Kaila Hires

Type of Work: gouache, watercolour

Contact Information

Email: keehir@earthlink.net

Biography

I have been paper marbling in some from or other since I was in the crafts program at Old Salem. I was hired as their weaver (weaving was my concentration with an Art Marketing major at ASU), but they asked the craftsmen to learn a second skill as well. Paper marbling was my choice, and I learned the traditional technique which I still use: gouache, carrageehan (a seaweed base), and ox gall (to disperse the colours on the gelled surface).

Although many marblers specialize in designs drawn with the use of combs I tend to take a more freeform approach. I may use combs or feathers to draw the background designs, but I prefer to let the colours travel on the gel's surface with minimal if any additional manipulation. Occasionally I may coax a floral form into the foreground as well. I have had commissions to make marbled papers for book covers, endsheets, bookcase backdrops, edging in picture mats, and framed as decorative art. Every sheet that I make is an original, one of a kind design.

Kaila Ilsan Hires