“I had brought home something we made in art class, and it was a very rudimentary batik where we melted color crayons. She saw it and something just sparked in her,” White recalls today. “To be creative. She saw that she could do it and feel good about it.”

Russell started out making batik projects, which led to silk painting, which lead to her final artistic destination creating very colorful hand-marbled fabric, also used on scarves, ties, vests, and other accessories in a 40+ year career. 

She passed away in 2017, but White and Russell’s other daughter, Laurie Painter, will have a booth at this year’s Quilt Festival offering the last of the inventory of Cosette Marbled Designs (booth #442).

Both White and Painter remember going to various craft and quilt shows with their mother as her work developed, and that she found her real passion with marbling. 

“She was always testing it to see what works and really wanted it to be perfect. And different materials worked different with the [patterns],” Painter adds. “There was a lot of trial and error. And then she went full force in it.”

In marble-designed fabric, artists start with a long, flat tank filled with liquid. Different colored paints are then mixed in and float to the surface. The artist then manipulates the colors by creating patterns and moving the paint with a long tool. Then it is “combed” or “raked” in straight rows.

A canvas stretched over a frame is then hovered over the now mixed-color tank with the face of the canvas facing downward. In a precise move, the paint and the pattern then saturate on the canvas, mirror-imaging what’s in the tank. The canvas is then carefully lifted off to dry and then cut into smaller fabrics. And every design is completely unique.

“She loved to use color, that was very big for her,” White adds. “It gave her a lot of creativity. Especially with the scarves and the ties.”

They both stress that marblers can “make their own rules” on how the create their fabric, and that their mother certainly made plenty of her own during her career, down to using her tools in ways that maybe weren’t their original (and sole) intent.

They also remember their mother’s “huge table of paint jars.”

Cosette’s work certainly resonated with her customers, many of whom have shared stories with her daughters since her passing. It’s something that they both feel is “bittersweet.” But they enjoy hearing things from others that are new to them. And they expect to hear more in Houston at International Quilt Festival.

“I enjoy going to shows, and the Houston show is the only one I’ve done. I’m just looking for a way for other people to enjoy her items,” Painter sums up, getting a bit emotional. “Our mother loved the Houston show. And people just loved her stuff.”

“People remember her,” White adds. “And that’s gratifying. Very gratifying.”

To see more of Cosette’s work, visit www.handmarbleddesigns.com.