Despite the poor weather, four club members came out to Saturday’s suminagashi workshop and enjoyed an afternoon experimenting with different ink patterns, paper, and even a piece of silk brought along. Here are some pictures of their results:

Blue and black marbling on a type of thin rice paper, as done by Susan O’Riordan.

Elaine Nyman with a pink (red ink), blue, and black pattern on the same type of rice paper.

Several marbled cards and papers done by Maggie Jasaitis. The cards are Strathmore Printmaking cards, and the paper was an almost tissue-paper-thin calligraphy paper from Japan.

Susan O’Riordan experiments with a piece of raw silk she had from a past weaving project.

After the workshop, Karina Douglas-Takayesu took some of her very thin marbled papers and decoupaged them with Mod Podge on to a Styrofoam ball Christmas ornament. The top ball is the unfinished ornament, the ball on the lower left had a wrap-around template used to make the design (somewhat) continuous, and the ball on the lower right is decorated with various scraps cut out and overlapping on another.

Materials Used:

• Aitoh Boku-Undo Suminagashi Marbling Kit
• Hahnemuhle Copperplate 300gsm-weigh paper (22 X 30″ sheets cut into small pieces)
• Various small Japanese calligraphy brushes (inexpensive round synthetic #5 to #10 size watercolour brushes can also be used); 1 for each colour + 1 for soap/water dispersant, if used
• Miscellaneous unsized or rough papers
• A small container of water with a drop of dish soap for separating monochromatic rings
• Various trays, approximately 1-inch deep for water and ink
• Unmarked newsprint for drying/transporting marbled papers

*Note: Suminagashi does not use any thickening agents in the water*

The marbling kit, copperplate etching paper, and watercolour brushes can purchased from Above Ground Art Supplies in Toronto: https://www.abovegroundartsupplies.com/; (Japanese calligraphy brushes may be found at speciality stores, but are generally quite costly in North America – the ones used in the workshop were purchased at a ¥100 (roughly $1.00) store in Shinjuku.

A tutorial similar to Saturday’s workshop can be viewed on Blick Art Materials’ YouTube Channel here. (Dick Blick is a large chain art supplier in the United Sates.)