It is a rite of passage for the novice psychometrician to prepare his or her own

inkblots. But it is not as easy as it sounds. At fir st, you think: Just pour some ink

on a piece of paper and fold it over. However, it’s not that simple. For star ter s,

while ink was once readily available—before ballpoint pens, typewriter s, then

PCs—it is not these days. We suggest you tr y children’s finger paints. Coffee,

soda, and similar liquids do not have adequate consistency; they just absorb into

the paper. Finger paints have the r ight kind of consistency for making your

inkblots. Be sure to use washable paint, because this exercise can get messy. Tr y

some with black paint and some with a few pastel color s. Construction paper

works better than regular typing paper. An 81/2×11piece of paper sliced to 81/2×51/2

gives a good approximation to the actual size of a Rorschach card.

Do not put a blob of paint in the middle of the sheet, then fold it. That just

does not work ver y well. Before putting paint on the sheet, fold the sheet in half ,

then unfold it. Then put a blot of paint near the fold but on only one side of it.

Then fold the sheet over and smooth it out. Try this procedure with several

sheets, experimenting with different number s of blobs of paint. Also, try y the

procedure with a few different color s for different blobs. Some of your

productions will appear potentially useful, other s will not. Rorschach tried many different blots, not just the 10 in use now.