Tag Archives: marbled paper

February 21, 2013 · 5:47 pm

More Ladders

I was so pleased that I finally have the ribbons straightened out that I made a bunch more of the Ladders. I’m especially enjoying using pages from vintage books. The way the paper is cut, I rarely have complete paragraphs or even sentences. It is a mind stretcher to “read” some of them. They are not really just random words, but more like dream thoughts that never get quite completed. I’ve cut a bunch more from cookbooks, Shakespeare and even the Bible. I’m looking forward to putting them together.

In the meantime here are the ones I’ve finished.

: Fun Jacob’s Ladders

All of these are for sale on Etsy. In other news, I’m still cleaning up from my last marbling session. Marbling is fun, but it does make a mess!

I’m still sorting out the papers and trying to decide which papers to use and which to sell. That’s always a fun enterprise. More on those papers later … I hope!

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Tagged as creating, design, Jacob's ladder, LosingHerMarbles, marbled paper, marbling, paper arts, papers, toys

February 15, 2013 · 9:39 am

Rainbow Update

Just a quickie to show you what I’ve done with some of my “rainbow” paper. Yes, I know that the rainbow really has seven colors, not six. These are actually the primary and secondary colors on a color wheel, but rainbow sounds better. Anyway, here is my newest plaything.

: Jacob’s Ladder in rainbow colors

I’ve already cut the paper for a second one and have been marbling a lot of interesting vintage paper to make more. Now that I’ve finally gotten the ribbons working, it’s fun. I admit, I still have the 28 step instructions right in front of me every time!

Monochromatic Rainbow

I suppose that’s actually an oxymoron, but it describes the marbling I did this weekend! I was so impressed by the “shades of grey” piece I did at the beginning of January, that I decided to expand the repertoire. Now I have monochromatic pieces of all the primary and secondary colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. All I need now is to figure out how to use them!

Here’s one of each on the line.

and a quick gallery of them all:

There are four sheets of each color except the blue. I really like the fresh, clean look of these. I plan to do more this week, but I also have other ideas. Today I also did some marbling using masks to cover portions of the paper so they don’t have paint. They can either be left plain or overmarbled. I hope to have those results for you by the end of this week.

Sometimes there are too many ideas for the time I have. Decisions, decisions, decisions. As much as I love having piles of paper around, it does help if I can actually sell some or make something from them to sell. At least it gives me money to buy more supplies.

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Tagged as color, creativity, design, marbled paper, marbling, monochromatic, papers, rainbow

January 21, 2013 · 5:25 pm

Not Quite As Planned

My plans for marbling this weekend didn’t quite work out – seems to be a theme going on here.

I did have a great weekend however, even if not as planned. As I mentioned in my last blog, I was playing with the ladders and getting a bit frustrated. I had made the blocks for two ladders, but my first attempt at the ribbons wasn’t right. I pulled them apart and tried again on one of the ladders and finally had the weaving right, but the ribbons were too loose, some blocks had gotten upside down, and it just wasn’t pretty!

I also had three books that I had started months ago, but had been too busy to get back to them. So I decided instead of creating more paper to join my stash and create more work, I would finish up some things, including mastering the ladders. So, here are the results!

I made four ladders this week, The bottom two in the first photo were my successful ones. One is made from pages of a 1947 book about Bozo the Clown that I marbled. The other is regular marbled paper. The top two are from an old copy of “The History of Western Art”. I was really excited about these as they would form a little “book” snapshot of art through the ages. Unfortunately they were the ones I messed up. I still like the idea and think I’ll have to marble some more pages and try again.

Here’s a close-up of two of the blocks from the the art book.

These are the books I finished. Unlike most batches I make, these are all the same size. It does make cutting the paper and boards easier, but it’s not as much fun!

I’m very pleased to have finished these and I’ll be putting them up on Etsy within the next week.

Maybe this week, I’ll get started on my new paints and all the marbling ideas that are floating through my head!

Quick “show and tell” of my last overmarbling

Why is it that when you really want spectacular results the souffle falls? At least it seems that way. I was hoping that the few overmarbles I did in the last batch would be good demonstrations of how the technique can work. Instead they are just some more examples of not-quite-hits. It happens. Next time …

Anyway I did promise to show you and here are the results, side by side.

Example 1:
The original paper is on the right, overmarbled on the left.

