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offcntrDenise and I have a long-standing tradition in celebrating romantic holidays: Do an art project! It's only very occasionally clay; much more often, we do something in the paper or book arts genre. So it was this time.
Last Sunday was our 34th anniversary, so we made marbled paper.
We'd tried marbling before with a quick-and-dirty kit that turned out not to work at all well--used a spirit based paint that only worked on very small surfaces, otherwise the solvent evaporated off too fast. It was also nasty and plasticky, really only suited for dipping bottles and knick-knacks. So this time, we got a proper kit, with paints, carageenan gum, alum for mordanting. I prepped eight sheets of drawing paper a few days in advance, dipping them in alum solution, hanging to dry, then putting them in the press to flatten. Saturday night, I mixed up a half gallon of the carageenan size in my stand mixer, left it overnight to settle. Sunday after lunch, I set up the work table, filled up the thrift-store cake pan, and we made a splash!
To make your paper, you drip successive colors onto the surface of the size, then manipulate them with a skewer, brush or some sort of rake--I made one from nails in a length of 1x2" wood. Then you float the mordanted paper on the top to pick up the colors, set it aside to dry. Like so:
We each did four sheets, suitable for book covers or end papers. Here are some more of the results.
They're all dry and back in the press again. And we celebrated with supper at Beppi & Giannis.
Last Sunday was our 34th anniversary, so we made marbled paper.
We'd tried marbling before with a quick-and-dirty kit that turned out not to work at all well--used a spirit based paint that only worked on very small surfaces, otherwise the solvent evaporated off too fast. It was also nasty and plasticky, really only suited for dipping bottles and knick-knacks. So this time, we got a proper kit, with paints, carageenan gum, alum for mordanting. I prepped eight sheets of drawing paper a few days in advance, dipping them in alum solution, hanging to dry, then putting them in the press to flatten. Saturday night, I mixed up a half gallon of the carageenan size in my stand mixer, left it overnight to settle. Sunday after lunch, I set up the work table, filled up the thrift-store cake pan, and we made a splash!
To make your paper, you drip successive colors onto the surface of the size, then manipulate them with a skewer, brush or some sort of rake--I made one from nails in a length of 1x2" wood. Then you float the mordanted paper on the top to pick up the colors, set it aside to dry. Like so:
We each did four sheets, suitable for book covers or end papers. Here are some more of the results.
They're all dry and back in the press again. And we celebrated with supper at Beppi & Giannis.
no subject
Date: 2025-06-06 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-06-06 01:30 am (UTC)(Your paper looks great, also. I haven't made marbled paper since a bookmaking / bookbinding class back in 1967.)
no subject
Date: 2025-06-06 05:03 pm (UTC)good celebration
Date: 2025-06-07 06:08 am (UTC)