An experiment in paper marbling

Its been about a month since my last update. School got pretty hectic for me.

For a while now I wanted to try my hand at paper marbling. I picked up a paper marbling kit by Jacquard Products. I got mine at Daniel Smith of course, but by the time of this writing they no longer carry the product so you will have to look online for it someplace else. It retailed from them for about $15.00.

Supply list:

• Jacquard Kit
• Paints (red, blue, yellow, green, white, black)
• Methocel
• Alum
• Instructions
• Acrylic Paint (choose your colors)
• Masa paper
• 1 gallon Bucket with a lid.
• Water Container
• Little containers for mixing paint (I used a plastic cupcake pallet)
• Oxgall Liquid
• Sponge
• Stir stick (I used a chop stick)
• News paper
• Clothes hangers (for hanging paper to dry)
• Masterson Acrylic Pallet (any kind of large flat pan will work)
• Eye dropper
• Rake (I used a modified comb)

Steps:

 

1. I pretty much followed the Jacquard instructions. I modified them a little bit. I mixed 2 TBS of the methocel with 1/2 gallon of hot tap water from the faucet. I put this into the 1 Gallon Container. I then mixed it up using a hand-held mixer. You can use a blender or a spoon, you just want to make sure its mixed up properly. Methocel is basically food safe, so its non-toxic. You can wash it down the drain, just use plenty of water. After wards I put the methocel mixture into the fridge over night. I did this before hand just because.
   
2. I then mixed the alum with hot water from the tap. The instructions didn't tell me how much for paper, only for cloth. I sorta guessed at it. I used about 1-2 TBS per pint of water.
3. I took 1 sheet of Masa paper and tore it down into quarters. I put 2 with the textured side up and 2 with the smooth side up. I am doing this because I am unsure which site will print best.
4. I soaked a sponge with the alum solution, I then ran the sponge over top surface of the Masa paper. You only need to do the top side, if you do get some on the back its not a big deal. The alum solution is used to make the paint stick to the paper better. Its like a primer or gesso for marbling.
   
5. I then hung the Masa paper up to dry. I made sure that I hung 2 sheets of paper with the smooth side up and the smooth side down. remember I am testing the paper to see how it reacts with the surface.
   
6. I took the methocel solution from the fridge (I actually waited an hour to let it warm up a little) and poured the whole thing into the Masterson pallet. I choose this pallet cause I had one handy. If you have a butcher tray that will work or any tray that is deep enough to hold the solution it is fine. Now the methocel solution will be thicker than water, this is normal.
   
7. After I got the solution poured and my paper was dry. I shook up the bottles of the paint Jacquard provided in their kit. I gently squeezed the bottles so a drop would appear on the surface of the methocel solution. You will notice that the paint will expand and move outwards. 
   
   
   
8. The first test was dropping in different colors (I used the red first, and then added yellow and blue. I noticed that the yellow and blue did not expand like the red did) and moving a chop stick around in a pattern. I first went up and down working my way from right to left, and then I went right to left working from the top to the bottom.
   
9. I then laid the paper down on the paint starting with one corner first then gently lowering the other corner down.
   
10. After that I grabbed the edge of the paper closest to me, and pulled it towards me. The whole time I made sure to scrap the bottom of the paper against the edge of the Masterson pallet. This will get all the methocel gunk off of the paper. Do not worry, it will not hurt the design.
    
11. I would then take strips of newspaper and draw it across the top of the methocel solution. This is to clean up the residue paint and to break the surface tension. I did this a few time in between each attempt.
1. At this point I noticed that the paint was sinking into the solution. I thought it was ruined, but I told myself I would keep trying to see what happened. I ended up pouring the mixture back into the bucket mixing everything together and pouring everything back into the pallet. That is why the solution looks green. It actually didn't hurt the process.
12. I then hung the paper on clothes hangers again to let it dry.
    
13. After the first attempt I tried a few other ways.
1. I dropped the paint into the solution and then in the middle of the drop used oxgall liquid. The oxgall liquid would create little rings by pushing the paint to the outside of the ring. I then also moved a stir stick around to create a pattern.
   
2. I tried the comb this time. I moved it from the left to the right and then from the top to the bottom.
3. This time also tried the comb again, but this time I mixed my own paints. (I was a little unhappy with the Jacquard paints.) I used a little bit of heavy body acrylic paints and about 2 tsp of water and mixed it all up together. I would use a eyedropper to drop paints onto the surface, and then ran the comb through them.
   
   

My thoughts:

• The paints in the Jacquard kit sucked. They were not very good, I had better results mixing my own. I think the problem was their consistency, some were thicker than others and wouldn't spread out very well. When I made my own they spread out very well. I was unhappy with the blue I used, it became to light. I would either use more paint (which may effect how it works or use a more opaque pigment. I used Cobalt Blue from Daniel Smith. I also used their Cad Orange Hue and Cad Yellow Deep Hue.)
• I think I may try Golden's Liquid Acrylics and see how they work. Maybe even their air brush colors since the are thinner.
• The red in the Jacquard Kit was over powering and became too pink for my liking. Again this is due to the quality of the paints. I think they cheaped out on them.
• The modified comb was not the best tool to use. It was too small. I would make my own with nails and wood.
• My methocel solution turned green on me. I think this is due to me over working the Jacquard paints on my first attempt. I noticed the other colors sorta sunk into the methocel when I used the comb or chopstick, but that is probably cause I overworked it, trying to get my designs. It may also be a little bit more beneficial to add a little bit more methocel to the solution, but I doubt it. When I emptied the bucket, there was a decent amount of really thick solution that sunk to the bottom and stayed there.
• I discovered that either side of the Masa worked good. I personally like the smooth side better. everything just looks a little bit cleaner.
• I think that if this was done with Oil Paints it might be easier. Since oil and water do not mix.

My First Attempt. It turned out decent.

 

 I was really unhappy with my Second attempt using Oxgall Liquid. I really think it was cause of the paints. They didn't spread out very well.

 

My 3rd attempt, was using the comb. It worked out decent, but I was still unhappy with how much I had to work at the design. Again this is a paint issue.

 

My 4th attempt was by far my favorite. This one I mixed my own paints. I was a little unhappy with the way the blue turned out but that is I think a pigment issue. Its just the way it ended working.