Marbling Classes & Offerings
Spend a weekend playing with color and discovering the magic of paper marbling. This relaxed, hands-on workshop is designed for anyone who wants to experience marbling and spend two enjoyable days creating beautiful papers.
Everything will be prepared and ready when you arrive. With demonstrations, guidance, and plenty of help along the way, students will learn a selection of basic marbling patterns and then spend their time at the trays experimenting with colors, combs, and simple techniques.
With everything ready to go, students can concentrate on experimenting with color and pattern while receiving as much guidance as they need along the way. The emphasis is on enjoying the process, trying different combinations, and watching each new sheet develop into something completely unique.
This is a casual, creative weekend designed to be fun from the moment you arrive. Come play with color, learn some classic marbling patterns, and leave with a collection of beautiful marbled papers you created yourself.
Please note, students seeking the technical knowledge and skills to continue marbling independently should instead enroll in Intro to Marbling with Acrylics — Two-Day Intensive.
Skill Level: No Experience Necessary
Duration: Two Days
Tuition: $599 per person
Supplies & Materials: Included
2026 Dates & Locations:
Seattle, October 3-4 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Registration & Studio Policies
A comprehensive introduction to the art and craft of traditional paper marbling, this two-day intensive is designed to give beginning marblers the knowledge and practical skills necessary to understand the process from start to finish.
Students will learn how to prepare paper, mix and adjust acrylic colors, prepare and maintain a marbling bath, properly use traditional tools and combs, control paint behavior, and troubleshoot the variables that determine a successful print. Beginning with Turkish stone and other traditional patterns, we will progress into increasingly structured combed designs as students develop greater control at the tray.
Rather than simply producing finished sheets, this workshop emphasizes understanding why marbling behaves as it does. Students will leave with a working foundation in materials, technique, pattern development, color, and studio practice that can be continued independently or developed in our intermediate workshops.
No previous marbling experience is required.
Skill Level: Beginner
Duration: Two-Day Intensive
Tuition: $799 per person + supplies and materials
Supplies & Materials: $150 due on-site
2026 Dates & Locations:
Seattle, October 10-11 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Registration & Studio Policies
For marblers who have mastered the fundamentals and are ready to develop greater precision, consistency, and sophistication, this three-day intensive moves beyond introductory technique into more complex acrylic marbling.
Students will refine paint preparation and control, work with more demanding combed patterns, and explore the relationship between drop size, placement, color sequence, comb spacing, movement, and pattern development. Particular attention will be given to diagnosing and correcting common marbling problems and learning how deliberate adjustments produce predictable results.
As the workshop progresses, students will work toward increasingly complex patterns while developing the control necessary to reproduce successful papers rather than relying on chance. Time will also be devoted to individual experimentation and refinement of techniques appropriate to each student’s existing practice.
This is a working intensive intended for students who already understand the basic acrylic marbling process and are comfortable independently preparing and pulling a marbled sheet.
Skill Level: Intermediate — Previous marbling experience required
Duration: Three-Day Intensive
Tuition: $999 per person + supplies and materials
Supplies & Materials: $150 due on-site
2026 Dates & Locations:
Seattle, October 16-18 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Registration & Studio Policies
Marbling does not have to end with the first pull. In this intensive workshop, students will explore the extraordinary possibilities created when a previously marbled sheet returns to the tray for a second carefully planned layer.
Students will learn how color, pattern, scale, orientation, transparency, and negative space interact when one marbled design is placed over another. We will explore the preparation of previously marbled papers for subsequent printing, registration and directional considerations, complementary and contrasting pattern combinations, and the deliberate planning required to create successful multi-layered papers.
The objective is not simply to place one attractive pattern over another. Successful overmarbling requires anticipating how two separate designs will interact to produce a third, unified composition. Students will learn to plan that relationship before the second pull and to use the first layer as an active element of the final design.
Expect experimentation, unexpected results, and a considerable expansion of what a sheet of marbled paper can become.
