Marbling

 

Marbling is something that, up until this point, has been incorporated into my work via prints from a book, about the process of creating such patterning on various textures/materials. I had planned to take this book home, and learn to marble from it, but I managed to leave it in Farnham. So had to make do with online research, which didn't result in good, large scale prints that the book would have taught me. 

 Above, is the best, though still less than stellar result of my attempts at marbling, something myself and my mother were attempting over the Christmas break. Both the paper and the ink were the problem. The paper was simply not hydrophobic enough, and the acrylic ink was too thin to sit on the surface of the water. Despite that, we attempted it a few times anyway, with the first attempt (pictured above) being the most successful, in terms of achieving the intended appearance, the most, but still not fully. The colour is more faded than I would have liked, and much of the paper is blank, though is slightly off-coloured pink by the ink that had evenly spread in the water. Though, I do like the fade, which is one of the reasons I will use this marbling in a/some collages. And this pieces motion is great, and features the kind of whirling motion in colour, that I was looking for.  

Many of the other attempts, in fact both of the other large ones, had little to no motion, mostly they came out as tinted paper, with strange shapes faintly visible one the surface. These I will consider adding, though I do not feel there will be many places that they will fit into my work. As a result of our subsequent attempts failing, we moved on to smaller pieces of paper, in a smaller bath, with acrylic paint, we went small, as we had less of the paint.