Contemporary Paper Marbling E-Book

Lucy McGrath

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 73

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

An illustrated introduction to an increasingly popular art form. The art of paper marbling is having a revival. Contemporary paper artist and author Lucy McGrath specializes in paper marbling and shares her skill and passion for this beautiful craft. Her book is a wonderful introduction to the craft for beginners which takes readers on a journey through simple to advanced techniques – with step-by-step instructions and photography – plus a range of some of the most beautiful paper marbling today. The book covers: An introduction and brief history; Preparation and equipment (with recipes for the thickened water that the paint floats on plus the paints themselves); Planning your design (mood boards, colour palettes, testing paint behaviour and paper); Pattern tutorials (ways of applying paint); Swirl and git gel (Turkish traditional pattern); Nonpareil (fine tooth comb use); Spanish Wave; Ebru (flowers on the surface of the water); Advanced Techniques (including figurative images); and finally marbling onto three-dimensional items such as baubles and pots. There is also a selection of projects that uses marbled paper, including bookbinding, origami and collage. Richly illustrated with some of the most beautiful paper marbling today, this book will introduce a wonderful craft to a new generation.

Leseprobe

CONTEMPORARYPAPER MARBLING

For Mum and Dad

Contents

Introduction

Preparation

How to marble

Basic patterns

Advanced techniques

Marbling onto different materials

Troubleshooting

Obtaining materials

Index

Acknowledgements

Cockerell Wave pattern.

My story

I’ve always loved books, particularly old, unassuming books with dog-eared covers that hide beautiful works of marbled art on their endpapers.

Books are very much linked to the art of marbling; they’re the vehicle that propelled marbling to its heyday in the Victorian era. I learnt how to bind books at university, and that was when I decided to try my hand at marbling. It was a complete disaster. It wasn’t until a holiday in Turkey, five years later, that I tried again, led by a local marbler at the hotel where I was staying. This time it worked – and I was completely enchanted by the chaos and beauty of it.

Back in the UK, I sought out a course with English marbler Victoria Hall, which was a very different experience from Turkish marbling and inspired me even further. I carried on experimenting and trying out techniques, colours and materials, developing my own style. Sadly, marbling is an endangered craft in the UK, so I am on a mission to modernize it: to help carve a new niche for it, perhaps separate from books, and pass on the techniques so others can enjoy its peculiar delights well into the future.

Since starting my marbling brand, Marmor Paperie, I’ve worked with companies such as Matches Fashion and Molton Brown, and my work has featured in publications including Country Life, Homes & Gardens and Stylist.

Swirl pattern in fresh pastel tones.

History

Marbling is a unique craft, sitting somewhere between painting, printmaking and science.

The first known form of marbling comes from Japan: a delicate, meditative technique called suminagashi. The earliest known examples date as far back as the twelfth century, but the technique may have been practised even earlier.

Suminagashi was different from the style of marbling we practise today due to its omission of a thickening agent in the marbling liquid – it simply used sumi ink on plain water. The eddies and currents present in the unthickened water are a design feature, marked with bands of black and white.

It is thought that suminagashi and some knowledge of its technique travelled down the Silk Road trading routes, arriving in Turkey where a new method of ‘painting on water’ was developed around the thirteenth or fourteenth century. This Turkish tradition saw the introduction of a thickened size, and more colourful pieces of work. It was used to decorate the borders of calligraphy artwork and fine bindings of religious texts.

Trade routes again brought the art into Europe, probably through the cosmopolitan port of Venice, and it spread quickly into Germany and France where intricate combed patterns were developed. Paper marblers were extremely secretive about their techniques, guarding their art carefully to prevent competition. It wasn’t until 1853 that a detailed description of marbling and its techniques was published by Charles Woolnough in The Whole Art of Marbling, when marbling started to become more widely practised.

The techniques used in marbling have barely changed over the centuries – the engraving opposite shows a bustling eighteenth-century marbling studio – if you look closely, you can see from the far right forcing the size through a sieve, hanging papers to dry on lines, pulling a rake through the marbling bath, dropping paint from brushes onto the bath; laying the paper down onto the surface to pick up the paint and on the far left, grinding the pigments used to make paint.

Some of these steps have been modernized or improved, but this process and these tools are essentially the same as those you will soon be using.

