Ebru is an art of paper decoration by spreading paints, which do not dissolve in water, with brushes made of horse hair and rose wood on dense water that is thickened by ox gall.
Shapes that look like clouds are formed during application. That is why this art is named as `ebri` meaning cloudlike in Persian. Until the beginning of the 20th century it is called as `ebri`; probably because of its more harmonious pronunciation its name is transformed to `ebru`.
The art of Ebru is born in central Asia. It is adopted in Iran and Anatolia, passed to Europe at the beginning of 17th century, applied for centuries as a paper art and was called in west as ‘Turkish Paper’ or ‘Turkish Marbled Paper’.
