Suminagashi, the Japanese art of paper marbling, is the forerunner of Turkish/European marbling and dates back to the 12th and quite possibly the 10th century.
It likely migrated along the trade routes from the orient to Persia and then on to the low countries reaching Britain in the 15th century where it evolved into the highly patterned endpapers found on books.
A talk with examples of marbled paper and a demonstration of suminagashi.
About Sarah Amatt
Sarah is a suminagashi artist and maker.
A preference for simple, elegant, pared-back images and a love of paper and ink has inspired her work with Japanese marbling. Using various washi and western papers, she crafts both traditional and contemporary designs some of which become framed prints or hand bound books; the rest make their way to various artisans and letterpress printers.
