What Is Marbling Ink Made Of

Although paper marbling has been around for ages i was recently intrigued to give it a go when i saw this cool japanese marbling technique also known as suminagashi paper marbling on a an artist friend s instagram.

What is marbling ink made of.

In the beginning of my video i show many examples of alcohol ink marbling. The other is that for suminagashi no additive is used to thicken the water while for western marbling the water is thickened to ensure that the pigments do not sink but remain on the surface. One is that sumi or chinese ink made from pine soot is the core material though not necessarily the only ink used. The floating paints are swirled into patterns.

This special kind of ink floats on the surface of water and creates interesting patterns when mixed with other inks and stirred. Using this simple technique you can create beautiful one of a kind ink prints by dipping paper onto the ink on the water. Marbling is the process of floating fabric paints on the surface of a thick cellulose solution called size somewhat like oil on water. This resulted in such a similar fail as marbling with ink that i didn t even bother taking pictures of the results.

My method was the same only instead of using ink i used heavy pigmented gouache water colors which i diluted to the consistency of cream. Then you capture your design by laying a treated piece of fabr. The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size and then carefully transferred to an absorbent surface such as paper or fabric. Suminagashi ink is a type of japanese hydrophobic ink used in calligraphy and for book binding.

You could also use copic. This alcohol ink marbling technique is very simple to do and gives a different look each time. Instead follow these instructions to make your own inks with old oil paints that can be used to create elegant marbleized papers. Scroll all the way down to watch the video below to see the process for easy diy paper marbling at home and make sure to subscribe to our youtube channel for more fun videos.

The marbling pigments sold by most arts and crafts suppliers can be quite expensive and are not always readily available. Marbling with gouache paint thickened water. Through several centuries people have applied marbled materials to a variety of. I filled a shallow bowl with water and dropped in 3 4 drops of 3 4 different colors of ranger alcohol inks.

The technique is quite easy. Nail polish is a little more permanent which makes this a great technique for marbling more than just paper but it may also make this method less ideal for kids. Nail polish marbling dries quickly and there s less mess because you don t have to scrape away the shaving cream. How is it different from normal ink.