Water-Marbling Activity

Getting my creativity on with card designing!

This original idea sprung from an arty friend of mine, who proposed to firstly learn the technique of water-marbling, then to create water-marbled cards for the holiday season and finally to present our product for customers of our school to purchase!

Activity Planning

This purposeful CAS activity allowed us to teach ourselves a new art technique commonly used to create irreplaceable modern art pieces on canvas, fabric and even as nail art. Using special materials, we learned to professionally produce hand-made cards tailored to the forthcoming christmas season.

It was the same friend who organised the supplies for this activity. Next, we met together along with a few others to try out this technique. However beforehand, she tried water-marbling at home in order to test which method worked best with our art supplies. The plan was to stay after school for about an hour and a half during several Mondays in a month so as to buy us enough time to produce the water-marbled cards.

The Learning Outcomes which I aimed to achieve for this CAS activity include the following:

1.  Increase my awareness for my strength in this creativity project, i.e. comfortably use a pen-knife (aka X-Acto knife) to make detailed cut-outs on the water-marbled cards.

2. Undertake a new challenge to learn a new art skill and additionally sell the hand-made products.

4. Work collaboratively with my classmates, who also took part in this project, to successfully make and sell the cards together.

5. Share ideas and came regularly to the activity as well as prepared the materials beforehand each time.

8.  Obtain a new skill in arts and crafts: water-marbling technique!

With permission from the art teacher, Mrs Stammen, we commenced the creative session in an arts & crafts classroom on campus on Monday, November 3rd. She had also occasionally supervised us during the card-making process and helpfully provided us with some tips and tricks.

Reflection

Get your hand-made holiday cards right here!

22 days and lots of dedication later, we finally began the cards sale! After all the effort we have given to this CAS project, it made me very excited to present and sell our work for others to benefit from. Nevertheless, we experienced some difficulties along the way…

• Initially, we had problems with our water-marbled designs for they appeared too dispersed and uneven. Likewise, we were wasting perfect paint in the large basin that we used to create our designs. As soon as we realised that the size of the basin was the main problem, we attempted using several other sized dishes and at the end, it worked best with a plastic tray that previously contained sushi rolls - simplicity can truly be the key!

Cards, cards & more CARDS!

• Since this was the first time any one of us ever produced cards to sell, we naturally made beginner mistakes as the paint covered the sides of the cards which were supposed to be clean and plain. Therefore they did not appear professional. However, I used that problem to our advantage instead: After cropping out the water-marbled surfaces of the cards, I re-used and cut out fine christmas tree pieces from them by using designs on a printed piece of paper as my templates. Then, I simply applied them onto a clean new card - et voila! Christmas tree-themed cards perfect for the festive season!

Hand-crafted water-marbled Christmas cards

• During the course of the card production, we discovered that the waste oil paint mixture is toxic to the environment - especially if disposed of through the sink! This caused us to think more about our actions and consider the environment when we (or more generally the artists who) make such pieces of art that can potentially harm nature. Mrs Stammen instructed that we dispose it carefully at a waste removal facility. This matter was taken care of successfully by my classmates who volunteered to do the deed.

Ultimately, this had been a successful creative CAS activity that we benefitted from. With over 75 cards made in less than a month, we collected 120€ in total! This sum will be safely kept and added onto by future profitable CAS activities. As a class, we are deciding to  wisely select and donate the fund to a charitable organisation. This will most likely happen at the end of our two year Diploma Programme.

Personally, I have enjoyed the whole process of the project and achieved my goals accordingly. I spent about 9.5 hours altogether and am content with the outcome of all our efforts. I look forward to future CAS projects such as this one to work more efficiently with my classmates!

Evita ☺