Marbled paper

Create mind-boggling effects on paper

Ask an adult
without a paintbrush—you’ll be amazed! Paper to help mix the paint
You can use your paper to wrap presents towels with turpentine.

or you can fold it into origami shapes.

The paint mixture Spoon

White paper

Before you start, make some pots

of paint mixture in different
colors. Squeeze a blob of oil
paint into a pot and add four
capfuls of turpentine. Mix
them together. The paint
Toothpick
will become very thin. Paint
pots
Turpentine

Baking pan with water Oil

paints

44 3 Float the paper on the surface and gently

push it down to help it make contact. 4 Pick up the corners and
quickly lift out the paper.

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 1 Pour about 1 in (3 cm) of water into the pan.
Add small spoonfuls of each paint color. 2 With a toothpick, swirl the paint gently in
the water, but don’t mix it too much.

What’s the
science?
Oil and water don’t mix, which is why
the paint floats on top of the water. This
happens because water molecules are
tightly packed together, making
the water more dense (thick)
ecules
so that it sinks to the m ol
il
O
bottom. The oil molecules
are not as closely packed as
the water so they float on
top. Oil doesn’t dissolve in
water so even if you whisk
the two together
they will cules
ole
eventually m Oil
er
Wat

separate into
Water
5 Leave the paper to dry flat on
a thick layer of newspaper.
two layers.

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