Why learning Ebru from me?

 As Heraclitus said, “ You cannot step twice in the same river.” The same statement is also tru for Ebru art: “ You cannot make the same Ebru twice, so each piece work is unique.” That is why I am so fascinated with this ancient art, because nothing remains same; macro pieces change so do micro one, or the other way around.

What is Ebru?

Ebru is given name to traditional Turkish (Ottoman) art of “paper marbling.” As you may know, marbling art is forming decorative patterns on surface of water, and then transferring these patterns to paper or fabrics.

Given an overall picture of Ebru, this art is considered as an abstract art because of its visual grace. In addition, Ebru is also seen as a spiritual art due to its characteristic to lead one to have a pleasure time and to experience reflecting inner feelings on to a material.

Classic Ebru is produced by sprinkling pigments by using a brush onto a container of water mixed with oil solution, and with a needle, or a comb, shaping these color drips-pigments- to create a final design. Then a paper is placed on surface of water quickly pull off from the water container so this final design is transferred to the paper.

It may be difficult to comprehend that painting on water is possible; most of us would think that colors do not float. Actually, it is a fact that common painting colors will drown in pure water, so it is not possible to shape these colors. So what we should do? Even though marbling art sounds simple, it requires special tools and techniques. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending hours with water and color but not moving forward to shaping. Thus I decided to create this blog so that anyone who is interested in art of Ebru can easily learn by himself/ herself. Therefore, the main goal of this blog is to provide explicit information regarding all materials needed, to explain each step of making Ebru clearly, and to present great examples of Ebru from best-known Ebru artists.