Suminagashi Fabric Marbling

Once you are happy with the floating design it is frozen in time by laying a piece of paper or fabric onto the surface of the gel and allowing it to float and absorb the pattern.

Suminagashi fabric marbling. Information on the ancient asian technique of ink marbling or suminagashi. I learned about this technique from a recent meeting of the fiber art divas and went to dick blick to purchase the supplies to try it. Each print is 100 unique yet after 16yrs in the trade i am able to duplicate patterns which will give your design range or your function continuity. Suminagashi is a marbling technique for fabric or paper that is done with inks that float on top of the surface of water.

Suminagashi is still practiced in japan today. Some scholars believe this artform was practiced even earlier in china though no known examples exist. Suminagashi means spilled ink in japanese and it differs from turkish marbling in three distinct ways. I use the ancient water printing techniques of marbling and suminagashi to achieve the beautiful patterns you see on display here.

The earliest known examples of marbling date back to japan in the 12th century where a technique known as suminagashi meaning floating ink was used to create papers. Fabric marbling is the art of floating paints on top of a thick solution called size manipulating the paints into patterns then transferring the pattern to an object by gently placing the object on top of the solution marbling lets you make your one of a kind quilting or other fabric item. I am a surface pattern designer. Marbling originally started during the sung dynasty in ancient china with suminagashi or floating ink techniques being developed japan during the twelfth century where paper was used to collect the result.

These early marbling art pieces were highly prized and reserved for nobles and royalty. More fabric marbling. Marbling is done by floating paints on a thickened liquid solution called a gel here for convenience but the correct term would be marbling size. During this tutorial you will explore some of the traditional suminagashi techniques used to pattern paper and naturally dyed fabrics.