Faux Turquoise Water Marbling Technique!

Lately, I've been smitten with water marbling on glass and wondered how I might use this technique with the Craft Fantastic product line. I thought I would play around with it and see what happened.

I like projects that don't require a lot of supplies. These types of projects cater to my impatient side and allow me to get started right away rather than having to gather and shop for exotic tools and ingredients. For this project, I just so happened to have everything needed right at my fingertips. Yippee!

Once again, I reached into the medicine cabinet for this one pulling out my nail polish collection. I've used nail polish in several of these posts. Maybe it's time to relocate these colorful bottles to the craft room and just be done with it.

Typically, this technique requires you to water marble either on the front or the back of the cab and then follow with a coat of contrasting polish on the back to bring out the colors in the marbling. I decided to do something a little different. I decided to start by painting the top of my domed glass cab with polish and then marble on top of that. My goal was to achieve a stone look and in this case specifically faux turquoise. 

This technique is so fun and unpredictable (in a great way)! Gather your supplies and...

Let's get started...  

What You'll Need

Craft Fantastic Glass Cabochons - Assorted shapes and sizes. Be sure and have lots on hand because once you get started on this it's hard to stop.

Nail Polish - Specifically, light turquoise, black, white, silver or gold, and a top coat. 

Water Cup

Heavy Mug

Pin or Needle

Pencils with Eraser Tips

Flat Topped Tacks

Fantastic Jeweler's Dots

A few simple supplies that you undoubtedly have on hand already are all you need to get started.

The trick to making these cabs is affixing the glass bead to a long stick in order to dip them cleanly without getting your fingers in the water or the nail polish. Lucky for you, I found an easy way to do this using a pencil with an eraser tip, a flat-topped tack and a couple of Jeweler's Dots...yes, you read that right, good old Jeweler's Dots. They really can do everything!

Start by affixing a Jeweler's Dot to the top of the tack. Remove the red backing and apply another Jeweler's Dot. I use two dots to ensure that the adhesive is strong enough hold the piece of glass onto such a small surface.  

Two Jeweler's Dots stacked on top of each other form a nice sticky bond to hold even our largest sized glass cabochons to the top of the tack.

Here I have a Large Glass Oval cab affixed to the end of a tack with Jeweler's Dots ready to be painted and dipped.

I used a pale turquoise nail polish to paint the top of my cab. This polish was rather sheer as you can see in the photo on the left, so I applied three coats of the polish letting the layers dry completely between each coat.

My coffee mug provides a sturdy upright place for my cabs to rest while they dry.

Now the fun part! Working pretty quickly, take a cup and fill it with room temperature water. Next drop nail polish into the water. The droplets will float to the top and and spread out. Use a pin to gently drag the colors around. 

Dip the bead in the water to pick up the layer of nail polish floating on the surface. Pick up as little or as much as you find aesthetically pleasing. 

Sit this little beauty back in the coffee mug to dry. Once dry, brush with a layer of top coat to finish it off and add it to one of our Craft Fantastic Trays, then sit back and admire your handiwork. 

Lovely in a Mini Round Rope Ring.

Fabulous in a Faux Leather Bracelet.

Gorgeous in a Medium Round Pendant Tray.

 Stunning in a Medium Round Frame Tray.

A show stopper in a Large Oval Tray.

I love the large ovals so much I had to make two!

I chose to finish these using the silver trays and findings because the look lends itself to the Southwest style found here in New Mexico. What color combinations will you use? Give this super easy technique a whirl and share your pics with us on the Craft Fantastic Facebook Page. We LOVE to see what you're working on! Also follow this blog by email so you never miss a post. We'll drop the latest and greatest blog news right in your inbox.