I mentioned this past week how I was working on a big "adventures in paper marbling" post, well, it's turned into two. The whole process has been much more than I anticipated; the prep work, the paper marbling itself, and the blogging of it all. But also, more fun and satisfying than I anticipated as well, and that's always a nice result of any adventure. Let me go back a few steps to begin. In the past, I have odered some beautiful marbled paper from artist Heidi Finley, and she has generously donated papers to some of my classes. As is my norm, when I see the result of beautiful crafting, I want to try doing it myself, so when she offered starter kits for sale in her etsy shop, I bit. This is Heidi doing her thing:
Looks fun, right?
I found it to be very fun. Not quite so fun to do all the necessary prep work (or clean up), but I tend to be impatient like that; not a big fan of prep work or reading instructions (or clean up). Her instructions and materials were super easy to follow, so that helped. Once I had spent a couple days doing the necessary prep, I was finally able to get down to business. I for sure needed 2 days of solid art time to use up the ingredients I mixed for my first batch of marbling. Here are some pictures from the first day:
It's pretty obvious that that drip above is a mistake. There is much to learn about paper marbling, but mistakes and all, I still love it and will use it. I know that if I spend more time doing it, I will learn what mistakes cause what undesired result, but for now, I assme it had to do with my rinsing off of the size incorrectly.
Seriously, the colors alone! Then there's all the possible shapes and styles to attempt, as well as all the different type papers to try the technique on, so much to look forward to in future play. I made all these papers the first day, knowing that the size I mixed would be enough for another go at fresh experiements. I left them to dry and loved checking them out the next day (of course). And although I have so much to learn, I think that it will be fun all along that learning curve, another sign of a good adventure to go on!
I'll show you the papers from my second attempt at paper marbling in my next post. If you think it's something you might like to try yourself, I was quite happy with her starter kit (no affiliation). I would also recommend you do as she says and read all the way through the instructions before beginning, as some of the mixes only last for so long, so you'll need to have time set aside accordingly. Another super helpful thing was a drying rack and clothes pins . I bought this one at Ikea, but any drying rack will do. A good dropcloth on the floor was also must for me. I like my papers from the second day even more, and I bet my third batch will be even better! Part 2 up next...