Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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!


25 comments:

  1. Wah. I did paper marbling with my 2nd and 3rd graders today and it was a fail. I used trays, (like yours above) with a little water, olive oil sprinkled into it and Blick liquid watercolors squirted randomly about. Our results were disappointing. hardly any marbling and the colors were not vibrant. What should I have used? I was hoping for a simpler process than the carrageenan and all that you used.

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    1. Well, the simplest process without carrageenan would be using shaving cream. For that method, you squirt some on the table, have the kids literally paint watercolor on the cream, gently swirl with a pic, press paper on and lift off. The paper will be covered in 'cream. So the kids can use a piece of card board to scrape the cream off and reveal their design underneath. It's really clean, cool and easy. I think you'd like that method :)

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  2. Use tote trays instead of cookie sheets. Fill half way with water. Have one sheet of posterboard directly next to the tote tray so you can immediately have a place to put the soaking paper. Use pastels and a cheap pair of scissors to scrape color onto the water and let it float. If they accidentally break the chalk into the water, tell them not to fish it out. The minute you stick your finger in teh water, it breaks the tension on the water and the chalk sprinkles start to sink. Folding (not creasing) so that the ends of the paper are up (think U shape), set the paper in the water center first. Slowly let the edges go onto the water mixture. This keeps water bubbles from forming (as badly) on the paper. Then, I tell the kids to grab the corners closest to them and drag the paper up towards them #1 so that they are dragging more chalk onto the paper as it's lifting, #2 so they can see what they are getting when they lift it, #3 so that the water is still dripping downwards when it's lifting into the tote tray. Then, simply place it onto the posterboard next to it. What is nice when using chalk is that it dries on the paper quickly. You can always spray (and I always do) with a fixative or Aqua Net hairspray before we draw on top of them. That is what has been successful for my middle school kiddos. I have now been an art teacher for 5 whole days (woo woo, switch mid year baby!!!!!!) and hope to use the same technique with those kids. I usually have 4 tote tray stations set up with 28-30 kids a class period. My job is to only switch the posterboard with wet papers on it to the drying racks and replace with new posterboards when it is full. That keeps me busy.... BUT...... chalk doesn't usually stain clothing either, so it's a nice win win.....
    Good luck!

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    1. Totally giving this a go, thank you so much for the advice!! Trying this TOMORROW :)

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  3. your paint ones are much more vibrant that the chalk ones though, just be prepared for that! And switch water after every 4 students or so!

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  4. OOoohhhh!!! So pretty! You are a very brave woman! I would love to try this with my kids! You inspire me woman! :)

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    1. Well, I only did it with my morning classes which gave me lunch time to clean up (because, let's be honest, WHO HAS TIME TO EAT DURING LUNCH WHEN YOU ARE THE ART TEACHER?!). It was fun and worth doing...once a year :)

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  5. I love the colors… and have seen this I think on youtube… I want to do this… another brilliantcy (yeah I made that word up…) idea that I have not had the kuhonas to try…

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    1. Aw, you can do it! Just be prepared for the unexpected....and for that nasty snotty feeling of the solution, blech!

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  6. I saw this pinned on Pinterest. I have created marbled papers for years. My friend taught me how in the 80's. It makes me want to get my stuff out! Anyway- I have a few pointers. Do not be afraid to experiment with India inks. The best color you can get is to use thinned down oil paints but with students it's not the safest method. (I too teach kids in my private studio) I have gotten the best results with kids using air brush paint. The createx brand is the one I have used with good results. My friend told me the best description she could give to how much to thin down the paint it get it to the consistency of whole milk. Thanks for sharing! I am going to have to get my carrageen moss back out and mix up a tub.
    Oh- I found that those plastic utility tubs are perfect for using to put the mixture in- keeps the paint contained better when they are putting it on the moss mixture. I use small paint brushes to put the paint down because they seem to have better control than with the eye droppers.

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    1. Great suggestions!! Thank you! I still have 3rd and 4th grade to do this with so I'm going to give some of these ideas a shot. Thanks!!

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    2. I am arriving late to the party. Do you think print ink would work? I don't have airbrush ink, have lots of print ink.... What do you think?

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  7. Anonymous1/14/2014

    Love your post. I am so inspired to try this with my classes. What age group do you recommend for this project.

