Found at One of a Kind: Handmade Books by Tanya Deacove
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.24.08
photo credit Emma Alter
From the One of a Kind Show:
I was immediately impressed by Tanya Deacove's hand-bound books, all made with recycled papers and fabrics, but was blown away when I learned that she marbles her cover papers herself. I always assumed these marbled papers were printed, but in fact she "floats a water-based pigment on top of water and some seaweed, and drag a comb through, and the random pigments make a design, then you hold your breath, because if you breathe everything moves, it is very delicate, and then you lay the paper down on it, to pick up the pattern." The results are stunning. Tanya calls herself a "technological luddite" so unfortunately she has no website, but she is at lots of shows and sells out of her showroom near Godfrey, Ontario. More on the marbling process at ::Wikipedia
I remember doing marbling in high school art, and book-binding, but this has inspired me to take it up again! How cool that there are still people out there in the relative mainstream who do it all by hand...