Monday, May 19, 2008

Suminagashi


Aside from the traditional marbling that I did with Nancy Morains, I also learned Suminagashi, which is a very old Japanese technique of paper decoration. This involves special suminagashi paint and a sumifactant from Japan that you apply using sumi brushes.


The brushes are dipped lightly into the water to create patterns. Colours are alternted to create rings and the sumifactant can be used as an 'invisible' colour if you want the colour of the paper to show.


When the surface of the water is sufficiently covered with colour, it can be fanned or blown lightly to move the colours creating different patterns.



Although the basic concept is similar to the other marbling I was doing, the process and intent is quite different. I didn't spend as much time with this, but still produced several interesting sheets of paper. The one shown above being my favorite.

5 comments:

Piroska said...

That's really interesting, it almost looks like wood, like the rings in a tree.

Pegg said...

Rhonda, lucky to be experiencing so many different techniques! Your "papers" are beautiful!!

MyHandboundBooks said...

Thank you piroska and pegg! it has been so much fun to be doing all these different things :)

Garland said...

How generous of you to share your adventure at Arrowmont with your readers! Some of us probably won't get there in this lifetime, so the vicarious experience, enhanced by your careful explanations and photos, is much appreciated.

Maiko said...

oh wow, i kind of love this style! i'm so used to seeing the traditional marble types, this is awesome! it's like faux bois! :D