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Bookbinding For Amateurs

The Various Tools and Appliances Required and Instructions for Their Effective Use by W.J.E. Crane 1888

Colors for Marbling Part 2

 

Vegetable Black -This is a superior kind of lampblack, but prepared from vegetable instead of animal matter. It is surprisingly light, and cannot be used alone; it will not produce a black for marbling, except in combination with double its own weight of good indigo.

Turkey Umber (burnt) -This color produces a very good brown, but it is hardly required if you have the burnt Oxford ochre; as, with the aid of that color and a little indigo and black, you may produce almost any shade of brown you may require.

Orange Lead -This is a very heavy color, and is but little used, except for the edges of account books.

White -For this an article called china clay is used; also, for some purposes, the common pipeclay. Flake white may also he used, but the others are much cheaper, and answer every purpose. Paris white is a similar thing to the former.

Marbling Gum -Of all the varieties of gum, there is but one that is of any use to the marbler, and that one is called gum tragacanth, or gum dragon. You cannot be too particular in your choice of this article, on which so much of the excellence of your work depends. It should be large, white, and flaky. Good gum will produce a good surface, but bad gum will often yield a rough one, which is unsuitable to the purpose. Again, a bad gum will sometimes give a smooth surface, and yet possess no strength: the colors will flow well upon it, and form properly, and when the paper is taken off it will look at first very beautiful; but, five or ten minutes after, you will find the colors all running off, to your indescribable annoyance and mortification.

To properly prepare the gum, procure a large earthen pan, glazed on the inside, capable of containing from eight to twelve gallons of water; put therein 1lb. of gum tragacanth, and on it pour about two gallons of soft water; stir it every few hours with a clean birch broom, kept expressly for the purpose, breaking the lumps, and adding more water as it thickens or absorbs that which was first put to it: in about forty-eight hours you may venture to make use of it, but seventy-two hours would be better, and we have known some gum to be all the better for a longer period; as, although a considerable portion of the gum may be dissolved, yet the best properties of it are not extracted till the whole is dissolved. It must be strained through a fine hair sieve before using, and if any lumps remain, put them back into the pan in which you soak them, until they are all dissolved.

Linseed -It is possible to marble some patterns on mucilage of linseed, but it can never be made to produce a satisfactory effect. It is made either by boiling one quart of linseed in six or eight gallons of water, or by pouring that quantity of boiling water upon the linseed, and well stirring it till it extracts the mucilaginous properties of the seed; but it very soon decomposes or turns to water.

 
 
 

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Chapter Index
Colors for Marbling Part 3

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