With all the craziness going on in my life right now a break to refresh and renew was just what I needed. Back in February I registered for a Paper Marbling and Book Binding class at The Peninsula School of Art in Fish Creek. Fish Creek is in Door County, WI which is a very busy tourist area when there isn’t a pandemic going on.
The art school has been around for 55 years. I have lived about an hour away for 40 years and have visited their gallery but just never thought about taking a class. However as the pandemic was starting to slow down and the school started posted upcoming classes again, I felt by summer things should be good. So in February I signed up and crossed my fingers that the class wouldn’t be cancelled. It wasn’t! We did have to show proof of vaccinations and when outside the classroom we had to be masked but I was fine with that.
The class was small, only five students, but that was probably because not everyone is okay with getting back to a normal life. However, a small class meant more individual help and the teacher was also free to change things up, which she did. Our instructor was Carey Watters, who is an Associate Professor of Art at UW-Parkside and she was very knowledgeable and had a very laid back style. The official class description said we would be marbling for one day and then do bookbinding for the remaining days but the class got so into the paper marbling that we just did it everyday. And we got better everyday because of that approach.
The school has been doing some major construction lately so we were in one of the new classrooms. Matter of fact, we were the first to “break it in”. Art can be messy, we did a good job.
To me, Paper Marbling is very much like glazing and firing ceramics. In ceramics you apply the glaze, which usually is dull or chalky looking. It may have properties that you are aware of but you can’t see until the firing. Upon opening the kiln after a firing, you finally get to see what it is supposed to look like. It may be wonderful with color and pattern or it may be dull and boring. In paper marbling a similar thing happens. First off you have a tray with a mixture of water and carrageenan, which is a seaweed gelling agent that creates a viscous surface for you to put your colors on. You do this with with eye droppers or flicking bristles on a brush. Sticks and rakes mix up the colors and create patterns. Other agents like gall, spread out the paint. But nothing looks too dramatic until you pull the paper. The colors you are seeing in the following pictures is mostly the dried paint in the bottom of the pan. Try to focus on the surface. Click on picture to enlarge.
6. Laying down the paper
Looks pretty different, right? That was the hard part. Combining colors, techniques and envisioning how they would go together for a good final piece. And taking the color of the paper into consideration. The above piece was done by our instructor. My first try is below.
By the 4th day I started to get the hang of it.
I even got out of my comfort zone and went pink!
Afternoons while our paper dried we learned book binding techniques. Even though I have been making books for awhile I learned 4 or 5 new things which is good and will probably improve my future books. The books in class were small samplers using some of the chipboard we marbled.
It was a good four days spent learning, creating, laughing, eating, and just enjoying time away from “reality”. In the mornings in another classroom a class of littles were making pop-up books. All masked up, they came over to visit and see what the grownups were doing. Mostly we were marbling so it was fun to show them how the “magic” happened. One day after a few visits they all arrived with pop-up thank you notes. It was a wonderful finish to the week.
Another Stir of the Spoon 
Thank you for sharing this. It was so interesting. Nice that you were able to get out and have fun.
It was a very good time.
What fun. I like the pink marbling 👍
Well thanks!