Marbled papers

Colour is floated on a thickened bath, drawn into a pattern, and lifted onto a sheet of paper in one pass. Every sheet is different and none of them can be repeated exactly, which is either the appeal or the problem depending on what you need.

How a sheet is made

The bath is water thickened with carrageenan until a drop of colour will sit on the surface instead of sinking. Paper is prepared with alum so the pigment binds when it touches. Colours are dropped on with a whisk, spread, then combed or raked into a figure. The sheet goes down, is lifted off, rinsed, and hung to dry. Five minutes of work and a day of waiting.

Patterns we keep

Stone

The base pattern: colour dropped and left alone. Everything else starts here.

Comb

Drawn through with a wide comb in a single pass.

Nonpareil

A fine comb, small teeth, many passes. Slow to pull well.

Spanish

Rocked as the sheet goes down, which gives the moiré ripple.

Shell

Ox gall in the last colour makes it spread into rings.

Ordering sheets

Sheets are sold in small numbers and only when the studio is not behind on repair work. Ask by email and say what the sheet is for — pattern scale matters far more than colour once the paper is on a book.