The original sheet either was missed in the alum process or was flipped and I tried to print on the wrong side. Most of the pigment and pattern washed off in the water bath. You can see a few traces of a nonpareil pattern on the left edge. The remaining pigments left a pale wash over the paper. The overmarbling used similar color in a wide, looping pattern that gained some resonance from the under pattern, but nothing outstanding. It’s a pleasant piece, but not what I hoped for.

Example 2:

This original piece was in pale, almost washed-out greens. This photo makes the piece look worse than it was. It was nice, just rather wishy-washy. I thought it might be a good candidate. I over marbled it with yellows, burnt sienna and oranges. Unfotunately, the burnt sienna granulated a bit and didn’t give the strong lines I was expecting. The undercoat gives interesting shadows and reflections, but not the “wow” factor.

Example 3:

This piece was quite successful in bringing a rather namby-pamby piece back to life. I’d had a problem with the yellow in the first piece pushing all the other colors and then disappearing when printed. For the over coat, I used the same colors in the same stone pattern without the yellow and obtained a very nice colorful piece. This one is the most interesting to try and trace the under and over patterns. If you focus on the black, almost triangular shape a little to the left and above center in the first piece, you can see the same shape in the middle of a large purple stone in the second. From there, you can trace many of the black veins and colored stones.

Example 4:

This was my most successful piece of these four. At least I think so! The original piece was nice with a little bit of a ripple going on, but it had some flaws that would have made it hard to use. For the overmarble, I used similar colors, but made them more intense. I tired to echo the under pattern, without the ripple. The ripple shows through and gives a very subtle motion to the piece. The flaws tend to blend into the new patterns and make the piece very usable,

I’m hoping to start another marbling session this weekend and I’m excited to have just received a shipment of lots of new colors in my new paint.

In the meantime, I’m frustrating myself making some more Jacob’s ladders. Preparing the blocks is a piece of cake. Threading the ribbons is a whole different matter! There always seems to be one that is not right – usually the broken rung is in the middle. Will post more pictures when (and if) I get them right. Doesn’t matter, I’m having fun.

Later posts on overmarbling: Playing Addendum

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Tagged as creating, design, Jacob's ladder, marbled paper, marbling, mistakes, papers

January 6, 2013 · 7:47 pm

New Year, New Paint

Last fall at the Folk School the class I took in marbling used a different brand of paint than I use. The instructor gave us the left-overs to take home (thank you, Pat!) but I hadn’t had time to use it. I find that using a product in a class is very different than using it in my own studio. Timing is different, paper is different, even the water is different, so I don’t like to make decisions until I’ve had time to play on my own and with my normal supplies. All I can say is that I love the new stuff! It’s Golden’s Fluid Acrylics and I am finding them much easier to use than the old and they seem to be sharper and more coherent than the old brand. Here are some of the papers that I made this week.

I’m thrilled with the black and grey piece. I have tried mono-tone marbling in the past and haven’t been completely satisfied with the results, but this one works. I’m hoping it’s the new paints and I foresee trying a batch of mono-tones in my next marbling session.

I also tried some more overmarbling with less than stellar results. I’ll post the before and afters in a few days for your comments.

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Tagged as creating, LosingHerMarbles, marbled paper, marbling, paints, paper arts

January 1, 2013 · 7:12 pm

A Book or a Toy?

It’s been a very busy time since my last blog! I had a number of calls from local outlets for more inventory – cards, books, towers, note pads – just everything. It’s all good, but it does create time pressure on everything else. I didn’t even have time to take pictures!

In the middle of all of this, I decided to play with a little “book” I found in a bookbinding manual that is based on the old toy “Jacob’s Ladder.” You know, the little pieces tied together with cord or ribbon, that clatter down in one direction and then the other. My version, naturally, uses light-weight board covered with marbled paper. My first attempt (the prototype) failed miserably when I misread the instructions for the ribbon placements. The second, (beta) was strung incorrectly but I was able to fix it. My first “real” version is under weights right now. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow morning.

Here are the prototype and the beta version.

Here’s an attempt at showing the Jacob’s Book in action.

Click for a real video of the Jacob’sLadder

If I become inspired, I’d like to try making it a real book with a poem, a story or even just words. Don’t know when I’ll have time. Soon, I hope.

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Tagged as Crafts, creating, fun, Jacob's ladder, marbled paper, marbling, toy

December 16, 2012 · 12:54 pm

Exploring Overmarbling, when and if …

Busy, busy, busy. I’ve been home for almost a month and still haven’t been able to do any marbling. Very frustrating as there were so many techniques that we had a taste of in my marbling class and I really want to spend some time with them. Now, it looks like I’ll have to wait until the new year.

