Suminagashi marbling this time

Yesterday, I pulled out my supplies for doing Suminagashi marbling. A very different experience than Ebru marbling, and very different results too. I really should practice this more often - I haven't tried it for a long time. So rather than paint and carageenan size, Suminagashi uses ink and water. There is not a lot of information about Japanese marbling available, but there is a book by Anne Chambers that you might be able to get if you are looking for detailed information.


A couple of the results -

What to do during Earth Hour?

Our household participated in Earth Hour today by turning off all the lights, computers, and TVs between 8:30 and 9:30pm. What to do, when you would rather be bookbinding? I planned ahead, made sure that my solar-powered book light was charged, and spent the hour reading some Szirmai.


This book light is a handy gadget - check it out on Useful Things. (The bendy wire can be argumentative but the light is good and stays charged for a full earth hour and more.)

Happy Earth Hour! What did you do during earth hour?

Some new marbled papers

A few of my favorites from my last marbling session. A bird wing pattern: A waved chevron: Spanish wave on stones: The thistle pattern:

A new travel journal

I finally finished this book for myself. It's my 2010 travel journal. As I've explained before, my travel journals are made after the fact - rather than during my travels as most people would do it. Some previous examples of my personal travel journals are here and here.

We didn't make any big trips last year, just a bunch of small road trips, camping, etc. All the papers that I collected from those little trips, tickets, maps, etc are incorporated. Some maps and brochures were folded to make folders and the smaller items are tucked into the folders. The front cover has a small clear plastic container embedded and it contains a shell and some dried wild rose petals, which we collected at a campground. I used a sheet of my marbled paper on the front cover - a favorite that I had been saving.

Marbling a bouqet pattern

I just spent a few days doing some marbling so I took some pictures of the different steps for making the bouquet pattern - which is one of my favorite patterns when it turns out well. There are actually four different patterns created in the process. These photos are taken of the paint floating on the carageenan size, so the colours look strange, but hopefully you can get an idea of what's happening. Click on the pictures to see them larger.

First, the stone pattern.


Then a gel git (or git gel... the jury is out on which is the best way to say that).


Then it becomes a Nonpareil.


And finally the nonpareil is transformed into the bouquet.


Here it is, printed and rinsed and drying in the sink.


And after it has dried completely.


All for the love of a single sheet of paper!