Hi Gary. You made this 2 years ago and I guess you know by now why the ink didn't flow, but in case not, I reckon you needed to break the surface tension. You also ideally want to warm the water as well (not hot though). In the US people always talk about borax for doing this, but they don't seem to sell it in Britain for some reason. Washing soda does the same thing though (I guess borax-substitute, which we CAN buy here, should work). Anyway, great vid. Cheers. - Tim.
Thanks Tim, I had the same issue wth mine, so I'll try your solution ( pardon the pun). I also found that by letting one colour spread just a little, then dropping another colour into it's centre created a nice effect, sometimes dropping several colours on top of one another. RAF roundels, so to speak.
Gary it is clear your not new to turning, so I am glad to see your posting your work and thoughts onto youtube as this is how I learn more and try different things. Inspiration my friend thank you.
beautiful job. I would suggest if people want to marble, they look up paper marbling on CZcams for the correct instructions. you can marblize anything. loved how it came out on your bowls.
I found this very interesting many years back 50 or more young lads painted fuel tanks & helmets in a similar way using car paints hope to try this very soon harry
Greetings! I am enjoying your coloring videos. I'm fairly new to turning but have done marbling on fabric. One method I've done that works well and might translate well to wood is using shaving creme (the foamy stuff) as the base medium. Drip the colors on that then use your marbling tool to spread. The foam keeps them from getting muddled together. After dipping your piece the foam just evaporates leaving the inks on the fabric (or wood). It's best to use the very cheapest foam you can find--one without the skin softening additives. Thanks for sharing your art! I look forward to trying your techniques!
The reason your marbling ink didn't turn out as nice as you wanted was you broke the surface with the whisk (taking it in and out of the water) many times, breaking the surface tension of the ink on the water, separating it in many places ruining the marbling effect. Love your stuff, keep it up!!
Hi Gary, I love the videos on your page, I have just turned 17 and have been turning for a good few years now, I like to try some new exotic woods and wondered if you could help me out? Thanks Callum.
G'day Gary, using Oil based or Enamel Paints stirred with your pin bar on plain water, sourced from a hobby shop that sells model planes & boats etc, any colour thinned with mineral turps, to spread across the entire water surface, allowing the grain to show through the paint. ... in another tray, still only plain water/distilled/or melted snow, add required colours, thin if considered necessary to get desired appearance, then dip.!! ... Results, not unlike your spirit stain piece, it's just different.!! Cheers.
Hi, first, thank you for your video. I am learning to turn and know practically nothing. I yearn to make beautiful pieces as you do. I am in the USA and I understood most of what you said, but I will have a few questions. I think some of it is that I am unfamiliar with tools,, techniques, and products, some is because of your accent (that I love, but don't always hear correctly) I married someone who has Scottish in his heritage--but that is as close as I get to Scotland (besides a trip to England and Ireland many years ago! Question: you mentioned about 30 minutes & 30 seconds into your video something about "teacup"?, cars and burnishing cream. Also, you were talking much earlier about your use of the tools and the direction you held them. I suppose if I go to a site to learn the names of the parts of the tools as well as the names of the tools I will understand. Do you have a basic video that quickly explains each woodturning tool and its common usage(s)? Thanks. Again, you do the most awesome work. I love color, so that makes it even more awesome.
Hi Cally, thanks again for watching, firstly for the proper use of each tools there are lots of videos about on this subject, try looking at Robert Sorby who do a very good explaination on this. Have a look locally to see if there is a woodturning club nearby, you will learn heaps from actually interacting with all at the club(more than watching videos). The teacup was actually T-cut ( sorry it was my accent, lol )which is a similar product to burnishing cream although the latter is a finer finish. Glad you like my videos and hope you enjoy your future turning.
Agree with you that the one on right is better marbling but to me the one on the left looks more like stone rather than marble, but either of them would look beautiful in my home. Again you are a shepherd and not a sheep.
Gorgeous work, I love the detail you put into the foot. I hope to be able to create pieces half this nice one day. Random question, do you do anything with the filings?
Gary, are you also burnishing the coloured section. I made one at the weekend, but I want to know how to finish the rim to reduce the different levels caused by the ink. I did go over it with 0000 steel wool, which made a difference, but I'm still a bit hazy as to how to finish the coloured to get a really nice finish.
