Decorated Paper

Techniques that lift color from the surface of water onto paper, where no pattern can be repeated and the invitation to chance is itself the style.

Dictionary entry

  1. Paper Marbling historical–present / Technique

    Color floated on liquid is lifted onto paper once and only once, producing an order that cannot be repeated. It names the family, and under it sit separate disciplines: Turkish ebru, combed into figures, and Japanese suminagashi, disturbed by breath and brush.

  2. Ebru 15th century– / Technique

    Turkish marbling: pigments floated on thickened water, drawn into flowers and swirls with comb and stylus, lifted onto paper. Grown from calligraphy's ground into an art of its own, inscribed by UNESCO.

  3. Suminagashi 12th century– / Technique

    A technique in which concentric rings of ink dropped on the surface of water are disturbed by breath or brush and then lifted onto paper. The flow that appears on each sheet cannot be repeated, and from Heian period decorated papers to contemporary bookbinding it has continued as a method for inviting chance on purpose.

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