Questions & Answers About Marbling

• Lambda Caragheenan powder (moss, organic)
• Marblers’ Alum
• Marblers’ Oxgall (organic)
• Grumbacher Academy watercolors
• Winsor Newton gouache, Permanent White and Lamp Black
• eye droppers
• plastic cups
• newspaper strips to clean size after marbling each time
• marbling tub
• lotus bowl for mixing paints
• painters’ brush for blending paints with distilled water 
• distilled water (only!)
• paper cutter
• paint roller to distribute alum water across paper for mordanting
• rack for drying paper
• stylus/toothpicks
• broom straw whisks
• rinsing board (I use the lid that came with the marbling tub)
• a sink with running water for rinsing the marbled paper
• watering can for gently pouring water over paper to rinse
• iron, to get the wrinkles out of the dried, finished paper

For reference, please visit the Sue Zajac Marbling channel on YouTube.

• The first dropping of paint is a test.  If a color sinks to the bottom, add more oxgall.  Dark colors need more oxgall than lighter colors. White gouache has much oxgall in it already.
• Oxgall is bile, from the beef industry.  Oxgall enables the paint molecules to bond. 
• If a color has too much oxgall, use only the tip of the stylus to drop the paint onto the caragheenan size.
• Always rinse the freshly marbled paper.
• Clean off the size after each paper.  I clean several times.  The surface of the size gets dry and will crack if not cleaned thoroughly each time.  The paints willl crack if the surface is not clean.
• Designer watercolors have too many additives. They will sink to the bottom.
• You should be able to overmarble your first design after it dries, without applying alum again.