Marbling in the garden

My lovely ex colleague Susan came round for lunch on Wednesday and brought two of her children, Erin and Ruairidh, who are both at primary school. I thought that this would be an ideal opportunity to try out the paper marbling materials that I rushed to buy when we were in Basel. As it happened I didn’t really need to provide extra entertainment because the children were both well behaved and self entertaining; they played on the swings, played table tennis and Ruairidh fell in love with Tom cat. Tom got on very well with the children and was very happy to be patted and have his tummy rubbed, he socialised with them the whole time. (Flora on the other hand was sleeping upstairs and didn’t bother putting in an appearance during their visit.) 

However I had already prepared the primer and laid out the materials on the old yellow table which I had put on the patio, so after our pizza lunch I attempted, with a feigned confidence that I certainly did not feel, to replicate the process I had seen in the Paper Museum in Basel. So I dripped my marbling inks onto the tray of primer, swirled them around with a cocktail stick, laid on the paper, and then used a squeegee and the outside tap to finish the pattern. Triumph! It worked perfectly! The children and Susan were very enthusiastic and made their own designs, and we laid them out to dry on the grass. Thank goodness that the weather was warm and dry - the table and patio quickly became covered in gluey residue which James hosed away later. If we had been indoors it would have been carnage! I was very impressed by the good manners and creativity of Erin and Ruairidh, they are gorgeous children. 

When they left, clutching their artwork and bidding a fond farewell to Tom, there was still some primer left in the tray, so I sat happily in the garden and created several more patterns. What fun! I was so happy! Meanwhile James also was doing something creative - he was painting the upstairs bathroom!