To make this fun and easy marbleized paper you will need: 1/2 tsp alum (helps paint adhere to the paper), 2 cups liquid starch, liquid acrylic paints, a long wooden skewer , a 9 X 13 pan and white copy paper cut to fit the inside your pan. You can change up the size of the pan, just keep the proportions of starch and alum the same. The starch should be 1 to 2 inches deep in your pan.
How to make marbleized paper
Pour 2 cups of liquid starch in the pan then add 1/2 tsp alum stirring until mixed.
Gently drop acrylic paint on the surface of the starch. Some paint will sink to the bottom- do not worry. Try not to use too much paint. For best results choose light and dark colors that go together. It will take some experimenting to know how much paint works best for you. Brands of acrylic paint differ in consistency. If after several tries you have trouble with the paint not staying on the surface, try adding a drop of water to your paint.
Take the wooden skewer and drag the paint through the starch. Continue dragging the skewer through the paint until you get a design you like. You might try other tools like a fork, feather or comb besides the skewer. Really the fun of this activity is watching the paint swirl around making different designs. There is no right and wrong. Enjoy the experimenting. We were mesmerized —- we hope you will be also!
Lay your piece of paper on top of the starch. Allow it to sit for a couple of seconds.
Lift the paper out of the pan and allow the starch to drip off the paper
Rinse the paper under running water removing any extra starch. This does not change the intensity of the colors (the below photo is a different piece of paper paper from the above photo)
After the paper has been rinsed, lay it out to dry. It will take about two hours for the paper to dry. When the paper is completely dry, iron on medium setting until the sheets of paper are flat.
You may find that you can print two sheets of paper before adding more paint to the starch. In the photo below, the bottom piece of paper was made first. We then used our skewer again making a different design and put on another sheet of paper.
In the photo below we had too much paint on our starch so we went ahead and made a print then changed up the design and then made another. If you feel that you have made a lot of prints and your starch is too full of paint, just pour it out and start again.
The possibilities of what to do with your paper are endless—- cover pencils, a book or a box, make note-cards, bookmarks or a picture frame etc.
For another fun activity try painting rocks.
Have fun!
Do you think you Can you marble like fabric instead of using paper???
it’s a turkish traditional art “ebru”
i hate it
To answer the concern about “paint not remaining on paper”, May I suggest you add 1/4 teaspoon more alum. However, do note that it may appear that the paint is running off the paper when one initially removes paper from pan, but rest assured, a marbelized image is there. Do please run paper under water and PRESTO it appears.
To address the paint consistency issue; I have garnered best results when I dilute acrylic paint to a thickish milky consistency (not as thick as heavy cream, however). I do add a number of colors (4-7)~ akin to the variety seen on original Turkish marbleized book endpapers. The method outlined here is just terrific!
Oh, do know you can purchase liquid startch as well as alum at your local grocery store; liquid startch in laundry detergent aisle, alum located among the herbs and spice aisle.
I was curious about this paper can you use it with modge podge. What I mean is will it transfer to another object?
Wow…this is damn cool!!!! What a nice technique…beautiful designs!
Thanks for posting this – my middle schoolers are so excited about this…but I tried it this weekend and I experienced the same running of the paint after I pulled the paper off of the size. The longer I worked, the worse it got…is that my size telling me it’s tired?
thats cool
love this!!! i remember doing something quite like this at school but we put paint and washing up liquid in to water then blew bubbles with a straw not quite the same effect but kids love doing it
absolutely great thanks !
What a fantastic idea…
Hello!
So I was really excited to try your way after others hadn’t yeilded great results.
Your way has definately made the color work for me better…. but when i pull the paper out the paint run and ruins it….. do you know what i am doing wrong? I would LOVE to have this work out well but i keep hitting issues 😛
I could use your help thanks!
Thank you for sharing the starch info. i saw it 1st on martha and she didn’t tell you everything you need. I’m a painter so i can’t wait to finally try this out. Thanks again i’m excited
This is great, Thanks for posting this I am in a positional to become a professional painter now and needed to know how to achieve this technique badly! Perfect many thanks!
Where do you find liquid starch?