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Saturday 18 May 2019

Paper marbling


At Nostell, in collaboration with The Hepworth Wakefield, there was a demonstration of paper marbling techniques by the artist Giles Round's Obelisk Marbling team. They were taking inspiration from the beautifully marbled paper that Thomas Chippendale used to line drawers in his furniture, and the endpapers of some of the precious books in the library.  

The process involves a bath of carrageen seaweed, a thick gluey substance, which is then delicately splattered with pigments. The surface is often combed or dragged to produce swirling effects.  A sheet of paper is laid on top to pick up the pigments and then lifted out to dry. Each sheet is unique. The bath is cleaned between each page, by soaking up the remaining pigment with newspaper before starting again. It was quite time-consuming but the young lady demonstrating it when I visited seemed to be enjoying the creative process. 



5 comments:

  1. I remember one of the teachers at the school where I worked being very enthusiastic about the children trying out marbling - the results were not encouraging. :(

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  2. I too remember doing marbling at school, but our results were great. I recall that we all made ourselves a pretty lantern which we proudly took home with us.
    I would love to have the opportunity of doing it again.

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  3. I have an artist friend who does marbling. One of the beautiful techniques is her dying silk scarves with marbling. They are very pale however, and I wish the dyes were more vivid so they'd show off the designs better. I've done paper marbling, and she makes boxes and artifacts with hers.

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  4. I can imagine that that could become addictive! So many possibilities!

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  5. I think that's the first time I've heard that term.

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