Ebru
エブル / 15th century– / Technique / Decorated Paper
Turkish marbling: pigments floated on thickened water, drawn into flowers and swirls with comb and stylus, lifted onto paper. Grown from calligraphy's ground into an art of its own, inscribed by UNESCO.
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At a glance
Visual cues
- Flower forms on water (ebru çiçekleri)
- Combed wave patterns
- The chance of each single sheet
- Pairing with calligraphy
Best used for
- Endpapers and bindings where every sheet must differ from the last
- Using chance pattern as the ground beneath calligraphy
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Write the letters afterwards, into space the pattern left open
- Composition
- Scatter a few flowers only and fill the rest with combed waves
- Material
- Pigment dropped on thickened water, drawn with comb and stylus, lifted once
- Caution
- Scanning the pattern and tiling it removes the chance of the single sheet, which is what makes it work, and leaves printed wallpaper.
- Further study
- hatip ebru flower work / Ottoman manuscript binding / contemporary ebru artists
Related entries
- Paper Marbling (マーブリング)Same Decorated Paper lineage.Compare Ebru and Paper Marbling
- Kufic (クーフィー体)Shared effects: Luxury / Calm.Compare Ebru and Kufic
Often confused with
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/ebru
- Markdown
- [Ebru — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/ebru)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/ebru">Ebru — IndexStyle</a>