Hi Gary Thanks for your video. Enjoyed your demos at Harrogate last week, can you tell me what you use for your final buffing on these bowls please? Regards Andy Ward
Would it be better to use a microfiber cloth to buff with rather than the kitchen paper as you call it (we call them paper towels.) I was thinking that those the towels may feel soft, likely they have small fibers that may scratch
hi Cally you need to use something that will tear if you get a catch. Paper towels I use are soft but I now use "finishing cloth" which does a better job. It is like paper towel but softer, so no scratchy fibres and will tear if caught. Bought from Chestnut Products
Gary one of my hobby's I enjoy is air rifle shooting and I'm not sure if you know it or not but you can have things dipped with any pattern or image you want, search CZcams for "Hydrographics" it would be interesting to see what you could do an who would ask how you did that?.
Hi Michael, many thanks, I'm glad you like it. The inks I used are from www.brianclegg.co.uk but any marbling ink would work the are just normal marbling inks that are intended for marbling fabric or paper. So if you are in the states they should be available there. Rgds Gary
Can I put your decoration on with only one hand? I had a stroke when I was 29 years old , I am 68 non soon to be 69and my left are is totally paralyzed I use it as living weight on top of my tools . but I make bowls@ have done a ckouple of segmented bowls.Dan Brandon
Hi Lawrence?Dan? I'm sure you could apply this with one hand. I'm sure over the years you have adapted to doing a lot of things one handed so this will just be another one of these. If you leave the bowl on the chuck like I have when you dip it it should work fairly easy for you I hope. All the best Gary
Does your model Lathe from Record Power has an electronic speed control or have you somehow introduced your own somehow? Thanks.. great work on the bowl btw.
Hey Thanks Gary, I am a New Zealander and just bought the 5speed Record Power CL3. All these Chinese built cheap lathes out here but after some researching i couldn't go past the proper cast iron British made quality engineering. There is something intangibly deeply honest about British steel. I'm a complete beginner but for some reason that i cannot really explain i want to learn and enjoy the craft. Watching your videos and other masters i notice they all have variable speed lathes and i guess it is very useful to be able to set the perfect speed for a given pass? How much benefit is the variable speed over set belt speed increments ? (I imagine with belts due to the time taken to swap belt speeds that a turner would end up using a speed a little to high or low sometimes. I'm wondering what your experience is between manual speeds and electronic variable speeds to your work flow? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and talents.
Hi Gary, seen your turnings on Turning Art facebook page. Interesting I bought the same marbling kit at Harrogate having watched demos by David Lowe. I am experiencing the same issues with some inks not spreading, but staying in a blob. I have tried thinning with water but the colours seperate like oil blobs. I read in a library book on the subject some need inks need thinning with a surfecant, and one idea was a small amount of washing up liquid mixed with water then added to the inks. Yet to see if successful. Can you advise did you use burnishing cream on the marbled rim? Thanks John
+ni9eofse7en I John, thanks for the additional info, will look into it myself next time I marble. Yes I used burnishing cream but only after I sealed with sanding sealer and Lacquer. Hope this helps
+Gary Lowe Woodturner . Gary the washing up liquid did not work. I have asked David Lowe to view your video in the hope he can advise. It is probably not as simple a process as I think. Thanks for the advice, looking forward to the next video "Cosmic Clouds".
Is it just me ,, I get a squealing sound when you are turning , I wear ear-phones sometimes when i'm watching U tube in company, its very off putting, is the mike to close to the lathe ,so I take the off the sound,, then F F, nice use of colour ,. Regards Alf
Hi Alf, sorry about the squealing, the mic is an internal mic on my camera (dslr) but now have a camcorder so can put an external mic on for the next one
Hi Gary. You made this 2 years ago and I guess you know by now why the ink didn't flow, but in case not, I reckon you needed to break the surface tension. You also ideally want to warm the water as well (not hot though). In the US people always talk about borax for doing this, but they don't seem to sell it in Britain for some reason. Washing soda does the same thing though (I guess borax-substitute, which we CAN buy here, should work). Anyway, great vid. Cheers. - Tim.
Thanks Tim, I had the same issue wth mine, so I'll try your solution ( pardon the pun). I also found that by letting one colour spread just a little, then dropping another colour into it's centre created a nice effect, sometimes dropping several colours on top of one another. RAF roundels, so to speak.
Gary it is clear your not new to turning, so I am glad to see your posting your work and thoughts onto youtube as this is how I learn more and try different things. Inspiration my friend thank you.
Hi Steven, I'm glad you like my video and also glad that it helps and gives you inspiration. Thanks for subscribing
beautiful job. I would suggest if people want to marble, they look up paper marbling on CZcams for the correct instructions. you can marblize anything. loved how it came out on your bowls.
