Fabric Marbling

This virtual workshop will inspire and inform students to get creative with color! Whether you don’t know the basics or your palette is burned out, we’ll awaken your color sense with an introductory discussion of color theory and materiality. Each student will assess their color preferences and learn how to extrapolate their favorite color harmonies into endless palettes. An overview of pigments, dyes, and binders will give students a springboard for applying theory to practice in any art form.

Once one of our younger students described marbling as "magic fighting magic". That's pretty much how we feel about this magical technique. In this two-day workshop students will learn the fundamentals of marbling on fabric, including materials selection, how to prepare a marbling vat, and the best pigments to use for lasting patterns. We’ll spend one session learning the secrets of Japanese suminagashi, and the second session getting colorful with Western-style pattern making.

Suminagashi is the Japanese art of marbling by floating ink on the surface of water. In this class, students learn the basics of this centuries-old monoprint technique, including the tools and materials it requires and the ideology shaping suminagashi practice up to the present. Students will develop a suite of patterns on paper and fabric using the natural forces of wind, vibration, and chemical interaction, and leave with the skills to continue exploring on their own.