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Paper marbling is a technique for producing colorful patterns on paper (or, rarely, on other surfaces) by swirls of paint, traditionally water-based paint, floating on water. The resulting marbled paper is a popular decorative material, especially as endpapers in book binding and stationery. Part of its appeal is that each print is unique. Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of separate sheets of paper or other material. ...
Stationery is a general name given to paper and office supplies such as envelopes, notepads, pens, pencils, erasers, paper clips, staples, etc. ...
Procedure An artistic method for creating surface designs, some of which are similar to marble or other stone, hence the name. It is technically considered a form of aqueous monoprinting, as each design is completely unique.
There are several methods for making marbled papers. The simplest form, and possibly the oldest, is made in Japan and is known as suminagashi; a shallow tray filled with water, and sumi ink, as well as ai indigo, and beni a color derived from safflowers, are carefully applied to the surface with a brush. Various additives or surfactant chemicals are used help float the ink. A drop of "negative" color made of plain water with the addition of surfactant is used to drive the colors into ring. The process is repeated until the surface of the water is covered by concentric rings. Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids. ...
Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids. ...
The floating colors are then carefully manipulated either by blowing on them directly or though a straw, fanning the colors, or carefully using a hair to stir the colors. In the 19th century, Sthe Kyoto master Tokutaro Yagi developed a method for using a split piece of bamboo to gently stir the colors, resulting in concentric spiral designs. Finally, A sheet of washi paper is then laid over top to capture the floating design. The paper often made of kozo (Paper mulberry or Brousonettia papyrifera) must be unsized, and strong enough to withstand being immersed in water without tearing.
Another method of marbling more familiar to Europeans and Americans is made on the surface of a viscous mucilage, known as size or sizing in English. This method is commonly referred to as "Turkish " marbling, although ethnic Turkic peoples were not the only practitioners of the art, as Tajik Persians and Indians also made these papers. The term "Turkish" was most likely used as a reference to the fact that many Europeans first encountered the art in Istanbul.
Historic forms of marbling used pure pigments mixed with water for colors, and sizes were traditionally made from gum tragacanth (astragalus), gum karaya, guar gum, fenugreek seed, fleabane, and psyllium were used. Since the late 19th century, carrageen moss or Irish moss (Chondrus crispus, a kind of seaweed) has been employed for sizing. Today many marbled use carrageenan, which is a powdered extract of Chondrus crispus. Another plant derived mucilage is made from sodium alginate. In recent years, a synthetic size made from hydroxypopyl methylcellulose, a common ingredient in instant wallpaper pastes, is often used in conjunction with acrylic and oil colors. Carrageenans or carrageenins (pronounced ) are a family of linear sulphated polysaccharides extracted from red seaweeds. ...
In the sized-based method, colors made from pigments are mixed with a surfactant such as ox gall. These are then spattered or dropped onto the size, one color after another, until there is a dense pattern in many colors. Straw from the broom corn was used to make a kind of whisk for sprinkling the paint, or horsehair to create a kind of drop-brush. Each successive layer of pigment spreads slightly less than the last and may require more surfactant to float and uniformly expand. Surfactants are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids. ...
Ox gall is gall, usually obtained from cows, that is mixed with alcohol and used as the wetting agent in marbling, engraving, lithography, and watercolor painting. ...
Once the colors are laid down, various tools and implements such as rakes or combs, are used in a series of movements to create more intricate patterns. Paper or cloth, often mordanted beforehand with aluminum sulfate (alum) is gently laid onto the floating colors (some traditional methods such as Turkish ebru do not require mordanting beforehand). The colors are thereby transferred to the surface of the paper or material.
If necessary, excess bleeding colors and sizing can be rinsed off, and then the paper or fabric is allowed to dry. After the print is made, any color residues are carefully skimmed off of the surface of the size, in order to clear it before starting a new pattern.
Contemporary marblers employ a variety of modern materials, some in place of or in combination with the more traditional ones. A wide variety of colors are used today in place of the historic pigment colors. Plastic broom straw can be used instead of broom corn, as well as bamboo sticks, and eyedroppers to drop the colors on the surface of the size. Ox gall is still commonly used as a surfactant for watercolors and gouache, but synthetic surfactants are used in conjunction with acrylic, PVA, and oil colors. Ox gall is gall, usually obtained from cows, that is mixed with alcohol and used as the wetting agent in marbling, engraving, lithography, and watercolor painting. ...
