I submitted these pieces to a drawing group show at the Purdue Galleries. I marbled this paper about a year ago. I used water based paints and inks mixed with floating medium. I applied the paint to a pool of Methocellulose from Dharma Trading co. (http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3380-AA.shtml). I used big round multipurpose paper from Twinrocker Paper mill in Brookston, IN about 30 minutes from my house. The circles are about 20 inches in diameter. (http://www.twinrocker.com/)
I marbled the paper in kiddie pools in my garage. I basically made large vats of slime. (Disposal of the slime was tricky.) The methocellulose is thick like pudding and is used in some food products. I used dish soap as a dispersant on the surface of the methocellulose. The dispersant allowed me to exploit the natural patterns created by the chemical reaction. I don't think the cell-like patterns are desirable in traditional paper marbling but that pattern was what attracted me to the medium. Under the marbling I painted simple watercolor shapes accentuated by a salt dusting that created some patterns and texture. The final layer includes pastel and color pencil outline drawings of birds.