Engraving from Recueil de Planches, published in 1767, showing workers in a marbling workshop.

Paper lanterns can be marbled by rolling them through a large bath of size.

Marbling now

Marbling in Europe has been very closely tied to the bookbinding and printing industries – marbled endpapers became common in the Victorian era and, as printing boomed, marbling also enjoyed its heyday.

As publishers vied to find cheaper and more efficient ways of producing books, demand for marbled endpapers and covers declined – making marbled papers takes a certain amount of time and skill, which meant they were a more expensive option than mass-produced papers printed using machines. By the end of the nineteenth century, marbling had fallen out of favour.

The final nail in the coffin came with the introduction of digital scanning and printing in the 1990s – now photographic reproductions of marbled papers can simply be printed without the need to touch any paint at all! And photo-editing software allows many different colourways to be generated from just one paper. There is no demand for marbling as an industrial skill any more – which means there are very few professional paper marblers left in the business.

This marbled concrete plant pot is an example of the many different surfaces that can be marbled.

The future of marbling

Technology has advanced very quickly in the last century, and lots of traditional craftspeople have found their skills surplus to requirements.

I think this heralds a new and exciting era for marbling – it is no longer restricted by the needs of the publishing industry and can now blossom into something all its own, something exciting and beautiful.

In a world increasingly full of mass-manufacturing and cookie-cutter products, marbling can take on a new importance as an art form in its own right: its chaotic technique, organic look and the fact that each piece is unique set it apart. I want to take inspiration from the marbling of the past, but experiment with it and push it in new directions – trying out new techniques, new paints and new materials to change the way people think about marbling.

A circular ceramic tile provides the perfect canvas for this hypnotic swirled art piece.

Feather pattern.

All the materials and equipment you need to begin marbling are easy to source.

Equipment

Marbling does not require lots of expensive specialist equipment – in fact most of what you’ll need can be found at home.

• Shallow tray or container to hold liquid (larger than the dimensions of your paper)

• Range of paint brushes

• Bamboo skewers or similar

• Washing-up liquid

• Pipettes

• Eyedroppers

• Jars (200ml or so)

• Airer or washing line and pegs

• Jug

• Board to rinse paper on

• Rake(s)

• Newspaper

• Blender

• Measuring spoons

• Digital scales

• Sponge

• Small heat-proof container

• Pencil

Materials

•Carrageenan powder

•Paint

•Paper

•Alum

Making the size

Marbling owes its magic to one vital but unassuming ingredient: seaweed. Mixed with water, it forms a gloopy, viscous liquid referred to as ‘size’. This is poured into your tray and is ultimately what causes the paint to float and hold its characteristic fluid shapes.

So what exactly is it?

The key ingredient is a kind of seaweed called carrageen, also known as ‘Irish moss’, and commonly found on the rocky shores of Ireland (and along the Atlantic coastline). It contains a thickening agent called carrageenan which is extracted and turned into a powder that can be easily blended with water to the right consistency. Until just a few decades ago, marblers had to boil the seaweed in a vat for hours, strain it through cheesecloth and let it cool before use – a strenuous task!

Carrageenan comes in three different variations: iota, kappa and lambda. Look for the lambda type, as the others are more commonly used for creating gels and substances more on the solid end of the spectrum.

How does it work?

Carrageenan is a natural thickening agent, much like agar or gelatin. It forms a viscous liquid (not quite a gel – about the consistency of wallpaper paste) when mixed with water, allowing for a much higher surface tension than water would normally have. This surface tension causes paint dropped onto it to float rather than assimilate into the mixture. Its density also means it holds its shape when manipulated, so the paint on the surface can be controlled much more easily.

Carrageen seaweed in its natural form and carrageenan powder.

WHAT YOU NEED FOR A BEGINNER’S BATH (FITS A4 PAPER)

• Digital scales

• 13g (1/2oz) of powdered carrageenan

• Blender (carrageenan is totally natural and non-toxic so don’t be afraid to use what’s already in your kitchen)

• 2 litres (31/2 pints) of water – you can use tap water, but metal deposits or bacteria in your pipes may affect the size, so filtered or distilled water is a safer bet

• Shallow container, a little larger than A4 paper dimensions

METHOD

1