I had a dream there were cloulds in my coffee ...or was it ebru in my coffee.

Marbling is Ebru but Ebru is not Marbling

Marbled Money and Marbeized Wallpaper

Ben Franklin tried to keep colonial Americans from counterfeiting Continental currency by marbling the edges of the money he was printing. I saw examples at the Dard Hunter Museum before it moved and I thought the counterfeit bills had better marbling.

It was like the large pattern printed marbled wallpaper ... marbling will descend to the lowest common denominator.

But that is the beauty of thinking about the future not the past. I believe in contemporary marbling. Not that 'Ebru', 'Abri' or 'Marbling' can't be modern but the names themselves have baggage.

But the digital names that might describe the future of marbling might be even heavier. Chaos, fractals, interference patterns, waves that travel of density interface, or just plain ol' 'digital marbling.'

Counterculture Marbling

Hippie Marbling

Worlds Largest Marbling

The World Largest piece of marbleized fabric 900 sq. ft.

Legendary American Marbler - Terry Harlow

Terry Harlow at marbling workshop  Old Lyme, Ct. (undated).

marbling

 The interest in marbling is at a low point. Marbling, Ebru and Abri ... do they mean the same? Have the politics of fear influenced peoples energies down to there artistic core?

This blog is beginning at the bottom. Right now there have been only 38 page hits. By the time of the next International Marblers' Gathering themed The Peace of Paper happens in 2015 there will be 100,000 hits.

I look back at some of the past and focus on the future of marbling. At the moment I am looking at marbling in the late 60s and early 70 in the San Francisco Bay area.  Olaf, the Renaissance Faire, Berkeley street art, counterculture marbling, The Fab Book, early marbled fabric ... and more to come.

Marbled Star Maps ... Teske

Renaissance Faires, American Counter Culture, and marbling are 'Well Met:' in the only David W. Teske life forms on earth. Teske a known Trekie, "self-proclaimed idiot savant",  Star Map maker and  'Fairever' can name all the stars visible to the naked eye.  He can also repeat to the second the radio commercials for Jolly Green Giant Peas that he did 45 years ago.

Teske and I collaborated on marbleized star maps. He sold them at  They ended it the hands of such people

Is Ebru Dead?

The International Marblers' Gathering 2015 Tehran, Iran.

The Peace Of Paper

Well Met: Renaissamce counter culture Marbler - Olaf

Colo and Cove

I sold marbleized fabric on the street in Berkeley in the 70s.  I lived in a 'Rocket Ship' behind Olaf's House in Berkeley. Olaf and I met at his communal pad New Years Eve 1969 Haight Street, San Francisco. Brown and I had just arrived from a grueling drive from the East Coast.

Olaf was and is an artist that shares mores than his art making tools or supplies, whether it be candle making or marbling or painting. He shares the essence of it means to be an artist.

The large marbled pieces of fabric produced by Olaf that were introduced at an early Renaissance Pleasure Faire were ground breaking.  His current paper marbling is as unique as it gets.

I wrote about Olaf in Ink & Gall years ago. With the book Well Met: Renaissance ... coming out I can't think of a better title for my relationship with Olaf.

 Olaf's paper marbling. 

Renaissance Faire Marbler Kate Cristoon

In the early 70s when Olaf and I were doing large marbleized fabric pieces and selling them at the Northern California Renaissance Faire.  At the same time a wonderful artistic lady was making and selling small unique, almost miniature, marbled note cards at that same outdoor venue. Her name was Kate Christoon.

Peace of Paper

The Peace of Paper

Marbling is the process of floating colors (pigments) on the surface of thickened water and transferring that pattern to another surface.

For over a thousand years, this mysterious and magical ancient art of marbling has been a diverse visual language of peace, harmony, and communication.

Although marbling’s origin may have been in distant lands it has a special place in the heart of New Mexico, and New Mexico occupies a special place in the hearts of marblers from around the world.

This timely documentary is the story of and an accompanying video to both the Museum of New Mexico’s former exhibit of marbled papers entitled “Rebirth of a Craft“ and the future exhibit of papers titled Album Amicorum: Jewels of Friendship in a Frightened World.

The film is about five artists residing and working in the state who not only are masters of paper marbling, but were instrumental in promoting New Mexico as a center for the craft worldwide through publications, exhibits and the organization of the First International Marblers’ Gathering … “The Largest Gathering of Marblers in the History of the Universe.”

