 In this episode of Make Time, we will be printmaking with shaving cream to create marbled art. Hello and welcome to Make Time! My name is Courtney and I'm a studio guide at the Makerspace in the Long Beach Public Library. In this Print Make Time mini-series, we will be learning a variety of printmaking projects that you can make at home. Today, we will be making shaving cream marble prints. Marble printmaking results in a mono print. Mono, meaning one, means each unique print can only be made once. This is unlike most printmaking processes where you are able to create many copies of the same image. Marble printmaking originated in ancient Japan called Sumi Nagashi or ink floating. This technique has been around since the 12th century and has since spread around the globe. Different methods have developed as well as techniques to print on fabric, wood, and even inside of books. Did you know that the Billy Jean King Library has a collection of marble printed books? The permanent collection in the Miller Room has all sorts of artifacts that can be viewed during open hours, including some amazing marbled books. Inspired by this ancient technique, we will be using shaving cream to float color to create our very own marble prints. For today's project, you are going to need the following materials. Plain white foam shaving cream, food coloring, a long and thin mixing stick. This can be anything you can hold on to to mix and marble your color. A shallow tray or pan slightly larger than your paper. Paper cut to size that fits inside the tray. Cardstock is best because it's smooth and slightly thicker than printer paper, but printer paper or construction paper will work fine. A scraper tool. To remove the excess foam from your print, this can be a cut strip of cardboard or a popsicle stick. And finally, some paper towels because we're going to get a little messy. If you don't have food coloring at home, you can try to experiment with other color pigments. If you have ink or watercolor, acrylic or tempera paint, try mixing a small amount to some water to create a liquid mixture in a shallow cup or palette. You can see here that I am mixing tube watercolor with water to make liquid watercolor. Apply this colored liquid mix using a dropper or a paintbrush. Ready to get printmaking? First, compare the paper you will be printing on to the size of the tray. Cut down your paper if needed. Try a few different sizes to experiment with. Next, spray a small amount of shaving cream into the tray. The foam will expand, so a little goes a long way. Use your hand to spread the foam around to create an even layer slightly larger than the paper you will be using. We are now ready to add color. Choose your first color to drip onto the shaving cream. Add a second and maybe even a third color to create many drops of color onto the surface of the shaving cream. Next comes the marbling part. Take your mixing stick and swirl along the surface of the foam to mix and marble the colors together. Swirl a pattern of lines and zig-zags. Use waves and loops to stretch the drops of color. Try to cover the surface with swirls of mixing color. When you are ready, it's time to make your first print. Lay your paper onto the foam and use your hand to press the paper firmly into the surface of the foam. Be gentle and be sure to get the corners. You might see the color absorbing into your paper already. Now, lift the paper starting at the corner and flip over to lay flat on the table surface dry side down. If there is extra foam on your marble print, use your scraper to scrape the foam off your paper and back into the tray. Sometimes your scraper might drag the color on your paper as well. That's okay. It's all a part of the process. Check out our first marbled print. Awesome! Is there something you think you can improve on? Remember, with printmaking, we are able to make many prints. We will be able to experiment and continue printing as many as we want. You will improve and control the outcome better with every print made. Before we continue with another print, I want to take a moment and talk about color. In this form of printmaking, we are relying on the way our colors will mix and swirl together. Remember that planning your colors ahead of time can help with the outcome of your prints as you experiment. Let's take a look at this color wheel. First, let's start with the primary colors, red, yellow, blue. These colors mix together to make all the other colors in our color wheel. Red and yellow make orange. Yellow and blue make green. Blue and red make purple. Colors that are next to each other mix together nicely, such as blue, green and yellow, or blue, purple and red. While colors that are across the color wheel from each other don't make so nice. Let's see what happens when we mix red and green together. Colors that are across from each other on the color wheel are called complementary colors. They look vibrant when they are next to each other in a picture, but when mixed together, the colors cancel each other out and turn a brownish-gray color, which is fine if you're trying to mix brown or gray. But in this project, we want our colors to pop. Let's get back to our shaving cream to repeat the marble printmaking process. Take a look at the colors you already have in your tray. Determine if you should add different colors or more of the same. Maybe you want to try a new swirling pattern. Remember the steps? Add color, mix and marble, then print. You can add more shaving cream to create a new surface for another print, but you won't need to until you've made a few more prints. With printmaking, we are able to create multiple prints using the same process over and over again. While you continue to make more prints, try experimenting with different materials and techniques. Use a fork or a comb as a mixing stick to create many parallel lines. Try using different paper. Maybe try using a drawing, a poster or a page from an old book. What happens when you try to make two prints from the same color mix or reprint a marble print a second time? Here, I am using old math homework I cut into smaller squares so I can make a bunch of marble prints. When you're done, make sure to clean up your workspace and allow your prints to dry fully. Now that you have a collection of marble prints, what are some ways you can use the marble printed paper to make something else? Check out our other make time videos for some inspiration on how you can use your marble printed paper with kirigami, bullet journaling, and book binding right here on the Long Beach Public Library YouTube channel. Let's check in with some of our other studio guides and see their prints. Thanks for sharing everyone. Way to use what you had on hand to create beautiful prints. Hopefully you are feeling inspired from all of these awesome examples. Now it's your turn. Thank you for making time to watch Print Make Time. If you are interested in learning more about printmaking, check out the link in the description box below. There you will find a selection of printmaking books available at the Long Beach Public Library. Be sure to check out the rest of our make time videos with even more creative projects you can create from home. See you next time!