This is what it looks like to experiment with new materials for marbling. There are so many variables to deal with already with an established marbling practice...throw in something never done before and you're back to the very, very, very, very beginning. All new formulas, all new techniques, an entirely new way of looking at things. Right now, I have four tanks going with three different types of bath + five different paint formulas. I haven't worked this hard to figure things out in years!

In the foreground is a tank I build from a cardboard box and two trash bags duck-taped together. The tank is the same size that the women artisans use. I wanted to replicate surface space and surface tension as I experimented with paint formulas.

In Bangladesh, I have no idea what kind of materials I'll be working with...or what I'll have access to. It's part of the thrill and part of the anxiety. All I can hope for is that my years of marbling practice, years of paying attention, years of pushing through my own failed attempts, and the adventurous souls of the women artisans will get all of us where we need to be.