Combs, Rakes and Beyond (part 3).

Beside the direction one moves a comb across the marbling bath and then offsetting the comb and returning is the opposite direction, there are many variations in pattern that can be created by moving the tool side to side.  But if one also rolls the comb as it is moved across the tank, thereby staggering or lifting the comb's placement out of the bath and pigments, a different patterns emerge.

 One of the most innovative designs changes for a marbling comb in the last four hundred years recently came from Dan St. John of Chena River Marblers. He explains the comb this way; "This is a complete hot air balloon pattern. The teeth of the comb are splayed in and out, the tank is deep and the comb rides on a track 

which is sinosoidal. Dan"

Combs, Rakes and Beyond (part 2).

From 'Art of the Marbler', a YouTube video about Cockerell

The type of marbling comb that is a series of individual combs put together has never really been named but I call them 'compound' combs and or what Jake Benson calls a "drop-rake" (Diderot and d'Alembert).  'Compound' combs for me because I have seen "drop-rakes" that move side to side when you use them. Below is from Dan St. John's Facebook page and on the right is from a YouTube video about the Cockerell firm in England.

 Chena River Marblers (Dan St. John)

 The Cockerell marbling was known for its use this type of comb. What is interesting about this video (1970s film) about the making of Cockerell papers is that it shows a drop-rake being used to apply color rather than create a combed pattern.  I have seen photos of these types of combs (rakes) that have movable arms.

The spacing of the tines on a comb or rake are not the only thing that can alter a marbled image on the surface of a tank.  A simple change in the thick of the tines can move the paints (pigments) on the surface differently then traditional marbling tool. Below in another of Dan St.John's rake made with thick wooden dowels rather than thin wire.

Or even more strange a marbling comb that isn't linear.