We’ve been working away behind the scenes on a new notebooks collaboration with London-based paper marbling studio Marmor Paperie.
Ahead of the launch next week, Amy caught up with Lucy McGrath, master craftswoman and founder of Marmor Paperie, to talk about how their paths crossed, a shared passion for book-binding, and what happened when they met at Lucy’s London studio last month to develop the new range.
“Marbling is kind of like an intersection of science, print making and abstract art. It’s like painting on water.”
Amy: So Lucy, we’ve known each other virtually for almost 10 years, and in real life since about 2023. I am a huge admirer of your work and I think I understand what marbling is, but could you describe in your own words how it works?
Lucy: Marbling is kind of like an intersection of science, print making and abstract art. It’s like painting on water. I thicken the water with powdered seaweed to make the surface tension super strong. This means that when I drop paint onto the surface, it spreads across the surface rather than combining with the water. And the more paint you add, it kind of pushes the previous paint droplets out of the way and you build up your colors one by one. Then you can either take a lovely print of the organic droplets as they've fallen, or you can manipulate them into something more precise and intentional using combs.
Amy: I love watching you working with the combs. I find it really mesmerising. That’s the style of marbling that I associate with a more traditional style, but it’s interesting to hear you distinguish between the ‘organic’ and more controlled techniques.
Lucy: Yes the combs are great fun, creating a fractal-like effect. And once you’ve made your print, there's nothing left on the water so you start all over again.
“I had not realised that every single design is an edition of one! Then you must start again from scratch, so each one is effectively a unique artwork.
Amy: That was something that really struck me when we visited your studio Lucy, I had assumed that once you had created a design or pattern on the surface, you could then create a certain number of identical ‘prints’ from it. But I was amazed when you explained to me that you actually have to start again totally from scratch for each individual print. So in a sense, each one is a unique artwork.
Lucy: Yes it is quite labour intensive. This may be part of the reason why it is an endangered craft, because there are so many faster ways to create prints in larger quantities, though of course the quality of finish and the craftsmanship that goes into it is not comparable at all. I am one of only twelve professional marblers in the UK and the only one practising in London. And I feel like I have an important role to pass on these skills — I wrote a book called Contemporary Paper Marbling which is a sort of how-to guide, published in 2019, and I also run workshops here at Cockpit Studios in Deptford.
Amy: I think it’s brilliant that you’ve dedicated yourself to it and you’re creating such beautiful work, as well as sharing your knowledge. I love to use Mark+Fold collaborations as an opportunity to celebrate and showcase these kinds of special skills and put beautiful craftsmanship into the hands of people who really appreciate its value.
“The type of marbling I do is following the Turkish tradition (also known as Ebru), which has UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage status.”
Amy: So how did you first get into marbling?
Lucy: I was studying illustration at Brighton and realised quite early on that I was not going to be an illustrator! But there was a bindery and so I took a bookbinding course on the side, where I realised I really love bookbinding. I went down a rabbit hole from there and started buying books in flea markets with beautiful marbled papers, and asked myself how do they make this? So I went off to Turkey and did a taster course, and I loved it. The type of marbling I do is following the Turkish tradition (also known as Ebru), which has UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage status.
Amy: Interesting! I also began with a fascination with books — the one that sticks in my mind was the linen-bound Le Corbusier compendium on my parents shelf, with stencil typography that inspired our 2022 Special Edition Diary. Then, like you, I did evening classes in bookbinding and really fell in love with the process.
“There’s a real artistry, a sort of dance to the way you place the paint down on the surface.”
Amy: Do you have a signature style? Could someone tell your marbling from someone else’s?
Lucy: I can differentiate my marbling from my old assistant’s marbling because you just get a sense for how much paint they would put down and the heaviness of their movements, that kind of thing. It's very subtle. But I can definitely tell.
Amy: And you have very elegant long limbs. Watching you doing it, you were sort of flicking it in a very light way. There’s a real artistry, a sort of dance to the way you place the paint down on the surface.
Lucy: I love that - what a compliment! My own marbling does tend to have quite a light, even touch.
“There's an element of chance to all of it, isn't there — a sort of serendipity. It’s like I’m collaborating with the water.”
Amy: So although every single one is unique, you perform the same ‘actions’ each time, similar hand movements, similar colours of paint, in a similar sequence. So they all have a Lucy ‘feel’ but no two will be truly identical. There's an element of chance to all of it, isn't there — a sort of serendipity?
Lucy: Exactly. I couldn't have put that any better. One of the reasons I love marbling so much is because you're not really in full control, it's like I'm collaborating with the water every time.
Amy: That’s such a shift in mindset for me as a graphic designer — to relinquish control and just embrace the process, just see what happens! That’s what’s so fun about collaborating, is it forces you out of your comfort zone and the end result is just so different to something we’d have come up with on our own.