Surfactants, also known as wetting agents, lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading. ...
History An intriguing reference which some think may be a form of marbling is found in a compilation completed in 986 CE entitled 文房四谱 Wen Fang Si Puor "Four Treasures of the Scholar's Study" edited by the 10th century Scholar-Official 蘇易簡 Su Yijian (957-995 CE). The text mentions a kind of decorative paper called 流沙箋liu sha jian meaning “drifting-sand” or “flowing-sand notepaper" that was made in what is now the region of Sichuan (Yijian 4: 7a-8a).
This paper was made by dragging a piece of paper through a fermented flour paste mixed with various colors, creating a free and irregular design. A second type was made with a paste prepared from honey locust pods, mixed with croton oil, and thinned with water. Presumably both black and coloured inks were employed. Ginger, possibly in the form of an oil or extract, was used to disperse the colors, or “scatter” them, according to the interpretation given by Dr. T.H. Tsien. The colors were said to gather together when a hair-brush was beaten over the design, as dandruff particles was applied to the design by beating a hairbrush over top. The finished designs, which were thought to resemble human figures, clouds, or flying birds, were then transferred to the surface of a sheet of paper. An example paper decorated with floating ink has never been found in China. Whether or not the above methods employed floating colors remains to be determined (Tsien 94-5).
Su Yijian was an Imperial scholar-official and served as the chief Hanlin Academician from about 985-993 CE. He compiled the work from a wide variety of earlier sources, and was familiar with the subject, given his profession. Yet it is important to note that it is uncertain how personally acquainted he was with the various methods for making decorative papers that he compiled. He most likely reported information given to him, without having a full understanding of the methods used. His original source may have predated him by several centuries. Until the original sources that he quotes are more precisely determined, can it be possible to ascribe a firm date for the production of the papers mentioned by Su Yijian.
墨流しsuminagashi, which means "floating ink" in Japanese is the oldest method of decorative paper made with floating colors that is known today. Author Einen Miura states that the oldest reference to suminagashi papers are in the waka poems of Shigeharu, (825-880 CE), a son of the famed Heian era poet Narihira (Muira 14). Various claims have been made regarding the origins of suminagashi. Some think that it may have originally come from China (Wolfe 6). Others have have proposed that may have derived from an early from of ink divination. Another theory is that may have derived from a form of popular entertainment at the time, in which a freshly painted sumi painting was immersed into water, and the ink slowly dispersed from the paper and rose to the surface, forming curious designs.
One individual has been often been claimed as the inventor of suminagashi. According to legend, Jizemon Hiroba felt he was divinely inspired to make suminagashi paper after he offered spiritual devotions at the Kasuga shrine in the city of Nara. It is said that He then wandered the country looking for the best water with which to make his papers. He arrived in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture where he found the water especially conducive to making suminagashi. So he settled there, and his family carried on with the tradition to this day. The Hiroba Family claims to have made this form of marbled paper since 1151 CE for 55 generations (Narita 14).
In the 15th century the method of floating colors on the surface of a size is thought to have emerged in Central Asia. It is believed to have appeared during the end of the Islamic Timurid Dynasty, whose capital was in the city of Herat, located in Afghanistan today. Other sources suggest it emerged during the subsequent Shaybanid dynasty, in the cities of Samarqand or Bukhara, in what is now modern Uzbekistan. Whether or not this method was somehow related to earlier Chinese or Japanese methods mentioned above has never been concretely proven. (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ...
