Marble Dyeing with Shaving Cream

Marble Dyeing with Shaving Cream

|

Marbling’s been around for centuries. It mimics a natural design that’s found in stone (or a nice rib eye). You’ve probably seen the marbling technique used on things like  end papers in books, or in a stationary store.?

MATERIALS

• Trash bag or plastic table cloth
• Something to dye (100% cotton fabric)
• Shaving cream (not the gel kind)
• Rit All Purpose Liquid Fabric Dye or fabric paint (diluted)
• Flat edge
• Medicine dropper
• Paintbrush
• Paper towels
• Gloves
• Old t-shirt or apron
• Iron
• Pressing cloth
• Skewers, toothpicks, hair picks, etc.

Step 1: Prepare your work space

Lay out a trash bag or plastic table cloth so it’s large enough to cover your work surface.

Distribute the shaving cream across the surface so it’s large enough for your object, it doesn’t need to be too thick, about 1 inch of cream all around will do, just enough to cover the surface.

Smooth it out a bit using your fingers or a flat edge.

Step 2: Add dye to the shaving cream

If you don’t want to run the risk of staining your fingers or hands, put on some gloves.

Next, drop the dye on top of the cream. Make sure to shake the bottle first. If you don’t have a medicine dropper, a straw would work, too. You’d just need to be more careful with how much dye is let out at a time.When trying to figure out what colors might look nice together, or what colors combined will create other colors, using a color wheel helps a bunch.

In the end, less is more, so be careful of how much dye you’re adding into the cream. You can use however many colors you’d like, but you should probably keep it to about 2 or 3 or less.

Using whatever object you’d like, swirl the dye into the surface of the cream. Be careful not to press your tool in too deep as that will push the dye to the bottom of the cream which isn’t what you want.

Step 3: Dye the fabric

Gently place your pre-washed fabric on top of the cream starting from one side. Lightly press down with your fingers and let it sit for a few minutes. Make sure the entire surface is touching the marbled dye, you can push the fabric down a bit to get to the corners. Gradually remove the fabric by pulling it up from one end or corner and set it aside onto another covered surface, cream side up.

Step 4: Remove the shaving cream & heat set the dye

Be careful not to press too hard or you risk smudging the dye.

After the fabric has rested for a few minutes, use your squeegee or a sturdy flat edge, and scrape away the excess shaving cream. If you have to go in for another pass, make sure to wipe the blade completely clean first.

If you need to dye another item, you can just re-use this cream by adding a little more to the top and then smooth it out again. This creates a blank canvas without having to start all over.

Just be careful while smoothing it out as you don’t want the dye from below to mix with the new cream, unless that’s an intentional look!

After most of the shaving cream is removed, heat-set the dye with a hot iron and a press cloth. Make sure not to iron directly onto the dyed fabric.

Step 5: Rinse and hang to dry

Rinse out the fabric in cold water until the water becomes clear and hang to dry.