Marbling Craftiness

Palm

As anyone who has done marbling is no doubt well aware, marbling is a ‘small’ craft. There aren’t many around who do it and consequently even appropriate paint can be hard to get hold of – I order mine online from the States. Marbling rakes and combs for sale are somewhat trickier. After an extensive search I can tell you with some confidence that they just aren’t available, or at least not sold by anyone who ships to New Zealand and charges something I'm prepared to pay.

Nonpareil

There is of course a good reason for this, beyond even the small potential customer pool. Everyone develops their own methods in marbling, including their own basins. My main ones are actually the plastic draws of an office organiser, perfect for me as they neatly hold my preferred paper size (A4) with a little space around them - and they can go back to being office furnature when I'm not marbling. The size of the rakes and combs need to be appropriate to the basin size which really means they must be made to fit.

French Curl

I’ve been making do with some fairly awful pin and cardboard combs I put together in a couple of hours last year. The pins shift, the cardboard bends and disintegrates when wet. I only had 1 and 0.5 cm combs and no rakes. Finally I got my act together and hauled out the tools. I’m proud of the result. I now have short and long 1 cm combs, and 1″ and 2″ rakes and a bouquet rake. 

Pretty yet vicious marbling tools

Double-Cabled Nonpareil

Of course they didn’t stay looking this pretty for long. I’ve barely done a month’s worth of marbling with them and they all already have paint splatters – and a couple have some wonderfully marbled sections where I’ve dropped them in the size. Still, they are working very well and haven't broken yet! The marbing pictures on this post are some of my recent experiments with patterns I haven’t been able to make before.