Marbling plain bobbins with nail polish

Marbling is fun.    I buy the little rectangular plastic boxes from Woolies, the throw-away ones about 10cm x 5 cm.   Half fill with water, and drop 2 or  3 drops of nail polish, a couple of colours, one inside the other – they will spread out. Maybe give them a surface swirl with a toothpick.   I pre-wrap the neck of the bobbin with masking tape.  Then just dip the body of the bobbin into the tub and lift it out (helps if you wear rubber gloves).   I usually put a bit of wire through the spangle hole and hang it up to dry somewhere.

You can sometimes get two dips from the one surface of nail polish.  A lot depends on the viscosity of the polish in the first place.   Then just clear the remainder of the polish left on the surface with a toothpick, and start again.

Clear nail polish makes a good topcoat on any decorated bobbin.  I sometimes write on a plain birch bobbin painted with ordinary acrylic hobby paint with a fine pen  – “So much thread, so little time” is one I’ve done – and give it a coat of clear nail polish.

Noelene Lafferty.  January 2021