Creating The Bright Marbled Hair Tie Package was extremely fun and allowed me to tap into my inner digital artist. This side of myself has been ignored a bit since I graduated from college in 2011. I'm happy I allowed myself to have a "fun" project because I love how these hair ties turned out.
The process of making these bold and intricate hair ties was very different from how I normally create Mane Message's printed elastic. These prints began as an analogue marbled piece of paper that was created the old fashion way. I went to the art supply store and bought the supplies for marbling and swirled around the dye in Methocel to create an elaborate and abstract design.
After the marbling of the paper was done I scanned. In Photoshop I modified the colors and selected my favorite details from the print. You can see that that the original colors of the marbled paper were a bit obnoxious. I played with the color channels to create a dreamy desert inspired palette.
I think the best part was creating the individual strips that would become the printed elastic. Cropping and rotating the huge marble print to make little vignettes was extremely fun. I made the strips a bit longer than the amount of elastic needed for each hair tie so their will be more variety and irregularity, which is similar to our tie dye hair ties.
After I created the final files I sent them off to the elastic printers and the rest is history. Pretty neat, right? Too cool not to share. Normally I'm pretty tight lipped about the creation process of my hair ties because of 'copycats', but I think the story of these hair ties is part of what makes them so different. I hope you agree!
Let me know what you think or if you have any questions. Marbling is a bit complicated, but totally worth it. It's very relaxing to be honest! If you're a crafter you should add it to your list of things to try out.