WELL DONE, MR. LOWE, VERY INFORMATIVE. YOUR VIDEO AND AUDIO PRODUCTIONS ARE FIRST RATE. WISH YOU HAD MORE OF OUR COLONIST ACCENT.
I found this very interesting many years back 50 or more young lads painted fuel tanks & helmets in a similar way using car paints hope to try this very soon harry
Greetings! I am enjoying your coloring videos. I'm fairly new to turning but have done marbling on fabric. One method I've done that works well and might translate well to wood is using shaving creme (the foamy stuff) as the base medium. Drip the colors on that then use your marbling tool to spread. The foam keeps them from getting muddled together. After dipping your piece the foam just evaporates leaving the inks on the fabric (or wood). It's best to use the very cheapest foam you can find--one without the skin softening additives.
Thanks for sharing your art! I look forward to trying your techniques!
Excellent video and I think both the bowls turned out extremely well for different reasons.
thanks
They are both beautiful bowls in their own right.
Thanks
James
The reason your marbling ink didn't turn out as nice as you wanted was you broke the surface with the whisk (taking it in and out of the water) many times, breaking the surface tension of the ink on the water, separating it in many places ruining the marbling effect.
Love your stuff, keep it up!!
iam addicted to your videos, so many great ideas and techniques
Very nice Gary. I guess the burnishing cream is more like a wax. You can smooth out the surface without hurting it. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Gary, I love the videos on your page, I have just turned 17 and have been turning for a good few years now, I like to try some new exotic woods and wondered if you could help me out? Thanks
Callum.
love both of them, but the one on the right is my favorite
Just found your channel, what fantastic work absolutely incredible
Excellent Gary, my paints have been ordered.
Smashing Gary !. Thanks for this demo very inspiring. Oh! Happy New Year .
+Col Taylor Many thanks Col, glad you liked it. Happy New Year to you also
G'day Gary, using Oil based or Enamel Paints stirred with your pin bar on plain water, sourced from a hobby shop that sells model planes & boats etc, any colour thinned with mineral turps, to spread across the entire water surface, allowing the grain to show through the paint. ... in another tray, still only plain water/distilled/or melted snow, add required colours, thin if considered necessary to get desired appearance, then dip.!! ... Results, not unlike your spirit stain piece, it's just different.!! Cheers.
Hi, first, thank you for your video. I am learning to turn and know practically nothing. I yearn to make beautiful pieces as you do. I am in the USA and I understood most of what you said, but I will have a few questions. I think some of it is that I am unfamiliar with tools,, techniques, and products, some is because of your accent (that I love, but don't always hear correctly) I married someone who has Scottish in his heritage--but that is as close as I get to Scotland (besides a trip to England and Ireland many years ago! Question: you mentioned about 30 minutes & 30 seconds into your video something about "teacup"?, cars and burnishing cream. Also, you were talking much earlier about your use of the tools and the direction you held them. I suppose if I go to a site to learn the names of the parts of the tools as well as the names of the tools I will understand. Do you have a basic video that quickly explains each woodturning tool and its common usage(s)? Thanks. Again, you do the most awesome work. I love color, so that makes it even more awesome.
Hi Cally, thanks again for watching, firstly for the proper use of each tools there are lots of videos about on this subject, try looking at Robert Sorby who do a very good explaination on this. Have a look locally to see if there is a woodturning club nearby, you will learn heaps from actually interacting with all at the club(more than watching videos). The teacup was actually T-cut ( sorry it was my accent, lol )which is a similar product to burnishing cream although the latter is a finer finish.
Glad you like my videos and hope you enjoy your future turning.
add a little alcohol when storing your marbeling liquid. Cheers Geoff
I quite like the sort of granite look on the left-hand bowl.
many thanks Cynthia 😁
Agree with you that the one on right is better marbling but to me the one on the left looks more like stone rather than marble, but either of them would look beautiful in my home. Again you are a shepherd and not a sheep.
lol, cheers Roger, glad you like it
Beautiful Gary, cheers Harry
cheers Harry :)
Gorgeous work, I love the detail you put into the foot. I hope to be able to create pieces half this nice one day. Random question, do you do anything with the filings?
No bad at all mate,fifferent method than the warm borax 😉
+Scotty Highlander Cheers Scotty, never used the warm borax. Just getting used to this method myself so still a bit of trial and error.
Gary, are you also burnishing the coloured section. I made one at the weekend, but I want to know how to finish the rim to reduce the different levels caused by the ink. I did go over it with 0000 steel wool, which made a difference, but I'm still a bit hazy as to how to finish the coloured to get a really nice finish.
