My marbling/ swirl paint experience and unresolved frustrations that plague me

[bifbangpow]

Heh.  So I have been marble painting for a couple weeks now.  Made some really great pedals with it.  Even made a tutorial video for my youtube channel.  But occasionally I find that while I'm busy adding new colors to the water, the first couple colors dry very quickly, before I've even had a chance to start swirling them.  Anyone found a solution to this?  I saw one video where someone sprayed something on top of the paint after putting it in the water, but it wasn't in English.  I'm sure there is a simple solution, if only I knew it.  Here's an example:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8dhvbq-TPg8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[digi2t]

What paint are you using?

[GibsonGM]

I would think oil paints would stay liquid on top of the water for a while..  (?)

[bifbangpow]

What paint are you using?

I'm using testors enamel paint. 

[Kevin Mitchell]

Sorry I can't watch your tutorial at the moment. But I would like to ask (point) - are you adding appropriate amounts of borax to the water? Also you gotta shake those testers jars for a while to mix em'.

[bifbangpow]

Sorry I can't watch your tutorial at the moment. But I would like to ask (point) - are you adding appropriate amounts of borax to the water? Also you gotta shake those testers jars for a while to mix em'.

Yeah i did the math on the borax.  Everything usually comes out great.  But i think what happened this last time is the water wasn't cold enough.  you gotta use warm water to dissolve some of the borax, but then it's important to let that water cool a bit before adding the paint i think.  Every thing i read says cold water.  So I'm guessing that was the problem.  These ones came out great:





but if the paint dries too quickly you can't swirl... so you end up with a bit of a mess.

[seagurt]

I had the same issue with Testors, and Humbrol. I ended up swirling an 8 string a few years ago.

The issues I ran into were that water seems to be harder in my area (the borax method half worked), and the container you are swirling in should be a good temp (IIRC its between 78-80 degrees). After 3 failed attempts at my guitar, and reading about the hit or miss success with the enamel paints, I was led to Magic Marble paints. It is made for just this application. It is costly mind you, but the colors are much more vibrant, and dont seem to add a thick coat to the thing being dipped. I found it took about 10 minutes in ideal climate, for the paint to start to skim over.

Here is a pic for reference


The spray the person used may have been a retarder, in order to slow down the dry time, or something to help keep the paint from breaking the surface tension of the water. Best guess.

I would suggest Magic Marble, I plan on using it for a few enclosures and I know if I had to do another guitar, I would go that route.

[bifbangpow]

I had the same issue with Testors, and Humbrol. I ended up swirling an 8 string a few years ago.

The issues I ran into were that water seems to be harder in my area (the borax method half worked), and the container you are swirling in should be a good temp (IIRC its between 78-80 degrees). After 3 failed attempts at my guitar, and reading about the hit or miss success with the enamel paints, I was led to Magic Marble paints. It is made for just this application. It is costly mind you, but the colors are much more vibrant, and dont seem to add a thick coat to the thing being dipped. I found it took about 10 minutes in ideal climate, for the paint to start to skim over.

Here is a pic for reference


The spray the person used may have been a retarder, in order to slow down the dry time, or something to help keep the paint from breaking the surface tension of the water. Best guess.

I would suggest Magic Marble, I plan on using it for a few enclosures and I know if I had to do another guitar, I would go that route.

I've always considered going that route but I wasn't aware the brand was actually better in any way.  I thought it was just some pain brand making money off the niche market haha.  But glad to know how well that works because I will be painting my jazzmaster soon. 
Do you need borax for the magic marbling?

[seagurt]

You do not need borax for the Magic Marble paint. Simply heat the water. I built a jazzmaster a few years ago, considered swirling it also, but went with a seafoam instead. Now you have me thinking about a refinish...

The Magic Marble paints literature claims it was engineered for this particular application, for marbling, on liquid surfaces. The paint itself doesn't drip to the bottom, unless it is dropped from too far up.

There was a video on youtube a few days ago by a pedal builder named the psychedelic cherry that covers the enamel route. Perhaps you could write her a message for additional info on her method. Link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhvbq-TPg8

[bifbangpow]

You do not need borax for the Magic Marble paint. Simply heat the water. I built a jazzmaster a few years ago, considered swirling it also, but went with a seafoam instead. Now you have me thinking about a refinish...

The Magic Marble paints literature claims it was engineered for this particular application, for marbling, on liquid surfaces. The paint itself doesn't drip to the bottom, unless it is dropped from too far up.

There was a video on youtube a few days ago by a pedal builder named the psychedelic cherry that covers the enamel route. Perhaps you could write her a message for additional info on her method. Link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhvbq-TPg8

awe haha I am The PSychedelic Cherry.  Thanks for watching hahaha.  And in that video is actually the drying experience I am talking about.  It never happened to me before, but it definitely effected the paint job.

[Kipper4]

That's some funky paint jobs.
I see what you mean about orange being bright.
Good job.

[thermionix]

edit - NVM, too slow.

[seagurt]

One thing I did notice about your technique, is that after your first dip, you dont remove the paint from the water before pulling the enclosure out. I have found that wiping away the excess with newspaper or some other thing like cardboard helps keep a very clean look, as well as prevents unwanted buildup from paint that dried between the time it was submerged, and pulled back out. These can cause some unsightly uneven textures. Though, the advantage to "double dipping" is that you get additional marbling.

Many ways to do it, I did all my tests with plastic dinosaurs I got at the dollar store, and now I have some awesome funky tye dyed Dinos on my recording desk.

[bifbangpow]

One thing I did notice about your technique, is that after your first dip, you dont remove the paint from the water before pulling the enclosure out. I have found that wiping away the excess with newspaper or some other thing like cardboard helps keep a very clean look, as well as prevents unwanted buildup from paint that dried between the time it was submerged, and pulled back out. These can cause some unsightly uneven textures. Though, the advantage to "double dipping" is that you get additional marbling.

Many ways to do it, I did all my tests with plastic dinosaurs I got at the dollar store, and now I have some awesome funky tye dyed Dinos on my recording desk.

I do usually remove it with a paint stick... I just couldnt do that in the video.  camera in one hand, pedal in the other.

also. I want those dinosaurs.

[seagurt]

Then your technique is great!

Here are the Dinos for anyone interested...



That Jazz will look great swirled!

[Cozybuilder]

Thanks for sharing- it looks like fun and gives something unique.

[duck_arse]

@ seagurt - both your linked-to images are actually linking to the page they appear on, which is fine if you include that address as a link. if you want us to see the dinos and the axe (I have, everyone should) images in the thread, you need to use the image address supplied by imgur, and ending with an image suffix, like .jpg or .gif, or my personal favourite, .png.

like this:



(oh, but preview first, so you know you don't have an image the size of a dinosaur. then you can add "height=400" or something, so we can see the swirl without the scroll.)

[HeavyFog]

Had a very similar problem when i first tried swirl painting. Testors paint seems to work well but sometimes you need to thin it in order to swirl it or else it clumps up on contact with anything. Mineral spirits do the job just fine. Took some trial and error to figure out how much the paint needs to be thinned but around 20 or so drops of mineral spirits into one of the very small containers seemed to do the trick for me.