This weekend, I was messing around with different rake and comb sizes in the production of traditional patterns. I'm making handouts for my Clouds on Water eCourse and I want students to see how different a pattern can look just by changing up the size of the tool (even the strokes are exactly the same).

I'm having a blast doing this and learning a lot along the way, as one usually does when one looks at something from a different perspective. For example, I discovered you CANNOT push the boundaries of the Scallop pattern too far before it becomes completely unrecognizable. It's a pattern that wants to be ~ needs to be ~ tight. In the piece above I went loose. Technically, one would call this piece a failed attempt at Scallop. And yet, I keep getting lost in its beauty, movement, and details and can't help but call it a success.

Marbling is all about not being too quick to judge, not being too quick to dismiss, not being too rigid with expectations. It's about flipping the switch and being open to the possibilities.