Meaning-Full Art’s Water Marbled Silks By Patty Middlebrooks
Meaning-Full Art’s Water Marbled Silks
By Patty Middlebrooks
In the wake of COVID, Meaning-Full Art delighted people with its creative approach to custom water marbled silk bandana facial coverings. Now, as the world begins to re-emerge from its shell, the studio has changed its name from Meaning-Full Art to Color Play Studio and brought with it a reinvention of their lively studio atmosphere.
Some exciting new in-person textile dyeing classes have been added to their roster including ice tie dyeing, silk dyeing, and devore satin scarf dyeing. Ice tie dyeing is a technique where ice is used to create kaleidoscopic halo and color bleeding effects. It does this by preventing some dyes from spreading and encouraging fiber reactive dyes to make their own unique patterns. The overall look of the ice tie dyeing job is determined by the way that the ice melts, resulting in a one-of-a-kind design you can wear anywhere.
The studio’s new silk dyeing classes introduce people to the endless creative possibilities of silk and devore satin. They offer new water marbling or tie-dyeing classes for silk or velvet scarves. These classes invite people to hand-dye a spectacle of colorful marks on their chosen textile. The process is not only fun, but also results in an eye-catching design that is the perfect addition to anyone’s wardrobe. For people looking for scarves with a bit more glamour, the new devore satin scarf dyeing class allows for experimentation with luscious color combinations on the mesmerizing texture of silk chiffon and rayon.
Color Play Studio also has a renovated studio layout that includes a room for both water marbling and silk and textile dyeing. They eagerly await the return of visitors to fill their space with beams of creative happiness and positivity. Thus, reanimating their mission of bringing people together through craft.
Since its inception, silk bandanas that are hand painted through the process of Water Marbling have been elemental to Meaning-Full Art, but they never could have anticipated just how sharply their meaning would transform in the wake of COVID-19.
Meaning-Full Art, located at CRAFTED in the Port of LA in San Pedro, is a hands-on Water Marbling studio where guests are encouraged to “spread their creative wings.” Water Marbling may be at the height of the craft scene right now, but its origins date all the way back to Ancient Japan and Turkey. Using a homogenous mixture of water and dried Irish Moss, fluid acrylic paint is applied to the dense surface and floats atop like an idyllic ballet. The artist then uses tools to manipulate a design before transferring their work onto their chosen surface—at Meaning-Full Art, they opt for hand-woven silk.
In-studio, their mission is simple and bright: “Bringing people together for creative play; enriching relationships and creating treasured memories through fun and memorable art experiences.”
For a studio whose pillars stand on the shared experience of the artform, cultivating a sense of collaboration through the screen was essential. After choosing your colors and water marbled design, Meaning-Full Art offers you two options: watch them water marble your bandana live, or they’ll send you a video of the creation process after it’s finished.