My Introduction to marbling paper and cloth

I often use marbled paper in my home made books, however I had never made my own marbled paper.  Marbling paper is one of the classes the John C Campbell Folk School often has, but so far I had not been able to attend any of their classes at the school.  By chance I learned they were still conducting a few online classess, and marbling was one of them.  So I quickly signed up!

As part of the online class I received a kit that included a 11” x 14” marbling tray, paints, a surfactant to thicken the water, a mordant for the paper and cloth, and some  paper and cloth.

There were six people in the class which allowed the instructor time to work with each of us.  We had a short first meeting to review what the class would cover and to do all the prep work:  

• making up the carrageenan for the tray, fill the tray and cover it overnight
• making up the alum, the mordant for the paper and cloth.  Spray one side of the papers then hang to dry.  
• make 1” and 2” rakes; ½” comb for marbling
• prepare three colors of paint (yellow, red, blue) with distilled water

The next day the instructor walked us through testing the paints, and adusting their consistency so they would spread out on top of the carrageenan enriched water.  

Marbling patterns are created by dropping paint in specific patterns on the surface of the carrageenan, then using the rakes or combs to pull the paint out into various patterns.  

The instructor walked us through creating several classic marbling patterns, moving from simple to complex.  Once we had a pattern we were happy with, paper wa carefully layed down on the paint and then just as carefully lifted off.  Any extra carrageenan was gently rinsed off the paper and it was set aside to dry.  

• Stones (large drops with smaller drops inside) and Bulls eye (drops within drops)

• Get-gal (Using rake to cross both horizontally and vertically and Double Git-gal (using comb to cross twice horizontally and vertically)

  

• Ribbon (Git-gal one direction) and Spanish wave (wiggle paper lifting)
  

• Over marble (second printing with pattern at 90 degrees

Revisiting rusting (part 2)

In the online FBAC class "Traces of Beauty: Rust Prints", Lauren G. Koch presented information on rusting techniques for both paper and fabrics.  I have never tried rusting fabric, but was interested in trying.  Below are the steps and results.

Items used:

• Water
• Salt
• Vinegar
• Spray bottle with a mix of vinegar and water (~70/30)
• Newspaper
• Bricks
• Rusty bits (cut metal, nails, barbed wire etc)

I soaked a piece of 100% cotton cloth in warm salt water overnight.  I laid the went piece of cloth out flat.  A variety of rusty metal bits were placed on the top half of the cloth, and sprayed with the vinegar/water mixture.  The lower half of the cloth was folded over the top half (covering the rusty metal bits).  Additional rusty metal bits were placed on the left side of the folded cloth, and sprayed with the vinegar/water mixture.  The right side of the folded cloth was then carefully folded over the left side (covering the rusty metal bits).  On top of the folded cloth and rusty metal bits I added some sheets of folded newspaper and a big brick.  I checked on the folded cloth a few times during the afternoon, re-wet the cloth if it was dry.  I left the folded cloth stack to continue to rust overnight.

The next afternoon I carefully unfolded the cloth, and removed the rusty metal bits.  I rinsed the cloth in water to remove any vinegar residue.  The results are not as striking as my rusty paper experiment, but I am still happy with the results.