Marbling with Stencils! Starring Art by Irma Philmus!

Over the summer, my friend Mary Ann Russo hosted a play date at her home, inviting mutual friends of ours to join in on a marbling session.

One of these friends, Irma Philmus, went home at the day's end with these fantastic artworks under her arm --

In making these marbled pieces, Irma chose to use my 9" x 12" stencil Thistle.

Her approach was similar to one that I'd used several years ago ...

I'd chosen marbling inks, Boku-Undo, that can be found here:

http://www.dickblick.com/products/aitoh-boku-undo-suminagashi-marbling-kit/

The reason I had opted for this particular marbling process -- over the many other approaches to marbling -- was (1) I didn't need to prepare a special kind of floating liquid; nor (2) did I need to clean stencils afterward.  That made for quick preparation and quick clean-up -- leaving more time for having fun!

My method used plain water as the liquid upon which the marbling inks float.  

I started with Maria McGuire's beautiful 6"X 6" Stitch a Doily stencil-- 

Maria's doily stencil created the above design.

-- and the other stencils were mine: my 6"X 6" stencil Kaleid --
  as well as Two Fans (9" x 12") and Osprey Wings (6" x 6").

I used a disposable foil basin filled with water; to its surface I gently added inks -- first dipping brush tips into the inks, one by one, followed by touching these inked brush tips to the surface of the water.

Above:  Water in a foil basin with  floating blue and green inks that were swirling together.  These trails of ink had been added by brush tips dipped in the inks.

 After these inks have been added, the next step, shown below, was to GENTLY float a stencil on the surface of the water:

Above-- Maria McGuire's doily stencil floating on the water in the basin.



The following step:  I placed printmaking paper gently atop the water's surface, sandwiching the stencil between the paper and the floating inks.  In the above shot, you see the paper from its bottom/back-side, while its "face" is downward, resting on the unseen floating stencil and the unseen inked water under the stencil.  

My last step was to lift the printmaking paper, turn is over to be face-up and set it aside on a flat surface to dry -- and that's all there was to it!

Above:  This print was made with my 9"X12" stencil Two Fans.

 Above is a marbled print using my 6"x6" stencil Osprey Wings.

Above is a marbled print using my 6"X6" stencil Kaleid.

Above:  Marbled background created with 6" x 6" stencil Kaleid.  Foreground collaged stained stencils include parts of 9" x 12" It's Jungle Out There, 6" x 6" stencil Mimosa 6, and part of Lizzie Mayne's Shattered Stencil. 

Above:  Made with my 6" x 6" stencil Feathers 6.

3 CAUTIONS:   (1) I found that it works best to use fresh, dry stencils for each and every dip.  Wet stencils don't float as well on the surface of the water.  So have a lot of stencils at hand! 

(2) As soon as the paper gets saturated -- a matter of seconds -- immediately lift it from the surface of the water.  Long soaks are not needed, and they tend to disrupt the stencil design.

(3)  With this technique, the best results come from using stencils that are 6" x 6" or 4" x 4".

You can scroll thru the StencilGirl pages showing all my stencils starting  here.  Thanks for visiting!  To follow this blog by email, please use that option, available in the upper right.