I have always wanted to try paper marbling – so I finally decided to do some suminagashi experiments with the Boku-Undo Marbling Kit we sell at the store.

Aside from the inks provided by the kit, I experimented with inks and paints that I had at home. Out of the alternative mediums, Pelican Tusche worked the best. I also used iridescent Liquid Acrylics and that also turned out nicely. However, the rest of the mediums I experimented with sank so I wouldn’t suggest them.

You will need a large container to hold the water. You can remove the dust on the surface of the water with a piece of newsprint before starting. The kit comes with floating papers that you apply the ink on to in the water. These little circles can be reused after drying. If your floating papers start to sink, I’ve read that you can replace them with light weight cardstock.

After applying the inks, you can create designs by blowing on the ink lightly with a straw. You can also use a needle to drag the inks out. If you want to have white spaces between the marbled layers, you can dip a brush soaked with soap into the design.

The results varied with all of the different papers that I tried.  I found that an ideal paper for suminagashi should be lightweight and have long fibers.