User:FleurPeters/week1

HISTORICAL EXAMPLE

For this week I did some research about the old Japanese marbling technique. This technique was used to make marbled paper. They used this paper for special book covers for documents or books. I really liked this technique because these days you see it a lot in DIY tutorials.

The process of the technique: In Japan, this technique is known as Suminagashi, (floating ink.) They used special inks (Sumi ink). They used a shallow pan after dropping the ink into the pan the ink floats on the water’s surface. There’s also a special resin in the water so the ink will float on the water. The designs were added with a fan or gently blowing. The paper is laid on the surface for a short amount of time.

When I researched this technique I was thinking if there can float other sorts of ink or paint on the water. So I thought about oil. Oil is lighter than water and oil and water do not mix together. So maybe oil paint can float.. So in my first experiments, I mixed the oil paint with turpentine. The thickness of the paint has to be right otherwise the paint will sink (when it’s too thick) or disappear (when it’s too thin). After dropping the ink into the water you can blow the ink in a marbled pattern. Then the paper can be laid carefully on the water's surface.

I also did some laser cutting to make molds for the marbling. That didn’t work quite well. It’s actually pretty obvious that the water goes under the mold so you didn’t get very straight letters.

Next week >>> WEEK 2