People often say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but I think that we all do. The cover helps us to focus our interest when looking into a sea of books. There are paperback and hard covers, there are solid and graphic covers, there are covers with images and there are covers with art.  

Newly working in the Archives & Special Collections department at Santa Clara University has opened my eyes to the physical beauty of many books. From hand-crafted spines and vellum covers to gold leaf lettering and intricate drawings, everyday I work I come across a new treasure to share on my Instagram stories. However, marbled books have a kind of beauty that other books don’t. 

The oldest examples of marbled paper come from Japan, where it is known as Suminagashi. The process of “ink floating” includes dropping black and indigo blue ink onto water, and then immersing the paper in the water. When the paper is brought out of the water, intricate swirls and drops of ink get caught on the surface and paints the paper beautifully.

This process is thought to have been later adapted within the Ottoman Empire, but the true origin of where paper marbling started is unknown. The Turkish art of Ebru or “cloud art,” which most closely resembles the paper marbling style that we use today, was similar to that of Suminagashi, but Ebru shows more distinct and deliberate patterns with the paint and requires specific tools to be used in the water to achieve the unique patterns. Some are created to look like flowers or other nature scenes, while most commonly seen are the rounded swirls punctuated by splatters and drips.

Lost Craft is Revitalized

The process of marbling books, be that on the spine, covers, or pages, has stayed closely the same over the centuries. As machine printing took over the production of books in the first half of the 20th century, marbling became less popular and the craft began to disappear.

However, its revival came in the 1970s (see embedded video from the 1970s at the bottom of this post), when home crafting and handmade books grew in popularity and more craftspeople were introduced to the marbling method again. 

Marbled Book Covers and Page Ends

The vibrancy and effectiveness of the marbling all depends on the products being used, which varied historically in geographical regions and throughout time periods, with continual improvement being accomplished every decade. Some paints and papers produce bright designs at first but quickly fade, while others of higher quality stand the test of time. As craftspeople and book makers have learned more about the preservation of their art, they have employed acid-free paper and more stable paint and sizing solutions to do their marbling, ensuring it will last centuries in the right conditions.

Process of Marbling

The short version of the process is to create the aqueous solution (known as size) and layer the paint on the top of it with drops and splatters. The paint is then spread and mixed to create an intricate pattern or design. Then whatever object is going to be marbled (fore-edge, cover, or single sheet of paper) is dipped into the solution and paint. Once it is extracted and the paint pattern settles on the top, the object then needs to be dried and coated to maintain the paint, but can then be used in many book arts applications. 

Until 1853 there was a great diversity of colors, paints, and patterns used in marbling that varied from region to region. The whole practice was very secretive and not something that was widely shared, being considered a proprietary family recipe that elevated the cultural value and economic ability of the family. That was until an Englishman, Charles Woolnough, wrote a book about paper marbling and how to do it, The Art of Marbling (an 1881 edition of which is scanned in full from HathiTrust). More authors and marbling artisans began to share their techniques once this initial dam of information broke open, eventually taking the practice world wide to be customized by people from many different locales with no background in the process. Marbling is no longer a secret and everyone is getting in on the action and sharing their projects on social media!