As soon as I arrived home, I had four special order books to finish. All of them were larger (9″x12″ and 8.5″x11″) than I usually make. Although the larger size is more impressive, I think I’ll stick to my smaller, pocket-sized fare. I just enjoy them more. One of the books was a sewn perfect/adhesive binding. I hate making those, but there was no choice in this case as the pages were photographs. I did this for a local photographer and he was pleased. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any pictures of the book! He seems to think other photographers would be interested, but I’m not sure I want to do more. I’d rather just do a clam-shell box!

Overmarbling

Overmarbling is the technique of taking a dried piece of marbled paper and after applying alum, marbling it for a second time. When I first learned to marble, I had done some with poor results and felt it was used mainly to try to save a piece that wasn’t very good anyway. Here’s a poor example of overmarbling: as you can see, it’s just a simple get-gel over very large “eggs” or boulders.

This time I learned that, with careful choices of colors and patterns, you can get really spectacular results. The second marbling can add depth, movement and definition to a piece.

Here are three pieces (above) that worked well. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge and see if you can trace which colors and patterns are on the top layer and which are on the bottom.

Below are some combinations that didn’t work so well!

Although, even with these, there are portions that could be used in collage work or in my boxes or notepads. It’s mainly the large sheet that just doesn’t work.

This is by far my favorite piece of overmarbling. The colors are just right and the patterns compliment and enrich each other.

and some close-ups:

Another technique that can be used to great advantage with overmarbling is masking, but that will wait for another blog.

Three more posts on overmarbling: More Playing Addendum

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Tagged as creating, design, marbled paper, marbling, mistakes, overmarbling, paper arts, papers

November 25, 2012 · 2:46 pm

Around the World in Marbling

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. My only excuse it that I’ve been busy, busy, busy. I was away from home for a month, enjoying Washington DC, North Carolina and Texas. They all deserve separate blogs, but I probably won’t do that! I’m going to start with the great time I had back at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

At the Folk School, I took a great marbling course with Pat Thomas. The theme of the week was “Marbling Around the World” and we tried marbling techniques from various countries. Japan was the first stop and I tried suminagashi marbling for the first time. It is done with Japanese ink on plain water and gives very different patterns than the usual marbling. The ink is loaded on brushes and the tip of the bush just touches the water, leaving a bit of ink. Concentric circles are formed by repeated brush touches in the same place. Once there is enough ink floating on the water, the surface is rippled by blowing on it or by waving a fan lightly over the surface. There are YouTubes showing Japanese masters making all sorts of designs, even landscapes. I made lots of circles and a few designs that began to look like something from dreams or nightmares.

As you can see, the colors are faint and look rather like topographic maps. Clicking on the thumbnails helps. Much more practice is needed for this.

There were five people in the workshop, so there was plenty of space for everyone. Here is the room set-up showing the marbling stations and the drying racks.

Our next stop was Turkey and into the classic stone and get-gel patterns.

Then on to Spain for some Spanish ripple.

I like some of the 3-D effects this produces, but I need more practice to be able to produce nice even rolls every time. We also did the New Jersey ripple, but mine was a total mess. I’ll try it again in my next marbling session (probably after New Years) and show you what it’s supposed to look like, with luck.

France was represented by the nonpareil and French curl patterns.

We did a lot of overmarbling, both plain and with masks, but I’m going to save that for a separate blog.

Here’s my pile of papers. Now I have to figure out what to do with all of them. Fun times ahead!

All in all, a great time was has by everyone.

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Tagged as classes, Crafts, design, John C. Campbell Folk School, marbled paper, marbling, paper arts, papers, workshops

October 10, 2012 · 2:09 pm

Downsizing, or getting smaller

I’ve been playing with designs again. This time smaller and simpler seem to be the themes. The simplest book of all, except for the scroll, is just some paper fastened together. This lacks durability and form so a protective cover needs to be added. If the cover is just heavier paper then the pages and the cover can easily be stitched together making a simple notepad or jotter. Since I happen to have lots of pretty heavy weight paper on hand, it’s easy. And all the better since the heavy paper is too heavy for use in traditional books.

Here’s the result:

After making the large portfolios and medium size notepads, I decided to complete the series with a mini-notepad, just right for a pocket. These are very small: just 3″ x4″ to fit a memo pad.

I’m hoping these will make great little gifts for the holidays. They are fun to make and don’t take nearly as much time and effort as the larger varieties. Another plus is that I get to play with lots of combinations of papers.

Here’s the whole week’s production.