Mark+Fold is all about order and a very measured approach, and we like to keep our notebooks dry! So this process which is all about water and embracing chaos, is sort of exhilarating for us!
Lucy: I love that. Yeah, that it's like the opposite
Amy: The extravagance and the craziness and the spontaneity of the patterns. We're taking the format of our Exercise Books and letting Lucy go mad on them.
Lucy: And from my side it’s been great to have that initial inspiration and direction to work from. It was really nice to have Amy working by my side and discussing the patterns as they came out.
That gave me something to contain the chaos a bit, which I find quite invigorating creatively, then you can push against that and come up with lots of different things which is I guess was what we were doing when we spent the day working on this together.
Amy: I have to say it was just one of the most inspiring days I've had for a really long time. Helen and I came away just feeling like our souls had been nourished!
Talking to you about the concepts, and then watching you doing it in real time. Normally with collaborations, we'll have a meeting. We'll discuss the brief. We'll all go away and think about it. Then we'll email each other pictures or samples, which can all end up with quite a disjointed way of working through ideas. But actually we spent a day together in Lucy’s studio and just did it there and then. I was impressed that Lucy could work her magic as we watched, I think I would have got stage fright!
Lucy: Yes we were really just working in the moment. This worked so well, because you could kind of understand where I was heading even if the sheet was a bit odd, because it was the first one. We could then progress from there with an idea and push it further.
Amy: And actually, the couple of details that we've then refined over email have felt much more like labored, haven't they? Quick decisions we made when we were in the same room became long winded.
Lucy: Yes, and also finding words to describe Marbling patterns can be so tricky, like, ‘oh, you know, the pattern with all the lines and the curly bits’. So, I was really pleased Amy when you came up with names for the three designs — that certainly helped!
“The three designs represent a sort of sliding scale from ‘organic’ patterns to more controlled, traditional ‘technique.’ I was really conscious that I wanted the project to showcase the full breadth of your amazing skills and tell a story of you and your work.”
Amy: Yes! And the names really came out of this water theme, and our discussion about a sort of sliding scale from ‘organic’ patterns to more controlled, traditional ‘technique.’ I was really conscious that I wanted the project to showcase the full breadth of your amazing skills and tell a story of you and your work. So although we all loved the organic patterns, I felt like we just had to have some intricate combed designs too.
Lucy: And we have ended up with several techniques across the three designs: ‘Wave’ features the traditional French Curl, but with our more contemporary colour palette. ‘Rockpool’ is a totally organic series of shapes on the surface but then I used a technique called Spanish Wave to lay the paper down whilst swaying it from side to side, and the effect is what looks like ripples in the surface of the water. And ‘Tide’ features a series of swooping lines like ripples in the water’s surface.
“The names brought us back to those ideas of the contrast between wet and dry, order and chaos.”
Amy: And I liked how these names brought us back to those ideas of the contrast between wet and dry, order and chaos.
We wanted to make sure the range felt like a modern take on marbling. And as we're going into summer, we thought it would be fun to use watery shades of blue — almost like a picture of water. Plus a dash of neon orange, which makes it feel very contemporary and references arm bands and bright bikinis on the beach in summertime!
“This is what my work at Marmor is all about — breathing a new life into an endangered craft. We’re taking something people think of as an antique, and making it more accessible.”
Lucy: Yes, and I know this was really important to you Amy, that the collaboration be an example of a more modern take on marbling, so we’re pushing it in a new direction. And really this is what my work at Marmor is all about — breathing a new life into an endangered craft. We’re kind of bringing it back to regular people because it is something that I think people think of as antique, as special and delicate, something you can't really touch with your bare hands.
And I also want to put it on the covers of books so it's not hidden. You can touch it, you can stroke it, you can feel it. It is something that I made with love, to be loved. So I kind of change the perspective, but don't be precious about it.
Amy: People might think they've seen it before, but we’re inviting them to take a fresh look at it. I think if you watch the making clips and see Lucy doing her magic, bringing these different colors and designs to life, it makes you reconsider it as something new.
Lucy: People are familiar with marbling through digital print, where it has been scanned and copies thousands of times. Of course, with my work every single copy is unique, originating from a different set of paint drops on the surface of water, which make the pattern on the paper. And the fine line work you can achieve with the combs is so precise, you won’t find any pixels in there even if you zoom right in!
Amy: Yes I was struck by this when I looked at some of the examples in your studio — you simply could never paint that, there simply isn’t a paintbrush fine enough or a hand steady enough! The point where the lines meet with the comb, and all the strands of colour that converge in that one spec, is just hypnotic.
And again as a graphic designer, this brings us back to that idea of chaos and letting things form their own shape. I think if you tried to ‘design’ a pattern like this you would inevitably over-think it and spoil it, it comes back to something you said earlier Lucy - it’s a collaboration with the water.
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The Marmor for Mark+Fold range launches April 2025 with a limited edition of 3 Notebook designs in A6 and A5.
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