marbling mistake

edenworkshops · Post by **edenworkshops** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 4:25 pm

I know this is only obliquely to do with picture framing but as I was/am a bookbinder, and as I know their is at least one more bookbinder treads the boards of this forum I thought I would include this huge error of judgement.

It was high summer in deepest Somerset (south of england) it was extremely hot for England, in the 80's anyway.

Our workshop was an old stable block on two floors, we not only bound books, we marbled paper and I found for me that good marbling could only be carried out in the summer because of the cold atmosphere of our marbling studio.

We marbled traditionally and this involved boiling up seaweed for the size used in this craft.

The "kitchen" where we cooked up this glutinous organic size was at one end of the building, and our marbling studio was at the other.

Hauling 20 gallon barrels of size from one end of the building to the other was no joke, particularly as it was so hot.

So I thought of a simple solution.

I would run a hose from the kitchen to the studio, it could be run out of site by running it through the loft space of the workshops.

The hose I had was not nearly long enough to run the distance, so I bought another and joined them with a metal tube and a couple of jubilee clips ( I love high technology)

Our workshops had access to the craft department of the abbey at Downside and I scrounged a vacuum pump to pump the size through the hose.

The hose in the studio had a kink in it unbeknown to me.

When I put the pump on the size could not travel through the hose due to the kink at the other end, so it gave at the weakest point, the join, and by mistake I pumped 30 gallons of raw liquid size into the roof space.

In the heat the size went off very quickly and the smell had to be experienced to be appreciated.

It took many weeks for the smell to go altogether.

Major error of judgement.

Richard

birdman · Post by **birdman** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 5:00 pm

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the giggle, it actually made me guffaw.

Welcome to the forum it is good to have a variety of contributors and your own site will be of some interest for the hand craft framers, I'm sure.

I hope the weather in France is better for you this Easter weekend than that forecast for the UK and NI.

Happy Easter

Rolf

Post by **prospero** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 6:42 pm

I would love to see that on a insurance claim form Richard.

Moglet · Post by **Moglet** » Fri 21 Mar, 2008 9:35 pm

Bet you didn't do that a second time, Richard!

Welcome to the forum!