Natascha Maksimovic in Margate brings us back to the idea of using marbled paper for house decoration, just as Tirzah Garwood did at Brick House. Rather than working with time-honoured patterns, Natascha has a very individual and free approach in terms of application, scale, and the use of distinctly untraditional colours. Her paper has been turned into wallpaper, kimonos, paper ikebana, and framed pieces.

Although a commercial marbler is usually required to repeat patterns, every sheet of hand-marbled paper he or she makes is a monoprint, a one-off. a  A few exceptionally talented marblers are now presenting their papers as pieces of art. Renato Crepaldi (b 1973) produces a limited edition of each pattern, and signs and dates his work. This is his Cobalt Blue and Chromium Oxide Green Fern with his signature inclusion of metallic accents. Shepherds in London is a trove of decorated papers, including a small number by Crepaldi.

Chena River Marblers in Amherst, Massachusetts, produce vibrant, modern marbled papers which push the possibilities of what can be achieved with a combination of contemporary colours and traditional techniques. For those who can get to them, Regina and Dan St John's workshops look superb, and produce incredible results (as in the photo). 

Douglas Cockerell & Son of Grantchester produced some of the most beautiful marbled papers of the last century before the company closed in 1987 following the death of Sydney 'Sandy' Cockerell, their master marbler. The peacock pattern above illustrates the type of effect he achieved with the process, which was captured in this mesmerising video made in 1970 by the Bedfordshire Record Office. Cockerell marbled papers can be seen in the extensive collection of decorative papers held by the University of Washington.

Paper marbling is currently enjoying something of a renaissance after a small number expert of marblers kept the craft alive during the twentieth century. One such artist was Tirzah Garwood, later Ravilious (1908-51), author of Long Live Great Bardfield. Visitors to the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden can open drawers to discover the unique, innovative 'pattern papers' (as she calls them in her book) she created in Great Bardfield with the help and collaboration of Charlotte Epton, later Bawden. They display a breathtaking mastery of this art to create complex, delicate repeat patterns which were used for books, lampshades and the decoration of Brick House. The V&A holds twelve specimens of Tirzah's marbled paper including this one, and there is a small number of her papers in the excellent Schmoller Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University.

With Island 2022, Cornelia Parker (b.1956) explores the concept of the greenhouse as a symbol of contemporary Britain. Laura Cumming in the Observer wrote, "A greenhouse stands alone in a shadowy gallery...its glass is marked all over with chalk dabs, made using chunks of the white cliffs of Dover. Nothing is growing. All you can see are the ecclesiastical-looking salvaged tiles from Pugin’s House of Commons lining the floor. A little England, encamped, enclosed and empty, cut off from Europe in the one-word poem of Parker’s title – Island.” Even if you are ambivalent about conceptual art, the Tate Britain exhibition of Cornelia Parker's work is worth seeing: beautiful, thought-provoking, witty and often darkly funny, with excellent display labels written by Cornelia Parker herself. It runs until 16th October.

Sacré blur (2015) by Heywood & Condie is a colourful interpretation of the traditional greenhouse. Using salvaged ecclesiastical stained glass which is patchworked and altered, the creators focus on the idea of a greenhouse as a sanctuary. “The greenhouse is an architect’s equivalent of a temple. It’s where life begins and the ritual of caring and nurture take place.” says Heywood in this article (with many more photos of the details, interior, and temporary location). As well as being shown in an inner courtyard at Hastings Contemporary in 2016, the greenhouse was put on display in 2019 outside 25 Porchester Place, London, next to 23-storey tower block where passersby could examine closely the unsettling mix of saints and squirrels, grasshoppers and lions lit from within.