Beautiful Papers: Marbelizing

Today in our Beautiful Papers class we began the journey of marbleizing paper. It is an ancient technique started by Turkish monks. The monks served as book keepers and began marbleizing the ends of pages in accounting books to keep people honest. If someone removed a page from the book – due to embezzling or to be dishonest in the way they kept the books – the pattern on the pages would be disrupted and noticed. They created elaborate designs and color schemes to make a missing page, no matter how thin, noticeable.

There is a lot of set up in this process – treating the water, treating the paints, treating the paper, rinsing the paper, drying the paper. Learning it from beginning to end gave me an entirely new appreciation for the labors and beauty involved. The intricate patterns, the endless color combinations, the process and the pitfalls all wok together to create amazing paper options. By learning this methodology we join the centuries of creatives who carried on the techniques and traditions of marbleizing paper.

It is an honor and a responsibility to know how to do something that has been around for centuries. It means you build on the knowledge and share the wisdom of generations of artists and paper enthusiasts. It also means your work joins the collective and your ideas add to the foundations for generations to come. It means practice and practice and more practice is needed to bring your new skills to the level of your artist ancestors.

What do you know that could be handed down to the next generation, to both keep it alive AND keep the traditions going? What do you practice that will help enhance the life and experiences of someone younger than yourself? What have you learned that someone else needs to know and can only learn from someone with your expertise or experience?

Maybe you need to write down what you know so it doesn’t disappear. Maybe you could make videos or lessons for others to learn how you create what it is you create. Maybe you could teach a class or workshop to begin sharing your knowledge with others. Knowledge is power, and deserves to be shared for generations to come. You have that knowledge and someone else needs that knowledge. Let your journey and their learning begin.