Learn more about Jean M. Judd's marbling process

Suminagashi Marbling

Antique books with their fabulous end papers have always drawn me in. The ancient art of paper marbling has fascinated me, and I have wanted to find a way to translate this skilled craftmanship into my own textile artwork. I don't want to recreate traditional marbled paper established patterns but create undulating and flowing patterns that are uniquely my own. July to October of 2017 was the beginning of my experimentation with marbling of fabrics.

Since I use dense hand stitching to enhance my artwork with shadowing and physical texture, I needed to devise a way to use dyes instead of paint for my pieces. The traditional air brush paint left the fabric too stiff to easily hand stitch. I now have over 100 pieces of marbled fabrics ready for several upcoming series of artwork: Aged Psychedelic, Ebb + Flow, Ebrû (Clouds), Psychedelic Fog, Wisps of Memory, and several constructed series.

Circles of dye sitting in the water bath prior to being manipulated into the design that will be transferred to the cloth ground.

Here is the dye waiting for the fabric to be laid on top and to transfer the image to the cloth.

Ebb + Flow #7 (c)2017 (in process) - artwork ground fabric.

Each series ranges in size from 9 to 13 individual artworks and will be completed over the next few years as commission and exhibition projects allow. I look forward to continued experimentation with the marbling process and branching out into larger pieces and designs.