Suminagashi is a nearly 900 year old Japanese printing technique! I decided living in Japan, my elementary art students needed to learn about at least a few Japanese at techniques, so my lucky fourth graders got to try Suminagashi! I had never done it before, aside from a few teacher samples I made for them, so we really learned how to do it together after a few youtube videos! They had so much fun I decided that it would be a great project to share for anyone looking for fun art projects at home! They begged me to be allowed to do it “one more day” at the end of every class. We did it for about 3 45 minute classes!
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How it works
Suminagashi basically translates to “floating ink” You are literally dropping ink onto the surface of water and then laying a piece of paper on top to pull a print. This is traditionally done by Japanese artists with big sumi brushes, ink, and a dispersant that allows them to create rings with the color. They hold multiple colors of ink on brushes in their hands, and rhythmically dip the tips of the brushes onto the surface of the water, occasionally using a brush with dispersant to push the ink and create a ring effect. There are different types of ink you can use, traditionally they are oil based inks. Then they take their printing paper and gently lay it on the surface of the water and voila! A beautiful monoprint!
Art and Science!
I ended up needing to show my students some videos of surface tension for them to understand the process better. The ink floats on top of the water using just surface tension. This was one of the better ones I found! Students that pressed their brushes too far under the water or too aggressively would break the surface tension, which causes the ink to sink to the bottom or just mix in with the water. They have to work very carefully and slowly to keep the ink floating.
Suminagashi Materials
You can do this a lot more involved and closer to the traditional technique, but I wanted as few materials as possible! I went the surfactant-free and water-based ink route! I just wanted to use ink and water, nothing else. The prints in this post were made by students, so, it worked! Here is what you need:
- A vat of clean water. I let students use a 9×13 aluminum baking dish because that is what I had, and they are cheap!
- One brush per color ink. I let students use a sumi brush for their dispersant (soapy water) and little tiny brush for each color they needed. Tny brushes automatically make them work a little more carefully. The sumi brush is then very different so they don’t get the ink and dispersant mixed up.
- This is the exact ink kit I purchased on the Japanese economy. We went through less than two kits for two classes of fourth graders. Drops of ink go a long way! I gave them each just 3 or so drops of a color per class, and if they needed more they could ask. One class I let start with two colors, another I allowed only to use black.
- Paper without sizing. In other words, paper that will absorb the water, not resist it. We felt that regular old block printmaking paper was great! Watercolor paper was terrible, it made blurry prints, and same for heavyweight or mixed media drawing paper.
Lessons learned
We had a lot of conversations about what worked and did not work, because the suminagashi process was new to all of us. We all learned from watching this video by a contemporary artist and this video of a traditional Japanese artist. My mother always says you can learn anything from youtube. 🤣 My students shared geat tips! One of the best tips I heard from them was to hold your brush on the surface of the water to release more ink, instead of just dabbing quickly. They also suggested using the dispersant to push the ink around instead of just making rings with it, and moving your brush along the surface of the water carefully. We didn’t really do any blowing because of COVID mitigation.
Other ideas for making?
If you’re looking for more fun projects, check the DIY and art education sections of my blog!