In this chapter we shall describe how the various marble patterns for book edges or paper are produced, commencing with the easiest and most common kind of marbled papers.

French, or Shell, Marble -Your trough being placed on a firm table or bench of convenient height, with some feet of spare room on either side, you place the pots containing the colors on your right hand and the paper or books to be

marbled on your left; let there be a small brush in each of your pots of vein colors, and a larger one in your last or body color. Provide yourself with a small iron rod or bar, about 12in. or 14in. long, and about 1/2in. in thickness; this you place so as to be able to take up when required in your left hand. Fill your trough to about 1/2in. or 3/4in. from the top with a solution of gum tragacanth and flea seed, as directed, and proceed to mix: your colors.

To produce the pattern called large brown French, or shell pattern (see Fig. 90) with three veins, viz., red, yellow, and black), mix together ox gall and water, in the proportion of one-eighth of the former to seven-eighths of the latter; into this put your vein colors, a little at a time, and gently stir the mixture with the brush (but be very careful you do not make it froth by too rapid stirring) until it arrives at the proper consistence, which must be ascertained by sprinkling a little color on the solution in the trough: if the color sinks and does not spread out, add a little neat gall; but should it spread too far, mix a little more color with water only, and put it to that which opens too much.

The brown will require more gall, less water, and a very few drops of the best olive oil, which will cause it to form itself in rings, or shells, as it falls on the surface of the solution in the trough. This color will require to be thicker than the vein colors, and, when thrown or sprinkled on, should drive or force the other colors into the form of veins. By increasing the quantity of gall in the last color, you may bring the veins to almost any degree of fineness, but there is a point beyond which it is not advisable to go. This you must ascertain by your own judgment. If the brown does not shell enough, but forms in holes, add a few more drops of oil and well mix it; but should you pour in the oil in too great a quantity, it will spoil the effect of the shell altogether, and this you will not be able to counteract except by adding some more color mixed without any oil.

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