On Tuesday, October 27, the mother of the student Liza Bolbukh, Tatjana Bolbukh, participated in an art lesson with class II-1. She introduced the class to the ebru painting technique, also known as paper marbling. This painting technique originates from Turkey and has long since become part of Turkish tradition – the oldest extant ebru painting dates from 1539 and is displayed in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul. 

After learning about the technique of ebru painting, the students tried their hand at it. The process goes as follows: water is poured into a rectangular vessel, and then kitre, a natural gum, is added to produce the desired viscosity of the solution, i.e. size. Dyes used in this technique must be natural and they are applied using horsehair brushes or rosewood sticks. 

After applying the dye, the artist creates patterns and shapes using awls of different thickness. Needles can be used as well. The final stage of ebru painting involves carefully placing a sheet of paper on top of the size to transfer the image, after manipulating the solution into desired patterns. 

Students created genuine, small-scale masterpieces, and had an opportunity to learn a rare and unique skill under professional supervision. Discovering new worlds, and new talents, as has been proved both with this guest appearance and throughout the years, is one of the fundamental missions of Primary School Savremena. All our efforts are aimed at helping our students to become accomplished and knowledgeable adults tolerant and open toward new experiences and new cultures. 

Tatjana Bolbukh manages the children’s center LaboratoRija. The centre deals with the development of critical thinking: they create situations where children encourage and stimulate themselves to read, write or create something new. They draw with their eyes closed, using the technique of fractal drawing, but they also use paper marbling – ebru painting.

In addition, LaboratoRija implements memory development programs synchronously with the NTC program, and they also employ original psychological and board games. All the programs are supervised by professionals: speech therapist, psychologist, art therapist, and Russian teacher.