This special class that Secil Yazicioglu, Fulbright program administrator, arranged and for which we had to pay an additional amount turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire Fulbright Turkey experience. The taxi driver, whose regular job is teaching insurance courses, could drive us only so far to a labyrinth of cobblestone streets behind Ayasofya. We walked until we found Caferaga Medresesi, constructed in 1559 by the famous Turkish architect named Sinan. The school consists of 15 classrooms/exhibition rooms constructed of various stones and marble around a peaceful garden that also serves as an outdoor cafe. In addition to instruction in ebru, courses are offered in the historical arts of calligraphy, miniature painting, jewelry making, tile and porcelain making, glass painting, and music (including stringed instruments like the balgama).
Ebru is a traditional water marbling art that is known to have been practiced in Anatolia at least 500 years ago. Using special horsehair brushes, the marbler sprinkles earth dyes that contain ox gall over water that has been treated with gum tragacanth. By simply placing paper over the design and carefully pulling it across the edge of the tray, the design is transferred to paper.
Patient and experienced, Ayla Makas, our lovely ebru teacher at Caferaga Medresesi, guided Cynthia Helms, Susan Bauer Gaina, and Linda Harkins through the steps of the water marbling process--ebru--that could result in the production of decorative paper used as end papers for bound books. Ayla also hepled each of us design a Turkish tulip over a blue marble background. Each result is lovely enough to frame.
While I purchased two additional sheets of ebru made by medresesi artisans, Susan and Cynthia shopped for ceramics. In fact, Cynthia will take home six gorgeous mugs designed with the Iznik tulip motif. Ayla also provided her Web site address: www.aylamakas.com
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