I won’t use them again on fabric.

Now to make something with this fabric.