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Marbling cotton fabric for quilts
Join me as I create a marble cotton fabric for you. This marbling example shows a large tray for a one yard piece and the pattern is large. When using smaller trays, I comb intricate designs. Quilts require all different size patterns and colors.
My marble fabrics are created by floating (non-toxic) acrylic paints on carrageenan. Carrageenan is a sea moss used for centuries for marbling paper and fabric. The paints are manipulated with rakes or combs and other implements to create various color combinations and designs. |
Dropping paint on top of the carrageenan using whisks
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The surface has been combed once and some of the paint has moved
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Drawing the comb in the opposite direction, a chevron pattern starts forming
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Several more combings and the design is ready for the fabric
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| Cotton fabric is placed on top of the paint to make a contact print. Through a process of curing, heat setting and laundering the marble cloth is colorfast, washable, and ready for sewing. |
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Marbled fabric lifted from the tray
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Marbling on solid color cottons ranging in color from white to dark blues, reds, and greens allows me to create light, medium and dark fabrics. The dark marbles have subtle patterns while white offers bright, clear colors and crisp designs. I can create a series of six marble fabrics, all using the same cotton, paints and combed in the same way yet no two pieces are exactly alike. But close enough to be used in a quilt to obtain the color and design impact I seek
The marbling experience is as exciting now as twelve years ago when my daughter helped me produce the first pieces on Cape Cod. It took me six months of constant marbling before I felt comfortable with the process moving up in tray size and testing different combs. And then I was only marbling on white fabric! Once I tried other color fabric to marble on an entirely new process of learning occured. No longer were the colors the same on dyed fabric and some interesting results happened. |
The finished marble cotton fabric.
Each time a new fabric is lifted from the paint and carrageenan, I am awestruck by the color and design imprinted. The art of marbling is an on going process with many areas to explore and expand on and I hope to present these new (old) images in future quilts.
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