About 20 people of all ages had a great time at the paper marblizing workshop here on Sunday afternoon, run by Apple Annie of Metuchen. Paper marblizing is an ancient art used to decorate the fly leaves of books and also for important papers, since each pattern is unique and can't be forged. Click here for a short history on Stanford University's web site.
To do this at home, get a disposable aluminum tray or another holder and fill it with liquid starch (we used Linit). Water down some acrylic paint (we used the kind that comes in tubes). Use a popsicle stick to drop various colors of paint in. When you've added all the colors you want, drag another popsicle stick around in the starch to make a pattern. Then briefly lay a piece of paper (we used watercolor paper) on top of the starch. Grab the paper by the corner and let the starch run off. Once it's dry, to flatten the paper, iron the painted side (without pressing the steam button) or put it inside a heavy book. You can keep reusing the starch. Just clean the paint off the top surface of the starch with a piece of newspaper.
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Thank you for posting this. I went to art school, however that was long ago, and I had forgotten what went in the tub to float the paint. I am currently making handmade paper, and want to marbleize it. I really appreciate the information. Have fun with art!
ReplyDeleteGlad our blog post was helpful. The program went really well, but when I tried it at home, things didn't go so well. I think the consistency of the paint is critical, cream soup consistency might work best, but I'm not really sure what I did wrong. Good luck! Also, be sure to put sizing in your paper.
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