Hydro dipped jewelry dish from Sarah of Creative Ramblings.
Hydro dipping, also known as water transfer printing or water marbling, is the process of delicately transferring floating pigments onto a product through the medium of water. This age-old technique traces its roots over 2,000 years to Suminagashi, an ancient Japanese method of embellishing paper with inks. Over time, this captivating process has evolved, integrating various paint types and innovative methods to create mesmerizing designs on a diverse range of products. Now, we’re seeing makers hydro dip just about everything.
We’ve rounded up some of hydro dipped products and processes in this installment of our trends series, What’s New in Craft.
How to Hydro Dip at Home for Beginners
Learn the art of hydro dipping with Sarah, the enthusiastic creator behind Creative Ramblings. Sarah explains the process of water transfer printing and shares her secrets to achieve stunning outcomes with this technique. Follow her step-by-step instructions to create a marbled ceramic planter, and once you’ve mastered the basics, expand into a variety of home decor items. Learn the essential tips on sealing hydro dipped items to ensure a food-safe and long-lasting finish that preserves the beauty of your products for years to come.
Hat Water Marbling Art
Dominic Padua has an extraordinary talent for (very quickly) painting an array of characters and nature scenes onto the water’s surface before imprinting them onto hats. His captivating videos showcase the entire creative process, but it’s the grand reveal of what emerges on the hat that is truly amazing. Dom’s one-of-a-kind hats incorporate multimedia techniques that blend water marbling, airbrushing, and decals.
DIY Hydro-Dipped Concrete Planters
Ellen of Artsy Pretty Plants walks you through the water emersion technique to create a beautiful concrete planter. She uses hand-poured concrete planters from Jen Hart of Made by Jen Art for the bases. Using spray paint for the marbling effect in the water and finishing off with a concrete sealer, she achieves fantastic results, particularly when using gold spray paint. In her tutorial video, Ellen showcases a variety of planters, demonstrating how different paints and processes can influence the final product.
Hydro Dip Kits
Kits available on My Dip Kits allow you to dip a huge variety of items from tumblers to automotive parts. As long as the material is metal, wood, plastic, stone or ceramic and can be submerged in water you can print your design onto it. Kits include hydrographic film for you to print detailed designs like wood grain, skulls, flame and camo.
Marbled Ornament Candles
Sugar Dance Gang creates bold and bright marbled home decor such as candles and soap dispensers. Due to the nature of the marbling process, candles are ornamental only and you cannot burn them. These marbled home decor are sure to light up your living spaces with their colorful charm and artistic flair. Etsy’s style and trend editors have chosen Sugar Dance Gang’s shop as an editor’s pick.
Hydro-Dipped Knobs
Jennifer of Home Grown Grace and Style restores furniture and creates home decor. She used hydro-dipping for the first time to create unique knobs to go on a chest of drawers. The outcome is a truly unique marbled design that looks similar to a stone. The knobs she created will add a pop of color to the restored furniture items she ads these to.
Hydro-Dipped Shoes
These hydro-dipped shoes are sealed and ready to wear. DilleDally shop does custom orders so you can step into fashion-forward footwear that is not only a masterpiece of art but a true reflection of your personality and creativity.
Do you have other neat examples of hydro dipping to share? Please link to them in the comments below!