On Tuesday we met with our Campfire group which is all homeschoolers from our COOL group. The activity of the day was marbling paper and it was so much fun! The finished product is incredibly beautiful and it's so easy. I thought I'd give a tutorial for the method we used. There are other methods, some of which you can find here, here and here. I even found this very cool article about the history of marbling paper. Here's another description of marbling with liquid starch.
Our technique was explained by the mom who brought the materials. We used regular old laundry starch in it's concentrated form, straight from the bottle. Then she had acrylic paints such as are used for wood craft and you can find at Michaels, Joann or Hobby Lobby (Delta Ceramcoat, etc.). The paints were diluted with water a bit, so they are somewhat runny. If they are too runny they spread out too much, if too thick they sink, so you may have to experiment a bit.
All ready to start:
First the colors are dripped onto the layer of starch in a pan. The starch needs to be about an inch deep and the pan needs to be big enough to lay in the piece of paper without curling.
Then the colors are swirled to make a pattern if desired. It also looks beautiful without the swirling. We used a wooden skewer, a popsicle stick or a plastic fork to do the swirling.
Then the paper is carefully laid down in the pan, middle first, then letting the ends down. Keep the paper on the surface and gently press the corners to make sure all the edges are in the paint.
Lift the paper out carefully, turn over and then place in a basin with several inches of water. You want to gently agitate in the water to remove the starch. It takes 15 or 20 seconds.
When the starch has been rinsed off, lay somewhere to dry. I think this project is good for most ages of kids. You do need to wear clothes you don't mind getting messy because the acrylics may not come out. Also, I think that one thing that made this so successful was that we had three stations and each one had a different combination of colors that work really well together. We had greens and blues at one, purples, pinks and blues at another and fall colors at the third. We found that heavy paper such as cardstock works best. All the papers ended up curling when dry, but I'm going to try ironing them and see what happens. Some of these may end up in ATC's eventually!
We got extremely lucky that day. We did the craft in the sun as you can see. It was beautiful outside, but just as we were done, the wind sprang up, the clouds rushed in and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. By the time the Campfire meeting was over it was rainy and in the 40's!
This sounds like so much fun. Would you submit it to Unschooling Voices? It's perfect for the December topic!
Here is the link:
http://www.foreverparents.com/UnschoolingVoices.html
Thanks!
Posted by: Joanne | November 13, 2006 at 01:46 PM
My art teacher just decided to make my whole highschool class write an essay on the history of paper marbling because the solution he bought was pretty much poopy. got any advice on what kind of marbling equiptment to use? cause ours stunk.
Posted by: Hannah | October 22, 2008 at 05:39 AM
I'm so excited about this technique!! I have searched for an easier way to do marbling without using turpentine and oil paints... something safer for kids. I am so thrilled to have found this on your blog. Thanks so much for sharing.
by the way, I've been going to Camp Sherman for the last 35 years! Now live in Austin, TX.
Posted by: Kami Wilt | January 08, 2009 at 12:21 PM
This is inspirational. I'm an older artist looking for techniques-this starch technique seems the simplest yet the paint is permanent-thanks for the tips!
Posted by: Colette | June 17, 2009 at 05:19 AM
you can use shaving cream and watercolor paints in much the same way for beautiful prints. Put a thin layer of shaving cream down in a shallow tray (or right on the table!) add a few drops of watercolors and swirl them around with a skewer or fork. When "ready" kids put paper (cardstock worked better than regular white printer paper) on top and tap it down gently all over. It was recommended to use a scraper of some kind to get the shaving cream off but we found using paper towels or beach towels worked better as long as kids wipe the shaving cream off gently. (the paint will stay no matter what but paper will rip with too much force)
I did this with a big group of preschool (3-5 year olds) and it was a wild success, they took turns on trays and helped each other with pulling the prints and wiping them off.
you can use the same shaving cream again and add more paint until the colors get too muddy.
Posted by: kate | July 15, 2009 at 08:33 AM
Where can I buy the starch for this marbling project? I will be preparing this for about 400 children at a Festival we will be having in chicago
Can I make my own starch or where can I boy it? All I can find is in the can (spray)
Thanks for your wonderful ideas, nice pictures too. www.banuskitchen.blogspot.com and you can email me at www.turkishkitten@yahoo.com
Please respond quickly if you can I only have 8 days.
Posted by: Banu | August 06, 2009 at 03:23 PM