Fabric Marbling

with shaving foam

you will need:

- washed cotton fabric (make sure its not fresh outta the store cause it has some kind of repellent on it when sold)

- shaving foam

-fabric paint

- a baking tray or something flat to spread the foam on (I used the glass of a picture frame)

- paper towel

- toothpicks or something similar to run through the foam to create patterns

- a spoon to create different patterns

- iron to fixate the fabric paint (that's how mine works, if you get some just look at the instructions and follow these to make your paint stay on the fabric)

put a good amount of shaving foam onto your work surface

make sure you cut your fabric to size before you start

if should be about the size of your tray, not much larger, otherwise you will end up with big white blocks at the sides of your fabric

spread it out to get a smooth and even surface, use all the space you have

make sure you don't have any big holes

once you have an even surface start to dot on fabric paint in small portions, don't go too big with the smudges, just super tiny ones, but a lot

choose a few colours that go together, but go easy on dark colours, they can be quite overpowering when mixing them

once you got a good amount of smudges start to swirl the paint around, I would suggest to go very light first and go heavier once you made your first piece

this way you can use the same foam and paint several times

just mix lightly until you lie what you see

I went with streaks from left to right for the first pattern

place your fabric on top and smooth it out wit your hands, make sure the fabric is touching the foam throughout the whole surface

once you have the whole fabric covered you can carefully peel it off from the foam

you will end up having a bit of extra foam with paint on the surface of your fabric

carefully put your fabric on a flat surface and get your paper towel

get a sheet or several and place them carefully on the foam, slide your hands over the towel to gently, super gently press onto the leftover foam

the towel should absorb excess foam and paint

be careful to not put the same towel on the fabric twice if there is paint on it, get a fresh one

otherwise you will transfer paint onto your fabric and it will mess up your pattern

gently dab the excess foam and paint away until you are left with a clean fabric

you can use the same foam several times, just mix up the foam gently and press down a new piece of fabric

that's why I would recommend going from a super light mix to a heavier mix, this way you get the most of your foam and paint

this is the 3rd time mixing, I would say more than 3-4 times can get a bit messy but its a thing to try yourself how you like it

that's different patterns and how they end up on the fabric

once you dabbed all foam and paint off let them dry for a few hours

once they feel dry you can go over to fixate the paint according to the instructions

mine is an iron on one

to protect the paint and my iron I sandwich the fabric between paper towel

the shaving foam can leave a smell and a sticky feeling on the fabric, once its fixated you can super gently hand wash it and let dry, but I would recommend not to and to try to get as much off with the dabbing method and then to just let the smell fade over time.
 

its definetely not a method to use on things you wanna wash a lot,

for these I would suggest a water marbling method

I have made all kinds of things from marbled fabrics in the past, bags, hats, head scarves ...