Marbling with oil and food colouring
Marbling with oil and food colouring is one of the easiest ways to marble paper and creates beautiful pictures. The best part is you probably have the materials at home already!
Since oil and water repel rather than mix, the oil marbling technique creates bubbles of colour and white spots. Where there are oil bubbles, the water-based food colouring won’t stick to the paper.
MATERIALS
Food colouring
Vegetable oil
Watercolor paper or card
Droppers (optional) or spoons
Dishes and utensils ( baking dish, small cups or bowls, forks, spoons)
Step one:
Mix oil and food colouring.
Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a dish and add food colouring.
Stir vigorously with a fork so the big drops of colour are dispersed throughout the oil as smaller droplets. Repeat with as many colours as you want to use.
Step two:
Add colour mixture to water.
Pour approximately an inch of water into a shallow dish. Use a dropper or spoon to transfer the oil + colour mixture to the dish of water. Use one colour or many colours.
Lay your paper on top of the water and see what happens when you carefully lift the paper!
You have beautiful marbled paper.
Tip out the mixture after you have used two pieces of paper, otherwise the mixture turns brown. Try again with your oil/ colour mixture to see what other patterns you can create!