This Islamic method came to be known as كاغذ آبرىkaghez-i abri which was translated by the late scholar Dr. Annemarie Schimmel to mean "clouded paper" in Persian, although often a simpler form of term,آبرىabri, meaning "clouded" or "cloudy" is found in various historic texts . Certain Turkish writers have suggested that the word may be of Turkic origin related to a word meaning "colorful" or "variegated", though this claim has never been proven. It may have been the case that both Persian and Turkish meanings were simultaneously understood by artisans, many of which were conversant in both languages at that time, and even enjoyed as a expression of poetic nuance. Most historical Persian and Turkish texts known that refer to this kind of paper use these two words alone. Today in Iran it is often called ابرو بادabru-bad which means "cloud and wind". In Turkey, the art popularly known as ebru today, is very popular. Turkish () is a Turkic language, spoken mainly in Turkey, with smaller communities of speakers in Bulgaria,[3] the Republic of Macedonia,[4] Uzbekistan,[5] Cyprus,[6] Greece,[7] as well as by several million emigrants in Western Europe. ...
The art developed in Safavid Persia and Ottoman Turkey, as well as Mughal and Sultanate India. Within these regions, various methods emerged in which colors were made to float on the surface of a bath of viscous liquid mucilage or size, made from various plants. These include katheera or kitre- gum tragacanth (Astragalus often used as a binder by apothecaries in making tablets), methi- fenugreek seed (an ingredient in curry mixtures), and sahlab or or salep (which is commonly used to make a popular beverage from the roots of wild orchid, or Orchis mascula). A method of manipulating colors evolved that employed various tools including rakes, combs, and other apparatus, utilized in a series of movements, resulted in incredibly elaborate, intricate, and mesmerizing designs. In India, the abritechnique was eventually combined with 'aks, various methods of stenciling, to create unique and very rare form of miniature painting. These are commonly associated with the Deccan region today, and especially the city of Bijapur in particular, under Adil Shahi dynasty patronage in the 17th century. The topic of marbling in India is understudied and conclusive determinations have yet to be made, especially in light of discoveries made in the last 20 years. It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ...
In the 17th century European travelers to the Middle East collected examples of these papers and bound them into alba amicora, which literally means "books of friendship" in Latin. Eventually the technique for making the papers reached Europe, where they became a popular covering material for book covers and end-papers, and lining chests, drawers, and bookshelves. The art became a popular handicraft in the 19th century after the English maker Charles Woolnough published his The Art of Marbling. Woolnough developed a method for marbling onto book-cloth, which he exhibited at the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace. (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ...
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Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 967 Area...
Marbled paper is still made today, and the method is now applied to fabric and 3-d surfaces as well as paper. Many artists have explored using it as a painting technique.
Examples Endpaper with marbled paper from a book bound in France around 1735 Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (997x868, 271 KB) Summary Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Paper marbling ...
| Book bound with typical simple marbled paper in France around 1825 Image File history File links Download high resolution version (451x644, 134 KB) Summary Cover with marbled paper from a little book bound in France around 1825. ...
Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 1825 (MDCCCXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...
| Paper marbling from a book bound in England around 1830 Image File history File links Download high resolution version (463x695, 165 KB) Summary Handcrafted paper marbling from endpapers (identical with cover) of a book manually bound in England around 1830. ...
Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 967 Area...
Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 (MDCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
| Paper marbling from a book bound in England around 1830 (detail) Image File history File links Download high resolution version (653x653, 225 KB) Summary Handcrafted paper marbling from endpapers (identical with cover) of a book manually bound in England around 1830. ...
| Paper marbling from a book bound in France around 1880 (detail) Image File history File links PaperMarbling003France1880Detail. ...
Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ...
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References - Chambers, Ann. Suminagashi: The Japanese Art of Marbling. London: Thames & Hudson, 1992.
- Miura, Einen. The Art of Marbled Paper: Marbled Patterns and How to Make Them. London, Zaehnsdorf, 1990.
- Narita, Kiyofusa. Japanese Paper-making. Tokyo: Oji Paper Museum, 1954
- Porter, Yves. Painters, Paintings, and Books: An Essay on Indo-Persian Technical Literature, 12-19th Centuries. Translated by S. Butani. New Delhi: Manohar: Centre for Human Sciences, 1994.
- Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin Paper and Printing. Science and Civilization v. 5. Chemistry and chemical technology: pt. 1. Joseph Needham, ed. Cambridge: Harvard U P. 1985
- Wolfe, Richard. Marbled Papers: Its History, Techniques, and Patterns. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 1990.
- Yijian, Su. Wen fang Si Bao. Taibei Shi : Taiwan shang wu yin shu guan, Minguo 55 [1966]
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