black and colored inks

Ingredients

flour paste, honey locust pods, croton oil, water, ginger, dandruff, black ink

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Drifting-sand note-paper was prepared by holding sheets of paper over a flour paste sprinkled with various colors (p. 31). In a variation, a paste was made from honey locust pods mixed with croton oil and water. Black and colored inks were placed on the surface. Adding ginger caused colors to scatter; applying dandruff with a brush caused them to coagulate into designs resembling human figures, clouds, or birds. These designs were then transferred to the paper by laying it on the liquid surface (p. 31).

Evidence

"...the paste was prepared from honey locust pods mixed with croton oil and water, with black and colored inks on its surface. When ginger was added, the colors would scatter; when dandruff was applied with a hair brush, the colors would coagulate."

Remarks

Blair highlights that marbled paper, known in Persian as kaghaz-i abri, was likely another import from China, with literary references predating its appearance in the West by several centuries (p. 31). Techniques like 'aks (stencils) were also used for decoration (p. 31).