Meet The Artist: Jemma Lewis
I'm excited to introduce you to Jemma Lewis, of Jemma Lewis Marbling & Design! I've always been drawn to the look of marbling and while searching for some unique holiday treasures for the shop, I landed in marble heaven - aka Jemma's IG page! With holiday buying top of mind, I was immediately drawn to her beautiful hand-made bauble ornaments. I quickly began my introduction and asked if she would be able to make some pieces for our new store. From there, I learned about all the incredible products she marbles including: ceramics, wrapping papers, lampshades, textiles, even decorative mushrooms!
I sat down with Jemma to learn more about the actual process of marbling and how she began her career as an artist. Read her sweet and short Q&A below!
Enjoy!
Credit: Jemma Lewis
Q: To get started, can you tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to start your brand?
A: My career as a marbler came to me rather serendipitously and was never something I set out to do. I have a degree in textiles and have always loved colour and pattern and design, but it was though a job at a bookbinders that I became aware of all the beautiful marbled papers, which we purchased to cover and line the antiquarian books that passed through our doors to be restored.
I was sent to learn marbling with a lady called Ann Muir who was a World renowned marbler and who was looking to sell her business to the bookbinders I was still employed by; sadly Ann passed away and the bookbinders went in to administration.
Unsure what to do next my father who was semi-retired suggested we set up a marbling studio in my back garden.
15 years later and i'm still marbling in my little log cabin studio with my little dog Finn at my feet. My father retired several years ago and my husband Craig now works with me here fulltime where we marble everyday Mon-Fri and ship marbled papers and other decorative goods all over the world.
Q: Where are you based?
A: We are based in the Wiltshire countryside in a little town called Melksham in the UK.
We marble from a little log cabin at the bottom of our garden which has paint splatter as high as the ceiling!
Credit: Jemma Lewis
Q: For those who don’t know much about marbling, can you tell us about the process of marbling and how your beautiful pieces are made?
A: The art of marbling has been around for hundreds of years and how I marble today is really not that different to how it would have been undertaken in the 16th century! Gouache paints are dropped and floated onto a viscous liquid called Carrageenan which is derived from a seaweed! The droplets of paint can be left as spots or they can be combed and swirled using a variety of stylus and marbling 'combs' which are often handmade using hundreds of fine pins. Everything that is going to be marbled gets treated with a solution called 'Alum' prior to marbling, this is a mordant and ensures that the paint sticks, without this it would just wash off, leaving just a feint stain of the pattern and colour.
After marbling all items are lightly rinsed and then hung to dry which is often a slow process, at least overnight and in the winter months we need a de-humidifier to help the papers to dry.
Q: Tell us about the style in which you paint and the materials you use?
A: My work is highly stylized and draws from various decorative arts traditions. It is intentionally decorative, flat, whimsical and playful. I was trained as an oil painter, but in recent years started using gouache, a water based paint, and fell in love with its saturated color and matte texture. I also love paper, and enjoy working on cold-pressed water color paper, that I then apply to a board.
Credit: Jemma Lewis
Q: What is it about marbling that makes it each piece so unique? And from the variety of products you marble, do you have a favorite?
A: There is wonderful variation in marbling and so many different combinations of pattern and colour.
Each item marbled, be it a sheet of paper, a bauble or a toadstool is unique as only one 'print' can be taken from each application of paint. Although we love variety there are also many occasions where matching sheets will be required, for example a limited edition run of books. If we need to produce 100 sheets of paper then every part of the marbling process needs to be done 100 times and although the sheets (with practice!) will be very similar, each will be made individually.
Traditionally marbling was used for bookbinding as beautiful endpapers and although we still supply many hand marbled papers for this use we love to make as many different marbled items as possible so that it can be enjoyed by a winder audience. I suppose because we marble papers for most of the year day-to-day, it's the other items that we enjoy doing the most, this includes baubles, ceramic Easter eggs and of course the many other unique items that we produce as limited editions throughout the year. These are a way for us to get a bit more creative and experiment with marbling different types of items. Someone on Instagram saw the photo of the toadstools and thought they were door knobs so now i'm keen to try this and have a big batch of wooden knobs on route me to to try marbling!
Credit Jemma Lewis
Credit: Jemma Lewis
Q: When you're not working in your studio, what will we find you doing?
A: When I'm not in my studio I'll mostly be enjoying some nice long walks with Craig and Finn. We love trips to the beach and like to get away in our campervan as much as possible.
I also love a good fun day of shopping and cocktails and am very lucky to have the World Heritage City of Bath only 30 minutes away.
When not working in the studio I'll also be putting in some hours at my other company House of Amitié which I co-founded last Spring with my lifelong friend Angela. We have taken my hand marbled originals and turned them into a collection of digitally printed marbled wallpapers, fabrics, cushions and lampshades!
Credit: Jemma Lewis
To learn more, follow Jemma on Instagram @jemmalewismarbling !
