Although I mostly work with digital media, I lately started to experiment with the old art of suminagashi (japanese water marbling) and found it to be especially frustrating to find the right kind of paper. I often read that handmade/mould-made 100% cotton paper works best, so after a few basic tests I tried those and was utterly disappointed. The ones I tried so far are Hahnemühle mould-made Printmaking paper 300gsm and Garza Papel ProArt Inkjet paper 180gsm. They practically didn't react with the ink (Standardgraph Drawing Ink or Rohrer & Klingner Drawing Ink) at all when laid onto the water. Even after several minutes, almost all of the ink washed away after picking the paper up. Even the packaging paper worked better! Now I've heard that it has to do with the papers sizing and/or general ingredients, but it's almost impossible to get clear information for that in germany (where I live).
I hoped that you might be able to help me out.

Sidenote: Normal FineArt Inkjet papers (like from Fotospeed, Canson or Hahnemühle) worked best so far, but the point is that I want to understand WHY.
You can see a comparison here:
https://imgur.com/a/Jo3VNf1

Thanks in advance,
Thomas

Hi Thomas,

We really appreciate your patience, while we’ve been working on this! For Suminagashi, papers with surface sizing are key. Although we are familiar with marbling techniques from our own knowledge and from our artists, Suminagashi is one we don’t get asked about often. We do recommend a lightweight paper that does have some type of surface sizing. From our research, there’s no definitive paper that is strictly recommended for this technique. But, we found some similarities across different demonstrations online that range from fine art print making sheets that were 300 GSM to commodity lightweight construction paper, that yielded successful images after the printmaking process.

We will be sending you a variety of different sheets that range from lightweight handmade paper to 250 GSM paper. Based off the papers we carry, we are going to provide you nine different product 8.5x11 sample sheets to test out. The best thing to do is to buy a variety of papers from multiple manufacturers and test out each of its capabilities for your technique specifically. Although you were looking for a scientific reasoning, we strongly feel the trial and error approach will be most beneficial.

We’ll be sending you the following products:
• Masa
• Mulberry
• Entrada Rag Natural 190
• Stonehenge & Stonehenge Light Weight
• Stonehenge Aqua 140 CP & HP
• Zerkall Ingres
• Zerkall Book- Wove Vellum 100 and Wove Smooth 100

After you test them out, please let us know what your findings are. We are both curious and excited! In the future, we’ll be able to provide recommendations for other artists who are looking for the same answers.

We look forward to hearing from you!

I was looking for deep color, sharp lines (=no blurring/bleeding) and if the paper has texture it shouldn't be too distracting. That said, most of the papers had mediocre results with the exception of Masa and especially the Moab Entrada Rag, which performed extremely well!

Other papers or media, that also worked well:
- Canson Infinity Edition Etching 310gsm
- Canson Infinity Rag Photographique Duo 220gsm

I have been experimenting with suminagashi lately and have come to believe that fine art papers (like cotton watercolour papers etc) do not work exactly because of the sizing that is there exactly to give you some time when you work before the paint binds or sinks into the paper.
You will have best results with cheap sketching papers (but not clear lines) and photographic glossy inkjet papers. The latter have a coating that sets the inks almost instantaneously in order to avoid smudging in the printer, which is exactly what you are looking for in suminagashi as well
hope I helped.

Unsized papers actually work best. Both Zerkall copperplate and Arches 88 work well. When I first experimented with the technique about 25 years ago Stonehenge worked, but my recent experiments with it were total failures. I wonder if the sizing is different now. Lotka is working well as is some sumi paper that a Japanese friend gave me (although this is very fine and tricky to lift out). I'm still experimenting with other Japanese papers. Hosho was better than mulberry. The ink also makes a difference as does the water itself.

