DIY Marbled Plateware & Home Decor

1. Introduction: Hi friends, I'm Rose, and welcome to Marble mania, DIY home decor. In this class, I'm going to show you how to create your own custom flatware and accessories, that you can use for throwing dinner parties, creating centerpieces, and for decoration in your own home. What I love most about this Marble technique is that it looks really expensive, but it's so inexpensive to make and it's super fast. It's really easy and super fun to do. You can apply this technique to basically anything that's ceramics, glass, or wax. Let's go ahead and get our marble on. 2. Supplies: I'm going to demo how I made this small plate using this marbling technique. So to get started, you'll need a container or piece of Tupperware that you don't mind throwing away. Your plates, your frog tape or painter's tape, and your latex gloves. You'll also need paper towels. These white CD labels, a brush, Mod Podge to make it dishwasher safe, toothpicks or skewers for stirring, nail polish remover, Q-tips and cotton balls for erasing any mistakes, nail polish. If you want a custom message on your piece, a Sharpie. If you're going to use the Sharpie, makes sure that it's oil-based, otherwise your marker will wash off and ruin your design. 3. Prepping your Object: Now that you have your supplies, it's time to prepare your plate for marbling. First, clean your plate with soap and water and then dry it so there is no residue or oil on it. Next, peel off your blank CD label and apply it to the center of your plate. These CD labels are great shortcut because there's no cutting or measuring involved. Just simply peel, stick and smoothen out from the center outward, so it's firmly attached to the plate. Cover the hole in the middle of your plate with your frag or painter stick. Now the center of the plate will remain completely white when we marble. There you go. In just a couple of minutes, you are ready to start marbling. But just before you do, I want to share some quick tips and tricks I learned along the way to help make this process easier for you. 4. Marbling Tips and Tricks: Tip Number 1 is try to dip once. The reason I say that is because if you want a clean marble effect is a lot easier if you just let it be. If you want to do a layered effect, where you kind of have nail polish building on top of each other to get different transparencies, then you'll want to double dip. But if you want a clean look, I suggest just doing it once. Tip Number 2 is to move fast. You want to make sure that you have all of your supplies ready to go, and I start with all my nail polish has already unscrewed. The reason why is because once you start pouring that nail polish and it makes contact with the water, if it sits for too long, you won't be able to stir your colors. Instead, it will just congeal to your skewer and then it will be ruined. Go ahead and move fast. Even when you're mixing your colors, you want to do it quickly. Don't get too caught up in the details, because part of the fun of this process is just to kind of let it organically create itself and see what happens. Tip Number 3 is to get your supplies for cheap. I literally spend dollars on this project. I love the Dollar Store. I got most of all my supplies from there, I got my plates, my nail polish, my nail polish remover, even my latex gloves, my tin cans that I dipped in. Don't feel like you need to spend a ton of money on this project, just go cheap. Tip Number 4 is to add glam and shine. I experimented with different types of nail polish. I experimented with Matt, with metallic, and with glitter. I found that was really interesting, was that I really like the Matt and metallic combination, because it'll add a little bit more contrast and it gave a little bit of sheen, which made it look a little bit higher end to me. What also was interesting, was the type of glitter that I experimented with. I have a larger type, glitter that has a larger particle, and what I noticed was that it kind of just dispersed evenly throughout the entire design. It wasn't swirled in and mixing with my other colors as much, as much as they really solidified it. Just experiment with different types of nail polishes and see what effects you like best. Tip Number 5 is to match the shape of your container to the object that you'll be marbling. For example, if I know that I want a marble this mug, and I know that I want the design to come up kind of more towards the top. I'm going to want to find a smaller container that's deeper so that way I can put it up and the waterline will be able to go that high. You want to kind of take into consideration your design and what you want it to look like before you get your container. Tip Number 6 is to use white nail polish. What I loved about this as even though I'm dipping a white object, is that the white help separate the other nail polish colors that I combine it with, and it helps give it more contrast, and those colors actually pop off more. Because that nail polish has a different shine and different texture to it than on the ceramic object or candle or whatever it is that I'm dipping, it actually gives it more interest and more texture. I really liked how that white nail polish looked on my objects rather than just using a white ceramic object as the background. Tip Number 7 is to Marble in batches. It's a lot easier for set-up and clean up if you only have to do it once. The more that you marble, you are going to get a better rhythm and your pieces are actually going to look better, the more that you do it. Make sure to have a ventilated space, open up your windows, bringing some fans, because you're going to have a lot of fumes from older nail polish and from your nail polish remover. Tip Number 8 is to fit out your nail polish. If you're buying new nail polish, that might not be a problem, but if you're using nail polish that you already have that has been sitting for a while. It