And we did some more of our favourite pasttime...
Marbling!
Have you discovered marbling? It is fun, simple, you can't tell the difference between a 3-year-old and an adult masterpiece. It's very Zen, you can't plan it, it's all about feel, timing and luck...
We tried making our our marbling inks last week, thanks to an online craft tutorial, with cooking oil and food colouring... the results were mediocre. I found some marbling inks on Amazon, and umm-ed and ahh-ed, they are an extravagance, so I didn't...
But then yesterday I took myself to the art supply store in Midleton to stock up on yummy arty crafty mama goodies...
And there they were... so I got them...
And I'm so glad I did. We must have spent an hour marbling whilst the baby slept. For a past time using inks and water, surprisingly we had NO mess! Double hurray. (For technical advice see comments section below.)
And our dear special angel cleaning lady was here today, working her magic with cheery kindness...
So we gifted her back with a thank you card made on one of our beautiful pieces of marbling (another two have gone out to Granny and a godmother!), and of course a coconut kiss (as well as her pay - of course!)
Happy days!
Wow! Do we have an art, craft supply store in Midleton? Tell me more :D
ReplyDeleteYes the Office Supply shop on the road between Lidl and Aldi has a REALLY good stock of art and craft stuff.
ReplyDeleteAre marbling inks water-based, or oily? Can I tweak some other paints I have around which can do the same thing? I have paint-a-plenty of different kinds so would be a shame to waste them if they're essentially the same thing....
ReplyDeleteon a complete tangent.... Did you finish Siddartha? Hope you enjoyed/are still enjoying it! x
Marbling inks are oil and ink combined so that they float on the top of the water, then you swirl them around to make pretty patterns, put a piece of paper onto to soak up the ink - bingo- gorgeous patterned paper!
ReplyDeleteThere are online tutorials for how to make your own, but they are not that great. A set of 6 costs £9.95 on Amazon (€11.20 in our local shop), and they'd last probably 8 mammoth hour long, 3 person session that we did yesterday - we have made 30 A6 pieces so far and have used less than 1/4 of them. So they're well worth the investment. Marbled paper is so pretty for bookmarks, covering books, wrapping paper, cards, mounting, you get far more use out of the finished result than the hundreds of pictures that usually get chucked from our daily drawing/ painting sessions.
Finished Siddartha a couple of weeks back, really, really, really loved it, thank you so much.It is SUCH a beautiful book, beautiful edition and SPECIAL inscription - thank you! It made me do a lot of thinking about courtesans and that our culture doesn't have them, and what that means about our appreciation of the art of love...!
And no fancy expensive paper needed, we're using A4 white printer card (the thin floppy stuff) cut up for our marbling and it works great.
ReplyDeleteI just knew you would love Siddartha :-) You're quite right my dear, the art of love is no longer valued as a beautiful thing in its own right. I reckon it is a nice thing to remember to cultivate the courtesan in all of us, whether as single ladies, or paired up ladies, or within the marital role! Anyway.....back to marbling! yes, those inks do seem like quite good value for money, and I must confess your enthusiasm has done it's magic, I am definitely going to get some. Thanks for posting about it.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I've got 3 Irish friends all steamed up about it too! (Marbling that is... have been courtesaning in private ;)) We will have a little craft-tea marbling session here next week so they can try them out! Wish you could join us... sending you virtual coconut kisses x
ReplyDeleteHow divine!
ReplyDelete