Skill Level: Intermediate/Advanced — Experience with core marbling techniques required
Tuition: $999 per person + supplies & materials
Supplies & Materials: $175 due on-site
2026 Dates & Locations:
Seattle, October 23-25 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Registration & Studio Policies
Advanced Overmarbling moves from layered pattern making into deliberate composition. Building directly upon the techniques developed in Overmarbling I, students will design and execute increasingly complex multi-stage papers in which successive layers are planned as parts of a finished whole.
We will investigate more sophisticated combinations of pattern, scale, direction, color, masking, and controlled negative space. Students will explore selective overmarbling and methods of preserving, revealing, obscuring, and recontextualizing portions of earlier layers. Depending upon the composition, a sheet may return to the marbling tray multiple times as the design develops.
Precision becomes increasingly important at this level. Students will be encouraged to work from a plan, analyze each stage before proceeding, and consider the finished sheet as a composed work rather than a succession of independent patterns.
The resulting papers can be intricate, unexpected, and visually unlike conventional single-pull marbling. This is an experimental workshop, but the experimentation is purposeful: chance remains part of marbling, while increasingly sophisticated technique determines how that chance is used.
Skill Level: Advanced
Prerequisite: prior experience with overmarbling required
Tuition: $999 per person + supplies and materials
Supplies & Materials: $175 due on-site
2026 Dates & Locations:
Seattle, November 6-8 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Registration & Studio Policies
Seasons Greetings
Spend four festive days in the studio creating a collection of hand-marbled pieces for decorating, giving, and sending during the holiday season.
Designed as a relaxed, hands-on workshop, Season's Greetings puts the emphasis on making. Everything will be prepared and ready when you arrive, and students will be guided through the techniques needed to create colorful marbled surfaces and patterns. Previous marbling experience is necessary.
Throughout the workshop, students will marble papers and objects specifically selected for a collection of finished holiday projects. With demonstrations and individual help along the way, each student will create:
One large picture frame
One small picture frame
A set of coasters
A set of Christmas ornaments
A set of gift tags
A set of postcards/notecards
Students will experiment with color combinations and simple traditional marbling patterns, making each project distinctly their own. The emphasis is on enjoying the process and creating finished pieces that can go directly from the studio into your home, onto the tree, into the mail, or under it as handmade gifts.
Whether you come with friends, family, or on your own, Season's Greetings is an opportunity to spend time making something by hand during the holiday season—and leave with a collection of marbled pieces ready to use and share.
Skill Level: Intermediate
Tuition: $999 per person + supplies and materials
Supplies & Materials: $350 due on-site
2026 Dates & Locations:
Seattle, November 11-14 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Seattle, November 27-30 ( 10:00am – 5:00pm )
Registration & Studio Policies
Marbling Studio Space RentalNeed a fully equipped marbling studio without having to set one up at home? Open Marbling Studio provides experienced students with a day at the trays to practice, experiment, revisit favorite patterns, work through new ideas, or simply spend uninterrupted time marbling.
This is independent studio time rather than a class. Participants should be comfortable working on their own and using marbling equipment safely and appropriately. The studio and marbling equipment will be available for use throughout the day, allowing participants to concentrate on their own projects and work at their own pace.
Open Studio is available exclusively to former students who have completed at least one marbling class with Seattle Papermaker, Chena River Marblers, Robin Ashby, or another professional marbler.
Experience Level: Intermediate
Prerequisite: See description
Duration: One Day
Studio Rental: $150 per person, per day
Supplies & Materials: Available to purchase on-site
Availability: concierge@seattlepapermaker.com
Registration & Studio Policies
https://www.seattlepapermaker.com/terms-and-conditions
Private lessons offer dedicated time in the studio with instruction tailored to individual or group interests, experience, and goals.
Whether you are completely new to marbling, want to explore particular patterns or techniques, or are an experienced marbler looking for more focused instruction, the day can be structured around what you would most like to learn. With a maximum of five participants, there is ample time for individual attention, demonstrations, questions, and hands-on work at the trays.
Private lessons are also ideal for families, friends, colleagues, visiting artists, and small groups looking for a more personal studio experience.
Experience Level: All Levels
Group Size: Up to Five Participants
Availability & Pricing: concierge@seattlepapermaker.com
Registration & Studio Policies
https://www.seattlepapermaker.com/terms-and-conditions
