Marbling On Fabric Using Starch

The trick to adhering the paint to fabric is presoaking the fabric in alum.

Marbling on fabric using starch.

Directions for fabric marbling. One pan of starch will yield numerous pieces of fabric. You will want to continue with the same or similar colors. You will also need to add textile medium to the acrylic paint solution.

Marble fabric when dry. Let the alum dissolve then soak the fabric for 20 minutes. Place the paper painted side facing down onto the surface of the water in the tub to remove the starch. Many types of fabric can be used for marbling but for best results use a fabric with a smooth texture and fine weave.

Mix 3 tablespoons alum per 1 quart of hot water. Fabric this requires some additional preparation but works well on natural fibers. Hang to completely dry before marbling. Remove the paper from the water bath and place it painted side facing up on newspaper to dry.

In the large flat bin prepare the marbling base. Experiment with different fibers to see what works best with your paints. Here are some of my favorites that i can t wait to try with my little ones. I can t find any methylcellulose to do this the turkish way so i found a simpler way.

My very favorite color medium to use in marbled diy projects is probably nail polish. Silk is always a great choice because it absorbs color well and often has a. Iron out any wrinkles do not use spray starch. However if you are looking for a fun and even kid friendly marbled technique using shaving cream is the way to go.

Add more paint and continue to marble more fabric. You can do this the night before. However today i am going to walk you through all the details of marbling by using acrylic paint. After seeing the excitement my daughter had when we recently marbled paper i searched high and low for other cool marbling projects for kids.

Here s a video of my 10yo making designs using the pre made marbling kit more info at the bottom of this post since i like to do experiments using non toxic inexpensive ingredients most people have on hand we first tried a method that uses cornstarch to thicken the bottom liquid layer and tempera paint as the dye. Heavily textured fabrics will not show the patterns quite as well. Follow our art for kids pinterest board. Fabric marbling is the art of floating paints on top of a thick solution called size manipulating the paints into patterns then transferring the pattern to an object by gently placing the object on top of the solution marbling lets you make your one of a kind quilting or other fabric item.

For best results allow the marble paper to dry overnight. Take full strength sta flo liquid starch and fill a shallow pan a. Hold the paper over the starch while the excess drips off.