I've had excellent Suminigashi results using Daler Rowney "Simply" Sketchbook paper (Acid Free, 65lb / 100gsm) The lines are bright and crisp, and the paper absorbs the ink immediately and holds up to rinsing and moving. I discovered this paper when I was teaching Suminigashi at my daughter's elementary school and realized that the other papers I had been experimenting would be too delicate (and expensive) for the 8-12 year-olds during a 1 hour workshop. I went through all of the outrageous quantity of paper in the house and one of my daughter's sketchbooks was perfect.

To create excellent images of suminagashi, one must first learn the technique. Proper tools, inks and paper are of utmost importance. I am a retired paper marbler with over 30 years of experience. For suminagashi, I've used student grade Hosho, Kinwashi, Kitakata, Torinoko, Unryu and many fine handmade Japanese papers sold through Aiko's in Chicago (now closed). One of my papers with suminagashi background has been circulating on the internet for years: Sumi Tree. I suggest purchasing The Ultimate Marbling Handbook by Diane Maurer-Mathison. She devotes numerous pages to suminagashi marbling and materials needed as well as HOW TO instruction.

Another factor in the process of suminagashi is the ink you are using. I have tried at least 6 to 8 different bottled sumi inks and found the best to be Moon Palace Sumi from Japan. I have found this ink to work on almost all papers, even copy and construction papers...best on Japanese handmade papers. Agree, Diane Maurer-Mathison's book is the best.

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I have found this ink to work on almost all papers, even copy and construction papers...best on Japanese handmade papers. Agree, Diane Maurer-Mathison's book is the best. <a href="https://www.inpulseglobal.com/best-paper-plate-holders/">best paper plate holders</a>

I believe INK is the most significant factor in suminagashi..NOT paper

I've been marbling paper for a while but I am new to Suminagashi. I was very surprised that the India ink didn't adhere to Stonehenge paper at all. It had previously worked with Arnhem paper (both in gray) and the papers seem nearly identical to my eye. It worked pretty well on cheap printer paper and very well on some sekishu kozo paper I had from a prior project. Perhaps the Arnhem paper has less sizing than the Stonehenge? But isn't the sizing what we add to paper to marble it on a carrageenan or methylcellulose bath? I sometimes wish I took more chemistry in college. Thank you all for your comments because I am going to try some Red River photo paper that I have- I wouldn't have thought to try it if it weren't for the comments here.

The sizing (both internal and external) greatly affects the marbling and suminagashi techniques. And, as noted above, the inks have a significant impact as well. It's best to test your inks and application to see which paper performs well. You'll also notice that the Canson Infinity and Moab papers mentioned above do well, which is primarily due to the inkjet receptive coating that's applied to those papers.

Interesting to see this thread started back in 2018...Suminagashi is such a lovely and easy form of marbling, I have returned to it through the years, 60+ at this point. Bring a calligrapher and book artist I find all papers enticing. I am constantly surprised when I enter my studio every morning and discover a piece of paper calling out to me...play with me today, play with me.

I am a long-time-member of Puget Sound Sumi Artists (1986). In the late 80's or early 90's I did suminagashi and my memories of that were very warm and positive. I was recently asked to give a program for the group and said yes. Now I have problems that I know I didn't have previously. I've been working on getting it to work well for me, so I can tell our members what to do that will be successful, but things are not going well. I've tried a variety of inks; papers; and distilled water. I am using ClearJel for enhancing the distilled water. I had used cornstarch, methyl cellulose and ClearJel for size. I believed that the ClearJet worked the easiest and did a good job of blending with the water, it jells almost immediately; I used a variety of papers from Japanese paper to Western papers — they tend to be just fine. But some inks will wash out. So I'm narrowing down which inks I use. But I'm not convinced that what I'm using for size is spot on. At least I need to use the ink that stays afloat and doesn't sink right away to the bottom. My question to this group is, what form of water do you use? Do you use size? If so what? When you have added your size what ink is compatible with your size? While I'm asking questions... have any of you done marbling on a book's edges. It isn't seen much now, but it was popular in the 18th C. I'm curious how the pages are held tight enough not to get marbling ink on the surface of the page AND if it is done before making it a book? TIA