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    1. I did this with my first and second grade kids. I encourage you to try it...BUT experiment a lot beforehand that way you are confident and feel kinda like a pro :)

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  8. Did you have jello printing flashbacks??

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    1. I seriously did! That stuff also had a nasty texture {shivers!}.

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  9. Hey, Cassie, I don't know why I didn't think to tell you this before: liquid starch (the inexpensive blue stuff in the bottle) works GREAT for marbling, using watered down acrylic paint just like you did. And we used cheapo plastic forks for marbling. Only when we were done, we used tissues to blot them gently. THAT was the disgusting messy part, but the results looked a lot like yours, brighter than shaving cream marbling. Test it!

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  10. I've used Elmer's art paste, which turns out to be methyl cellulose, which works great and is really comparable in price as far as I can tell, to buying it in bulk. I would second using the tote-trays. After many uses, the remaining acrylic paint sinks to the bottom, and eventually, it does gray the water and dull the transferred colors a little. I haven't done this for years and I think I will crack into this soon! Fun!
    Did you notice that some colors of acrylic just didn't want to float very much?

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  11. I haven't done paper marbling in a while, but when I did, we used the same technique. It's pretty involved (as you know!) but the kids loved the results. I did this with a 5th grade class one time- the classroom teacher was NOT into art in any way, but this process intrigued him! I felt so victorious when I got him to make marbled paper with us!! :D

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  12. Please take a look at my marbled papers in my website @ www.ydrokroma.weebly.com
    Please feel free to comment

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  13. Hello,

    I am an art teacher of 10 plus years and do suminagashi with my kiddos every year. I have found a much economical way to do suminagashi with the kiddos. Only math is counting teaspoons. I will be hosting a workshop at the 2015 TAEA conference.

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  14. Did you treat your paper with an Alum solution first? I did the carrageenan/watered down acrylic method when I was student teaching. I used paper and muslin, but treated it with an alum and water solution first. The colors were super vibrant and set really well, which I think was the trick. I had pieces of newspaper that i cut and stacked and put next to our stations for students to lift the excess color and sort of clean off of the surface of the carrageenan water between students. The students ended up loving those newspaper pieces that ended up with sort of a ghost print, and they used them later on for collage, instead of trashing them. The muslin pieces looked amazing!!! I did this with 8th and 9th graders, but I just ordered some carrageenan and alum to marble with my 4th graders. I actually stumbled upon this post when I was researching what paper to use. I can't remember what I used. Any advise on the paper? If you haven't used muslin for marbling before, give it a try. So beautiful!!! :)

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    1. I will try it, thank you for the tip! These papers were not treated with alum...but that sounds like a great idea if the papers are to be more archival. Looking forward to trying out the muslin-marbling thing!!

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  15. Hi Cassie,
    Thank you so much for sharing this marbling activity. I am planning to do it with the 6th graders I work with, and have been attempting testing the process. I have to say, I am not getting great results. I have a few specific questions for you. 1. With acrylic paint, are you using roughly a 1:3 ratio, paint:water? 2. Do you "rinse" them at all? If not, how do you keep the paint from bleeding, when the carageenan solution is still on the surface of the paper (do you dry them flat, or hang them?). 3. What kind of paper do you use? Your samples are so vibrant & beautiful! So far, I've only produced faint, watery, marbling, with a lot of bleeding and running of colors after I pull them out. Any help is appreciated!

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    1. Hi! Ugh, this marbling business. I tell you, it's really hit or miss! Sometimes I have great luck and others, not at all. Okay, I'm no expert...but let me attempt to answer your questions: 1. yes, dilute the paint about that ratio. The key is you want the paint to be light enough to not sink and sit on the surface of the water. But it's kinda tricky to find out what that ratio is. 2. No, I don't rinse. WE used to blot...but that just left a strange paper towel print. So we dry flat on newspaper covered surfaces...but that still can cause puddling! UGH. 3. I use heavy paper, the good stuff. 80 lbs. IF I might offer a suggestion...go the shaving cream marbling route. So much easier (youtube has a ton of clips, I'm sure) also, THIS is super fun and easy and way easier than marbling: chalk marbling! Go here: http://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/2014/01/in-art-room-floating-chalk-prints.html

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