Marbling Paper And Fabric

For centuries, marbling was an art form found only inside the covers of books. In those days, a trader gaurded their knowledge of marbling. Secrets were passed on only to apprentices sworn to silence, or from parents to their children. It was impossible for almost anyone, especially if you were in the bookbinding and stationery trades, to get a sight of the inside of the building where the marbling was done, every hole and crevice, where you would just might get a peep, was carefully stopped up and blocked and “No admission” put on the door.

Hundreds of anonymous artisans must have sweated away thousands of hours over their marbling trays trying to re-invent the process, trying to eliminate exasperating problems and find new and better materials and methods.  It is still ongoing, although we do have some better methods, the most challenging part is either getting your paints to spread and in some patterns, contract. But along the way, many a jewel will be lifted from the water and it will be like no other sheet ever made!

For you to explore marbling and make your own successful experiments, you will need to understand the basic technique, which throughout history, has never changed.
The process is always the same: paints are made to float on the surface of the water where they are manipulated into designs and then transferred to a sheet of paper, but to do this, the artist must learn to control the behavior of the paint.

Our paints are easy to use, with beautiful vibrant colors. They are water-based natural paints, and are similar to opaque watercolors, but so much more. They are made using natural ingredients, with a natural impasto to make them opaque. You won’t have to premix with water, they are ready to use as soon as it arrives.

Working with your paints you will realise that some of them are natural spreaders and some are not.  Each pigment is different and contains different amount of impasto and pigment. Never shake your paints, it creates bubbles, rather stir your paints.

*The colors shown may vary slightly due to screens.

Marbling Paints

Marbling Tools And Accessories 

Combs

The combs that are used for marbling are various. Marblers make their own combs according to their tray size and design pattern that they aim to make.
Combs also have different terms, some are top combs, which are dragged across the top of the marble base and others are bottom combs, which are dragged along the bottom.

The bottom combs are the finer precision combs and were normally made by reed-makers. The top combs were easily made by the marblers themselves.

The greatest difficulties in making a comb, are first, keeping uniform distance or space between the teeth; second, keeping the points exactly level, so that they will touch the surface together at once and the third is having them flat, not bent or crooked.

Marbling – How To’s