Another Hobby?!?!

You may or may not have noticed that Mother has been a little preoccupied lately and hasn't posted as much on Facebook and she certainly has been ignoring this blog for a while.  There has been a lot going on around here this Spring, but there is nothing unusual about that, for people with no life outside of our selves we are always busy.  The new adventure in Home Schooling using the Time4Learning website is going remarkably well, both the boys are enjoying themselves immensely and they are learning new things, so its all good with that so far.  The latest round of "improvements" on Facebook have really made it even less user friendly for me and I just don't have the motivation or the time to do as much as I did when I started.  I will keep it going, and I'll keep on sharing and posting and what not, but I am not even trying to keep up the same pace I started with.

Anyway, what does any of this have to do with the title of the post?  Not much, but I was getting there. In the midst of being busy I have started researching a new hobby.  I know, I know, I have way too many hobbies already, especially for someone with obsessive compulsive tendencies such as myself, but it looks like so much FUN!  So this is what I am learning how to do:

This is NOT my work - it is a scan of an old book cover created with the technique I am learning.

Its called "Marbling" and it is a printing technique which involves floating paint on a "medium" and then swirling and combing to create the intricate patterns.  Then you lay the paper or fabric on top of the ink to transfer the pattern.  Each print can only be made once, so every print is unique.  I have always been interested in it, but as with dyeing fabrics, I had always thought the process involved the use of toxic chemicals, and as with dyeing fabric, I was thrilled to learn it does NOT!

You know its funny how many things I have wanted to do in my life that someone (my Mother usually), would always try to talk me out of by convincing me it would be somehow "dangerous".  I guess it makes sense in hind sight, since my family seems to consider any new knowledge as "dangerous", but it was really quite ridiculous and frankly I am angry with myself more than anything for letting them restrict and constrain my creativity for so many years.

So I have been learning all of the intricacies of how this process works, and I have learned that the most toxic thing to it is a little bit of ammonia in the "medium" which is actually called the "size" which is actually made with either Carrageenan or Methocel, both of which are non-toxic and safe to use.  I have watched all the videos I can find online, and read every blog post and website on the first ten pages of Google matches, I even ordered a few books off of Amazon, and I am thinking that I will give this a try.  I know, I know, the last thing I need is another hobby, but, but, but, ....  I am going to do it anyway.  

This looks to be another "outdoor" hobby, as it appears to be pretty messy, so my time frame is limited and I am not sure just how good I can get at this in just a few weeks, but I can at least give it a try and see if I do enjoy it as much as I think I am going to and then maybe I can find a way to move it indoors in smaller measures for the winter.  I still have some more reading to do (whenever the books arrive) and I have to order some more supplies, so I can't get started just yet, but I am sure I will post an update when I do!