In the Art Room: Marbled Paper Stenciling

Alright, what you see here is the result of "I wonder what would happen if we tried this" about 3 minutes before the kids walked into the room. I'd planned on us trying our hand at the Japanese art of suminagashi, which translates "floating ink", but was able to throw in a little stenciling too. That is if all the stars lined up (no pun intended) and the kids were able to capture the paint on their paper at just the right moment. More on that in a minute.

First, lemme tell you what I told the kids. I explained to them that we were not only going to make paint float (which received a lotta "what?!"s) but also capture that floating paint with our papers (which got a lotta "how in the world!?"s). I had them "go shopping at the store" for one sheet of paper and two card stock stars. I inherited about 500 of these stars from my mother-in-law and haven't stopped finding projects for them (thanks, Diana!). One of the reasons I think this worked great as a stencil was because of the thickness of the stars. I don't think regular paper stencils would work as well. But that's just a guess.

The great thing about these stars is that they have a little dye cut hole in them so we can easily string them together later. Still dreaming up project ideas for these guys. For now they are simply pretties.

These two sheets were created on our first day of marbling when my marbling mixture/paint mixture was off. You can see this by the clumping and streaking of the blue paint on the right. I still love the result.

So you wanna attempt the Japanese art form of suminagashi? I hafta tell ya, it's a bit tricky getting the ratio mixtures just right (it involves measuring which is math-esque and therefore gross like boys and boogers). But if you are willing to give it a go, here's what worked (most of the time) for me: 

Supplies: 

• Blender (I have a thrifted one. You won't want to use a personal one. Unless you're making slimy smoothies for someone you don't like.)
• Carrageenan (That'd be powderized seaweed. Your bigger art supply chains and online retailers will have this). 
• Trays. Use deeper ones then you see here if you are working with many classes in a row.
• Watered-Down Acrylic Paint (I use watered down craft store paint).
• Droppers
• A Hair Pic or homemade version (I crafted mine outta toothpicks and foam core. It looks like some kinda torture tool...which gives me lots of ideas when the time out spot just isn't doin' the trick [kidding! ... kinda]).
• Paper (der)

Prep:

• Do yourself a favor and follow the directions on the package. You'll be blending up to one gallon of water per two tablespoons (if memory serves me correctly) in warm water. 
• Pour mixture into shallow trays and allow to rest for up to 12 hours. I did this in my art room right before leaving for the day.

What the carrageenan does is thicken the water so that it can hold up the paint. You're trying to get that paint to float on the surface of the water. For this, the paint needs to be pretty watery and light. So I mixed paint and water in cups and squirted it into the tray to test it's floatiness. If it sank, I added a little more water.

So I discovered I only had two picks. For 20 kids. So I had to improvise and make these bad boys outta foam core and toothpicks. I'm mighty proud of my MacGyver'ness. P.S. I promise that's not blood from my earlier torture device comment.

Turns out kids don't know how to use droppers. Did you know this? So we had a little chat and practiced pinching the droppers in the air. We also had to discuss that you are to gently squeeze the dropper to release the paint. NOT squeeze it hard and douse the art teacher. Ahem. 

Now, I have classes of 20 students, 4 trays and 30 minutes. Which is like a recipe for disaster. To kinda make it work, I had all the children gather around those two tables you saw earlier, planted one child in front of each of the four trays and walked them through the directions as their buddies looked on. After giving them a moment to add the colors to their tray, we moved on to using the pic or "feathering."

I really had to stress that with the pic, the goal is to create designs in the paint for the paper to capture. Not simply stir the paint all around. Some of 'em got it and the others that didn't were quickly straightened out by their buddies that were watching them.

Then came the capturing part. I helped each individual child with this step. I had them place their stars gently in the tray with their names up. I quickly dropped their paper on top, took it out and they were to quickly remove the stars. This didn't always happen quickly because they were so stunned looking at the paper I had lifted out. Again, buddies on hand would say, "your stars are sinking!" and they'd be removed from the slimy solution. Which feels like snot. Not gonna lie.

Okay, honestly? The stenciling was like a happy accident...when it worked. Sometimes the kids didn't get their stars placed quite right and the simply ended up with a marbled paper. And, honestly, they didn't care. They were just so in love with the process and the magical idea of capturing paint.

However, I'm a little sad the results weren't as vibrant as I remember our marbling projects in the past being. Have you marbled this way before? It always seems rather hit or miss to me. Do you have sure fire method? I'd love to hear it.

Of course, shaving cream is super fun and easy...but I really wanted to give the experience of suminagashi because we are currently studying Japan. One kit I had included methylcellulose which didn't work at all. Almost positive that was operator error. Have ya'll used that with any success? Can you come over to my place and show me how it's done? I have coffee and chocolate.

For now, I will continue using this method. I'm excited to share this with my older students because I think they'll love it.

Doesn't this look like a shooting star?

Until next time, you're marbling thoughts would be appreciated. Because (wait for it...) I've just about lost my marbles working with this stuff (can I get a wahwah-waaaaah). 

Oh! AND I'm super stoked by all of ya's interested in the book club! Yay! Let's be smart and literary together. Can't wait to see which title the final vote comes down to. 

Until next time, have a great week!