My First DIY Marbling Experience
When my wife and I visited Switzerland earlier this year, we tried a short marbling workshop at the Paper Mill Museum in Basel. Then she told me: “But why aren’t we doing that all the time at home?” So, target acquired!
By the way, my beloved wife has performed during that workshop much better than me. You may see her results in the video below:
After some web search, I found the needed materials. Part of them I ordered at the German Amazon, part at the British Amazon, the rest – at a local Dutch website for marblers.
I wouldn’t say I’m not happy with my first test run, but it apparently went not well.
I have mixed carrageenan in a proportion of 1 tablespoon per 1,5 liters of water. And that seems to be not enough. The acrylic paint I’ve been using infiltrated the whole body of the gelatinous substance and made it absolutely impossible to remove the paint before making the next sheet.
That didn’t stop me; I just continued to add some more paint every next time, before it ended spreading over the surface completely.
However, that was already enough experimenting for me, so I was ready to stop.
But there was another problem as well.
For the test run I used my handmade paper, as well as some 130 g/m2 tinted drawing paper (it was white, I don’t know why it is called tinted). While it seems that my paper had absorbed the alum quite well, even it didn’t hold all the paint properly.
With the fabricated paper the result was even worse. I guess either the size used during the production of this paper or the deficiency of the alum I used to prepare it for marbling may be the reason for such a bad result.
I even made a second batch of carrageenan mix this weekend, so that my wife would be able to join me for the second stage of the experiment. But as I decided to add much more powder to the water, the resulting mix became almost solid =)))
I guess now I have to prepare for the third run!
By the way, I have sprayed these tinted drawing sheets of paper once again with the alum solution. We’ll see how they take the color next time…
If you have any advice on the matter, I’d be glad to see it in the comment below!
Here are some links I used for the inspiration:
- Paper Marbling: Turkish Marbling Tips for Beginners
- The Method of Marbling from Martha Stewart
- How to Marble Paper, or My May Marbling Adventure
Please Support us on Patreon!
The minimum level of contribution is only $1 per month.
Moreover, starting with the pledge level of $3, you will get a digitized vintage book about bookbinding, book history, or book arts each month from us!
These pledges help iBookBinding to continue its work and bring more information about bookbinding and book arts to you!
