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How Sonja got started:
Sonja has had, for many years, a fascination in art that incorporates paper by some means. She has a fondness for origami, box making, book making, rubber stamping, paste papers and marbled papers, just to name a few.
She particularly became intrigued with the art of marbling through her husbands' interest in old books. He had acquired a set of old books dating back to the 1800's and within the end papers of these old books, lay the beauty of the marbleized art. Upon seeing these beautiful creations, Sonja became curious regarding the particular process to decorate these end papers.
After investigating and studying through the internet and books on the art form, she decided to try marbling for herself. She soon became quickly addicted to the wonders of marbling and now continues to refine her art work. She has, for a number of years now, been making and selling her papers, along with products made from the paper itself.
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Definition of Marbling:
Marbling, sometimes also known as marbleizing, is a single print process, which is achieved by manipulating colours, either in the form of inks, or paints, that are floated on the surface of a thickened water solution. The particular charm of marbling is in the fact that the patterns created cannot be fully controlled, thus causing the inability to duplicate identical pieces of marbleized paper.
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Brief History of Marbling:
The earliest known types of marbling date back as far as the 8th century in Japan where a style known as Suminagashi was practised. This marbling was produced by floating colours of ink on water and gently manipulating their movements with a gentle puff of breath or a fine tool such as the tip of a feather or a whisker of a cat. The papers that were printed on these floated inks produced delicate swirled patterns resembling rings of smoke. During the 12th to 15th century, other styles of marbling were developed in Persia and Turkey. Instead of floating inks on water, they floated paints made with oil or gouache on a thickened solution, termed size. They called their art form Ebru. This method of marbling gave the artist more control over the colour movement and the creation of their patterns that were created with a stylus or combs. As the art of marbling spread throughout Europe by the 17th century, marbled papers became popular and were often seen used as end papers in bookbinding. Marbling in those days was always a well guarded secret of the trade. Various formulas and marbling techniques were passed on only from master artist to apprentices sworn to silence. But by the mid 1800's, revelation of the paper art was made known. Today, there are various techniques and products available to marble. Each type produces lovely artwork in it's own unique method.
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What can one do with these papers?
While enjoying the beauty of the patterns that are so individual to each piece of marbled paper, they can be used to make such items as book covers, end papers in books, decorative boxes, jewellery, stationary items like cards, pencil holders, memo pads, portfolios, accordion files and so on. The possibilities are endless. It’s only as far as an individual’s creativity can take them, to make up beautiful objects using this lovely patterned paper.
Check out the Gallery to see some examples of Paper Passions' Marbled Paper at work!
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