Suminagashi and Dahlia - marbled paper with stencils

Last weekend, I took a fabulous art class at the Copper Country Community Arts Center with visiting artist Pamela Olson.  She taught us the art of suminagashi - a japanese form of paper marbling.  At the end of the weekend, we were left with some fabulous pieces of marbled paper, and I decided to make cards!

This first card shows off the marbling. In suminagashi, the marbling is typically only black; here I've used two to create stripes of blue and black.

Because you are working on water with this marbling technique, the colors are very subtle, and you don't get the defined lines and shapes you might be familiar with in traditional marbled papers.  Here, I've used some papers in a grid pattern.

 Finally, I decided to see if I could colorize the paper.  I used my color bursts (I love the new Caribbean Brights set!) and saturated the paper with color.  Probably a little too much color...  Then, I used the Club Scrap Dahlia stencil with gesso died pink to create a bright flower.  I tried this technique with a molding paste, but was disappointed to learn it dried translucent.  I used some classic papers from Stratosphere and punches to finish off the card.

If you're interested in trying suminagashi, it's fun, and easy to clean up since it's water based! This kit has some colors to get you started, and sumi brushes are a great tool to use for applying the color.  If you remember back to the Pure and Simple kit, we received one then, or you can find them on Amazon.  Below is a video illustrating their basic use.