Marbled Paper Magic.

My workroom all set for a fun evening.

I do love my big workroom( /diningroom) and so now and then when I manage to tidy up and remove the bits left over from a project or 2, (3 or 4,) and set out my tables, there is a lot of space. Enough space to invite the little Crafty Chicks group I'm a member of, and have some fun together. As happened some months ago.

This time one of us wanted to show us how to marble paper, so that we could use it in the future for making some note-books.

The Crafty Chicks in action.

Of course I had seen this paper before in old books as the end-papers inside the covers, and I even have an old book that has the edges of the pages marbled. But I had never seen it done.
But it involved colours and paint and mucky stuff, so I was in!
Nothing better for a bunch of ladies in their 40's with busy lives to play, like you are at Kindergarten...!

Our wet marbled papers drying on the kitchen floor.

We made up a solution of water and wallpaper paste (2 tablespoons of "Sellys wall paper lightweight paste, step 3") stirred until it felt slimy like egg white. Acrylic paint was quite watered down in plastic cups and drops of paint were dropped onto the surface, which had sat for 5 minutes or so. These drops spread onto the surface, unless not thin enough, which meant they fell through the mixture to the bottom of the container. The paper only goes on the surface, so the paint has to lay on top.

 We swirled the colours on the surface with wooden skewers from the kitchen and we even used a plastic wide toothed comb, to comb the colours together.

Ooohs and Aaahs all round when the first pieces of paper were carefully laid on top of the mixture in the shallow containers and lifted up! Wow!!

My kitchen floor became a riot of colours with the dripping wet marbled papers.

That wasn't going to work for very long with my cats around...

A much better solution for drying the marbled papers.

Out came my old drying frame, which I popped onto 1 of the tables . That's where it stayed for the next 3 days( at least) because after the ladies left, I kept on experimenting for 3 more afternoons, and reading up on it on the inter web. The different patterns have names and history ( some more than 800 years!) and geographical links.

Oh the stuff you can learn ! And again: Youtube is just fabulous with little how to videos from all over the world.

Swirled nonpareil pattern with Spanish Moire water ripple effect.

Red Swirled nonpareil pattern with Turkish Ebru hearts and Spanish Moire ripples.

Small Turkish Ebru style shapes just big enough for a card.

I now have a lovely pile of different marbled papers, and have already made 3 notebooks!

Super Fun!

Have you learned any new techniques lately?