The documented past, techniques, and artistic importance of this timeless art form are covered in this project as well as the stunning beauty and endless variety of images. Those images that are frozen as prints on paper are dynamic while being created.  The focus of the piece is not only about the almost divination-like quality of marbling through the ages, it is also about New Mexican artists and the identification of the Southwest with the process and its allegorical virtues.

One of the primary goals of my proposed film is the “attachment” of the word marbling in cyberspace to New Mexico. As part of this contract, the placement on search engines will be a feature of its distribution. The video and the help given to the creation of a New Mexico sponsored web site will be used to teach the State and its artists how to seize the leadership and top position online in promoting their specialty niches on the Internet. When people around the world Google “marbling” this New Mexico film will be on the top of the listing.

Another service to the State besides the actual product of the film is the training of three individuals in the form of apprenticeships in documentary production, digital editing and art direction/special effects. Much of the interviewing will be shot at the Santa Fe Public access studio, offering training of their staff as well as training specific film students at the Santa Fe Community College and exposing them to professional and union personnel.  

The supplementing of the permanent “Governor’s Collection” of marbleized papers housed at the Palace of Governors Print Shop is a secondary goal of this presentation.  As part of the 1989 Marblers’ Gathering, the Governor’s Gallery hosted an art exhibit featuring marbled art works from around the world.  Many of those pieces will be featured in this documentary, and some from the “Rebirth of a Craft” have been donated to the State. All pieces of art created during the filming will be donated to the collection. There has already been interest from other institutions, marblers and collectors in both trading and donating marbleized art to help jumpstart this physical collection that eventually will become a tourist attraction for the State.

This film’s promotion is designed to be timed for maximum multi-media impact. Internet, print and film release are to be combined with the next proposed phase of the Palace of Governors Print Shop’s marbling project, named Album Amicorum for an early (1599) European bound collection that contains marbled papers. These popular Alba of that period were the first of what we would now call ‘autograph books’ or ‘friendship papers.’

One of the suppositions of the film’s narrative is that marbled papers could have been introduced into this country first by the early Spanish settlers, prior to the late seventeenth century colonists’ use of these decorative papers.  The film traces references of marbled paper from Chinese and Japanese beginnings along the silk trade routes, including the Islamic roots of this craft, directly to New Mexico and the now modern high art resurgence as aqueous monoprinting and the futuristic art of ‘digital marbling.’

As Phoebe Jane Easton, renowned author and collector, writes in her book Marbling: a History and a Bibliography, marbling “is older than might be imagined …and the historical trail is marked with surprises, contrasts, and interesting people and events.” This documentary is not so much a scholarly look at marbling, but a human look at this mystical folk art form that transcends borders and time.

Ebru

Milenna Hughes creates modern Ebru art.

Internation Marblers' Gathering Tehran, Iran 2015

The 7th International Marblers'Gathering to be held in Tehran, Iran 2015.

Fab Book

Cove selling marbling on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley in the 70s.

Sam

Next generation marbler Sam Swenson wave marbling on top of a Zerox earth.

International Marblers' Gathering

 

Hikmet

I've known Hikmet since the first International Marblers' Gathering. I went with him to the Mosque in Abique, NM. Our mutual friends and fellow marblers Olaf and Tom Leach have stayed in regular contact with him. Hikmet himself hosted the 3rd International marblers' Gathering in Istambul, Turkey.

All of us are on the new Board of Directors for the "7th International Marblers' Gathering" tentatively scheduled late 2014 in Tehran, Iran. The theme of this event is "The Peace of Paper.  So far the only criticism has come from noted historian/expert Jake Benson and my wife, Maya Blue. Jake called the whole event "A bad idea. Visa nightmare." My wife, being Jewish, said she'd "Meet us in Paris."

Marbling World

It's a "Marbling" world or one might even say it's a "marbled" universe.
Scholars and historian debate origins of a process that tries to capture a picture of music, time or even, not to be sacrilegious, God.

Marbling, Ebru. and Abri

Marbling, ebru, and abri are words combined to make the title of this blog. I should have added 'sumi', a shortening of 'suminagashi', to that list which describes an artistic process of creating an image on top of water.