First prep your paper.
Make 18th century marbled paper.
The first instance of double marbling was seen in the 17th century.
England and america took up the craft towards the end of the century.
Fill a spray bottle with warm water.
Back then a tree resin based surfactant was dropped into a pan of water.
A double marble is created when after the first desired pattern is completed and the paper dried the same paper is again treated with alum and marbled with the second pattern over the top of the first.
Lay flat to dry.
To save money binders started to use marbled or decorated paper sides.
The oldest known form of paper marbling called suminagashi which translates to floating ink originated in japan around the 10th century though historians believe that it could be even older than that.
Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries marbled papers were the endpapers of choice for finer bindings.
Elaboration and simplicity binders began to make shortcuts in the binding process to both save money and increase production.
Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other kinds of stone.
The spanish pattern was created at the beginning of the 17th century.
Make sure to mark the side that you sprayed because it can be hard to tell once it s dried.
Let the mixture cool and spray a thin layer onto your cotton paper.
A double marble is created when after the first desired pattern is completed and the paper dried the same paper is again treated with alum and marbled with the second pattern over the top of the first.
Schleicher pgs 130 131 view examples.
The golden age of marbling.
Add 2 tablespoons of alum and mix well.
Muira pgs 120 121.
How to make marbled paper.
We used rag paper paste and leather so these books should weather time as good as 18th century books have.
The patterns are the result of color floated on either plain water or a viscous solution known as size and then carefully transferred to an absorbent surface such as paper or fabric.
Muira pgs 120 121.
Schleicher pgs 130 131 view examples.
Marbling lore has suggested loring that it was discovered when a marbler s assistant who was nursing a hangover and had shaky hands laid the paper into the bath to pull up a finished paper and as a consequence of the unsteady hands pulled a pattern with the linear gradated lines characteristic of this pattern.
The uses of paper marbling.
The first instance of double marbling was seen in the 17th century.
Well made 18th century books fare surprisingly better than many 19th century books due to the use of rag paper over wood pulp paper.
