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One look at the water marbling video on the Mayu Silk Art website is enough to blow your mind. And this art studio makes it possible for anyone to do it, even if one is not an artist! The credit for this goes to Susan ‘Star’ McCain, Owner/Artistic Director at Mayu Silk Art LLC.

If you’re wondering what water marbling is here’s the low-down. It involves filling a bath with a liquid or gel and squirting a combination of acrylic colors on its surface. This forms colorful blotches on the liquid surface, which is then stirred to form the desired pattern or design. Once the design is ready, all you need to do is to carefully immerse the silk fabric into the medium and take it out. Lo and behold! The exact pattern gets transferred onto the fabric! The best part is these beautiful works of art are lasting.

Water marbling is not a new process but has been around at least for 1200 years in different forms. In Japan, it was known as Suminagashi or ‘ink floating’ and in Turkey, it was called Ebru meaning ‘cloud art’. This art would have remained a well-kept secret of the artisans, had it not been rediscovered and brought back to life with modern materials and technologies.

The credit for its revival goes to the 19th Century ‘marblers’ who published detailed instructions in 1853. This simplified and modified process was eagerly taken up by Europe and the US. In fact, Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States and a printer by trade, even suggested to marble paper money at one end to prevent forgery!

However, the invention of acrylic paints in the 1950s made water marbling not only possible but popular too. Mayu Silk Art has played a big role in not only reviving this ancient art but also by bringing it in the public arena, where people from all walks of life with no artistic dispensation can enjoy and explore this fascinating art form.