Try adding some borax to the water.....helps with surface retention.
Hi Gary
Thanks for your video. Enjoyed your demos at Harrogate last week, can you tell me what you use for your final buffing on these bowls please?
Regards
Andy Ward
Would it be better to use a microfiber cloth to buff with rather than the kitchen paper as you call it (we call them paper towels.)
I was thinking that those the towels may feel soft, likely they have small fibers that may scratch
hi Cally you need to use something that will tear if you get a catch. Paper towels I use are soft but I now use "finishing cloth" which does a better job. It is like paper towel but softer, so no scratchy fibres and will tear if caught. Bought from Chestnut Products
Hi Gary, love your work. How long does it take for the marbling ink to dry? Thanks Greg
great job / thanks
Hi Gary do you think you could use wallpaper paste as a thickener
Gary one of my hobby's I enjoy is air rifle shooting and I'm not sure if you know it or not but you can have things dipped with any pattern or image you want, search CZcams for "Hydrographics" it would be interesting to see what you could do an who would ask how you did that?.
Hi Roger yeah I've heard of it but t never really clicked with this on, lol will maybe look into it and see if I can do anything, cheers
Absolutely Beautiful!!! What was the name of the marbling dye you used?
Hi Michael, many thanks, I'm glad you like it. The inks I used are from www.brianclegg.co.uk but any marbling ink would work the are just normal marbling inks that are intended for marbling fabric or paper. So if you are in the states they should be available there.
Rgds
Gary
What type of inks did you use?
Can I put your decoration on with only one hand? I had a stroke when I was 29 years old , I am 68 non soon to be 69and my left are is totally paralyzed I use it as living weight on top of my tools . but I make bowls@ have done a ckouple of segmented bowls.Dan Brandon
Hi Lawrence?Dan? I'm sure you could apply this with one hand. I'm sure over the years you have adapted to doing a lot of things one handed so this will just be another one of these. If you leave the bowl on the chuck like I have when you dip it it should work fairly easy for you I hope.
All the best Gary
Does your model Lathe from Record Power has an electronic speed control or have you somehow introduced your own somehow? Thanks.. great work on the bowl btw.
Hi Pixelspring, thanks for your comments. Yes my lathe is fully electronically controlled as Standard. Lathe is Record Power Maxi 1. Rgds Gary
Hey Thanks Gary, I am a New Zealander and just bought the 5speed Record Power CL3. All these Chinese built cheap lathes out here but after some researching i couldn't go past the proper cast iron British made quality engineering. There is something intangibly deeply honest about British steel.
I'm a complete beginner but for some reason that i cannot really explain i want to learn and enjoy the craft.
Watching your videos and other masters i notice they all have variable speed lathes and i guess it is very useful to be able to set the perfect speed for a given pass? How much benefit is the variable speed over set belt speed increments ? (I imagine with belts due to the time taken to swap belt speeds that a turner would end up using a speed a little to high or low sometimes. I'm wondering what your experience is between manual speeds and electronic variable speeds to your work flow?
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and talents.
Q
Hi pixelspring, yes comes with electronic speed control as standard. Thanks for the comment
Hi Gary, seen your turnings on Turning Art facebook page. Interesting I bought the same marbling kit at Harrogate having watched demos by David Lowe. I am experiencing the same issues with some inks not spreading, but staying in a blob. I have tried thinning with water but the colours seperate like oil blobs. I read in a library book on the subject some need inks need thinning with a surfecant, and one idea was a small amount of washing up liquid mixed with water then added to the inks. Yet to see if successful. Can you advise did you use burnishing cream on the marbled rim? Thanks John
+ni9eofse7en I John, thanks for the additional info, will look into it myself next time I marble. Yes I used burnishing cream but only after I sealed with sanding sealer and Lacquer. Hope this helps
+Gary Lowe Woodturner . Gary the washing up liquid did not work. I have asked David Lowe to view your video in the hope he can advise. It is probably not as simple a process as I think. Thanks for the advice, looking forward to the next video "Cosmic Clouds".
try to drop the ink closer to the water's surface.
Is it just me ,, I get a squealing sound when you are turning , I wear ear-phones sometimes when i'm watching U tube in company, its very off putting, is the mike to close to the lathe ,so I take the off the sound,, then F F, nice use of colour ,. Regards Alf
Hi Alf, sorry about the squealing, the mic is an internal mic on my camera (dslr) but now have a camcorder so can put an external mic on for the next one
No worries,, looking forwards to the new vids,.Regards Alf