might be goofy, and you want to make sure that the consistency of the nail polish is really thin so that when you pour it, it comes out quickly and mixes easily with the rest of your colors. Maybe you need to run it under some warm water or just add a thinner to your nail polish to make it more loose. Tip Number 9 is to test your design first. I know it sounds easy like I'm just dipping an object in water. But it's actually a little bit more harder than you think. I went and got these white tiles from my local hardware store for like $0.10 a piece, and these are great because I use these as my testers to see how the colors rallying together. If I liked the pattern of the marble, how my glitter affected my design, all of those things. This is great because you can give these away as gifts if you want it or you can just use them as Coasters in your home afterwards. Tip Number 10 is to wear the gloves out of all of the supplies. The gloves saved my life, because if you don't, your hands get so caked and so dry from all of that nail polish. Trust me, when I say you don't want to skip out on the gloves, and I just got those for a buck at the Dollar Store. 5. It's Marblin' Time: Now that your plate is prepared, it's time for the fun part, it's time for marbling. Make sure that you've chosen your nail polish colors and now you've put on your gloves. Trust me, it gets messy. First, fill your pan with warm water. Then pour your nail polish into the pan. You're going to want to move fast, so I pour with my nail polish heads already loosened. You'll notice as you're pouring that the nail polish will start to spread. You want to pour enough so that the surface of the water is completely covered. Don't be afraid to be generous with your nail polish. Then use a skewer or toothpick to quickly mix the colors. Otherwise, the nail polish will start to get to your string stick and you won't be able to mix the colors as well. I found that the more I'm able to stir, the more closely it resembles real marble but you can experiment and see what technique you like best. Then take your plate and dip it vertically first on one side of the pan, then slowly lower it and submerged it under the water to completely cover the plate. You'll start to see that the nail polish will almost magnetized to the plate. You can take your finger and cut off the excess nail polish around this size and rim. Set it aside to dry for about an hour. To clean your water, simply take your skewer and collect all the nail polish in your pan and then you're ready to start marbling again. Now, it's time to remove the sticker from the middle of your plate. The easiest method I've found is to run the plate under warm water and use my fingers to remove the sticker, but be careful to not pull up any of the nail polish. Then take your nail polish remover and cotton balls or Q tips to remove any extra nail polish that you don't want to. Then take your dishwasher safe mod podge and paint your plate. You'll want to make sure you only cover the parts of the plate that have nail polish. The mod podge will also dry clear, so don't worry. Let your plates sit for about 24 hours to completely dry. Now, all you need to do is accessorize and add a finishing touch. Now that you know the technique, you can experiment with different objects, with different colors and with different patterns using your podge tape or your painters tape. I'd love to see what you come up with so please post a picture of your project in the class link below and I'm going to warn you that once you start, you are never going to stop. It is so addicting. So go have fun and happy marbling 6. BONUS How to Measure a Larger Plate: If you want to do a larger plate, you'll need some additional supplies. You'll need 8.5 by 11 labeling sheets, scissors, a compass, and a tape measure. First, you'll need to measure the diameter of your plate. In this example, my diameter is 7.25 inches. Then divide your diameter by two to get your radius. The radius will inform you how large you need to open your protractor. Now draw your circle on an 8.5 by 11 blank label sheet. Firmly hold the compass in place and rotate the label sheet with your other hand. Then simply cut out your circle, and now you're ready to apply it to the center of your plate and start marbling. 7. BONUS Tracing a Typeface: I'm going to show you how you can take a custom typeface and trace it onto your object rather than free handing. This is great if you want a controlled look. Here's a printout of the saying that I want to add to my mug. You can print it at home on normal copy paper. You'll want a 2B or a hard edge pencil, that you can trace your saying with. Flip your piece of paper and trace over your letters on the back. Be sure to press firmly and not leave any white spots. Go ahead and draw as close to the edge as possible. So you make sure you're tracing the entire piece of letters. Then take some tape and place your saying on your mug. Makes sure that it's straight and placed where you want it. Now take your pencil and very carefully trace over the letters. You want to sharpen your pencil frequently during this process for your tracing stage precise. Make sure to keep even pressure as you trace, because it's this step of the process that's transferring the letters to the mug. Remove the piece of paper and now you'll see your pencil markings. If you don't like how this looks then you can always erase it and start over again. Next, take your oil-based sharpie and start to trace over your pencil markings. You may want to buy different widths of sharpies especially if you're tracing typefaces with thin and thick weights. Take the time to be accurate here as well. Use an eraser to get rid of any pencil markings before placing in your oven. To set your sharpie, bake it in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. There you go. If you want to make it dishwasher safe, then just add your mod podge.