Alum Recipe For Marbling

Add water to thin the colors skim the marbling base then test.

Alum recipe for marbling.

Corn starch in 1 2 cup cold water. 1lb of alum 24 tablespoons of alum. Mark one side of your watercolor paper with an a and use a sponge brush to apply alum solution evenly to that side of the paper. Add 1 teaspoon of methocel methocelulose powder per gallon of solution or throw out and start a new recipe.

Dissolve 2 tsp alum in 3 4 cup water. With a coffee stirrer drop paint onto several spots on surface of size. Alum is the third most important substance in marbling after the gall and the size. The marbling paints sink to the bottom of the tray.

Lay a sheet of paper on the surface of this alum water. Put one third cup of alum into one gallon of water or you can cut this recipe in half. If you marble on the wrong side the pigments will not properly adhere to the paper. Without it the marbling will be faint and blurry.

Hang to completely dry before marbling. You can do this the night before. Buy pure aluminum sulfate from an art supply store or online. The recipe we use for the alum is.

The trick to adhering the paint to fabric is presoaking the fabric in alum. Let pigment spread out 2 to 3 inches. Continue in this fashion adding color over color and letting paint spread out and form random shapes. Marbling colors are too thick.

In this case you should apply the alum by the soaking method. To make enough alum for several dozen sheets of paper stir 1 tbsp 15 ml alum into 1 cups 360 ml warm water until completely dissolved at least two minutes. It makes the colours adhere to the paper. 1 gallon of water to 8 tablespoons 1 3 cup of alum.

Now let s turn to fabric marbling. Directions for fabric marbling. In recent posts i ve looked into the types of alum and the quantity necessary for marbling paper. Alum is a mordant meaning it causes color to set on the paper.

Stir for 2 or 3 minutes till the alum is dissolved. Marbling on tragacanth does not requore alum but the paper must be dampened slighly to accept the colour. The size might be too thin or old. Mix 3 tablespoons alum per 1 quart of hot water.

Let the alum dissolve then soak the fabric for 20 minutes. Pour this mixture into a large marbling tray. The reasons behind this i have not been able to find out but it might historicaly have something to do with. 1lb alum 3 gallons of alum mixture.

Add another color dropping paint into middle of previous color if desired. There are a lot of different recipes for mordanting fabric prior to marbling but with my natural dyeing experience to guide me i d like to share my method.