SUMINAGASHI
WATER MARBLING
This experience inspires us to relax and unwind, let go of perfection and enjoy the moment. Marbling is a therapeutic technique with a no fail process. It is almost hypnotic to watch and soothes the entire body and mind. This workshop is a practice of calming our minds. Suminagashi, Japanese for “floating ink”, is a traditional art form from the 12th century that reveals the mesmerizing, ever-changing nature of water.
We will be creating a floating piece of art on the surface of the water and capturing the swirling, ever-morphing moments as prints on paper and coasters. At the end of the experience, participants will walk away with a greater sense of their natural artistic abilities and a renewed sense of wonder and creativity.
This democratic, inclusive ancient art form with no fixed destination or decisions to be made facilitates people from all walks of life to connect with their creativity, focus and attention. Each participant goes home with unique prints of their own Suminagashi journey and a skill they can then replicate at home.
“Suminagashi is a thousand year old Japanese technique of ink marbling with its roots in Shintoism, originally intended as a process for connecting human creativity to the flowing nature of water. Using various techniques the inks are applied to the surface of the water. This begins a process of flow where the shapes of the ink continue to evolve in soft, elegant, infinitely decorative forms.
The aim when practicing Suminagashi is to surrender into the natural flow state of water. This surrender creates the conditions for us to be present, to witness the subtle changes in a moment by moment way, and to connect deeply to the essential process of creativity which is to be in flow, like water itself, rigidity melts away as we focus instead on experimentation and play. ”
