Alum Recipe For Marbling

Mix 3 tablespoons alum per 1 quart of hot water.

Alum recipe for marbling.

Alum is the third most important substance in marbling after the gall and the size. It makes the colours adhere to the paper. Mark one side of your watercolor paper with an a and use a sponge brush to apply alum solution evenly to that side of the paper. There are a lot of different recipes for mordanting fabric prior to marbling but with my natural dyeing experience to guide me i d like to share my method.

The recipe we use for the alum is. The trick to adhering the paint to fabric is presoaking the fabric in alum. The reasons behind this i have not been able to find out but it might historicaly have something to do with. Now let s turn to fabric marbling.

With a coffee stirrer drop paint onto several spots on surface of size. 1lb of alum 24 tablespoons of alum. Pour this mixture into a large marbling tray. Without it the marbling will be faint and blurry.

Buy pure aluminum sulfate from an art supply store or online. 1lb alum 3 gallons of alum mixture. Corn starch in 1 2 cup cold water. Put one third cup of alum into one gallon of water or you can cut this recipe in half.

You can do this the night before. Marbling colors are too thick. Hang to completely dry before marbling. Continue in this fashion adding color over color and letting paint spread out and form random shapes.

If you marble on the wrong side the pigments will not properly adhere to the paper. Directions for fabric marbling. 1 gallon of water to 8 tablespoons 1 3 cup of alum. In this case you should apply the alum by the soaking method.

To make enough alum for several dozen sheets of paper stir 1 tbsp 15 ml alum into 1 cups 360 ml warm water until completely dissolved at least two minutes. A 20 x 26 will hold approximately 2 gallons of water. Let the paper dry overnight or speed drying with a blow dryer. In recent posts i ve looked into the types of alum and the quantity necessary for marbling paper.

Let the alum dissolve then soak the fabric for 20 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of methocel methocelulose powder per gallon of solution or throw out and start a new recipe. Stir for 2 or 3 minutes till the alum is dissolved. Lay a sheet of paper on the surface of this alum water.

Make a double recipe of liquid starch by dissolving 4 tbs. Add another color dropping paint into middle of previous color if desired. Dissolve 2 tsp alum in 3 4 cup water. Add water to thin the colors skim the marbling base then test.

Let pigment spread out 2 to 3 inches. Alum is a mordant meaning it causes color to set on the paper.