I First Started Marbling In The Early 1960s,

in my third year at school,

  I found out that the art department had a small marbling bath/pan that had never been used, and having already owning a number of old books with marble fly sheets, I was interested in how the paper was made, so a trip to the library and them the head of arts, with a list of what was needed to start marbling, after some time my request for size, fabric paint, comb and brushes as well as alum, which I knew I could obtain for the the science wing, was approved along with 2 bus tickets, that would take me to the nearest arts and crafts shop in Croydon, all set up and what a success it was, (after several dismal failures), the good news was that over the next few years other students as they went through third year arts and crafts were given the chance to experiment with marbling, 

you may have seem marbled paper on the end covers of old books,

 or in the page edges as well, but as good as I though my results were, 

these by these by master marbling artist Garip Ay, based in Istanbul, brings the art to a totally different level,

the artist utilizes traditional ebru techniques, Ay’s process recently was captured by Great Big Story in a short video that walks through his studio and documents how the artist seamlessly morphs one work into another with just a few hand motions, after completing a piece on the water’s surface, Ay transfers the image to paper, wood, or textiles by dipping it in and slowly pulling back. Despite the meditative quality of his movements, though, the artist shares the pressures of the medium. “When people watch ebru, they think it is relaxing and soothing, but it my personal experience, it is really stressful. While doing ebru, you have control problems because you’re doing something on water,” he says, Ay shares many videos and photographs of his vibrant paintings on his site, and more of Great Big Story’s projects can be found on YouTube, what great fun I had in those days, it is times like this that I wish I had a work shop, where I could make a mess and start marbling again!