Masterclass
Ebru — Paper Marbling
with Nesime Kantar
Ninety minutes at the tray in a working ebru atelier in Galata — colour on water, then the paper lifts and the picture is yours.
Tue, Thu & Sat afternoons · Two to six guests · from €55 per guest + 20% VAT
The experience
A painting made on water, and lifted off it in one breath.
Ebru is the Ottoman art of marbling: pigments dropped onto a tray of thickened water, where they float, spread and are drawn into pattern with a stylus and a comb. A sheet of paper is laid on the surface, lifted, and the picture comes away with it. No two are ever the same, and there is no going back once the colour touches the water.
Nesime Kantar has been at the tray for twenty-five years. This is not a demonstration you watch — it is ninety minutes at her tray in her Galata atelier, with the brush and the stylus in your own hands. She shows you the water, the colours and the tools, and then you make papers of your own.
You leave with the papers you marbled — and, on the Silk option, a scarf marbled the same way. You join her regular session, so groups stay small and everyone has a tray. Bring nothing; every pigment and brush is already there.
When it runs
The master's programme
Three afternoons a week, three sessions each. You book your seats in her regular session.
Paper
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday · 13:00, 15:00, 17:00
Ninety minutes
- Welcome at the tray — the water, the colours, the tools
- Colour on water: brush, stylus and comb, in your own hands
- Your papers lifted, and yours to keep
Silk
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday · 13:00, 15:00, 17:00
Ninety minutes
- The same session at the tray
- One more piece: a silk scarf, marbled by you
- Paper and scarf, both yours to keep
Two to six guests per booking. Larger groups, and other days or times, are arranged with the master — write to us and we ask her.
The atelier
Water, colour and paper
Practical
What's included, what to bring
Included
- Ninety minutes at the tray with Nesime Kantar, in her Galata atelier
- Paper, pigments, brushes and the tray — nothing to bring
- The papers you marble, to keep — and a silk scarf on the Silk option
- A DAS host with you the whole way, in English
- Two to six guests per booking, in her regular session
Bring with you
- Nothing you need — everything is at the tray
- Clothes you do not mind a drop of colour on
- A camera; the moment the paper lifts off the water is worth it
- Your questions — she has been asked most of them, and likes the rest
The master
Nesime Kantar
Ebru master, twenty-five years at the tray, teaching from her own atelier in Galata — the same trays, the same colours, and a steady stream of people who arrive never having marbled a sheet and leave with a few of their own.
Her atelier is where the papers are made and kept. For this masterclass it is also where you sit — at her tray, not in front of it.
- Ebru master · Galata
- Twenty-five years at the tray
- Turkish · a DAS host carries the session in English
In motion
The face of the water
Filmed in the atelier on the day of the photographs. The tray you see is the one you sit at.
Good to know
Questions people ask
Reserve
Two ways to the tray
Paper, or paper and silk. Pick the option, then choose your afternoon on the next page.
Ninety minutes at Nesime Kantar's tray in her Galata workshop. You marble your own papers and keep them.
We book your seats in her regular session. Two to six guests per booking; larger groups by arrangement.
You keep · Your own marbled papers.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00.
Book →The same session at the tray. You marble a paper and a silk scarf, and keep both.
We book your seats in her regular session. Two to six guests per booking; larger groups by arrangement.
You keep · A marbled paper and a silk scarf.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00.
Book →Groups of more than six, companies and other days — email for a quote.
Secure card payment · iyzico · Charged in TRY at today's rate
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