ELEM: Little Hands, Timeless Art: Exploring the Beauty of Marbling

This week in the art room, our five-year-olds discovered the magic of paper marbling using a shaving cream technique. Each child spread shaving cream flat in a tray, dropped liquid paint on top, and swirled the colours with a skewer to create flowing, one-of-a-kind patterns. A sheet of paper was pressed onto the surface, lifted away, and the cream scraped off to reveal a stunning marbled print underneath. Once dry, children cut their marbled sheets into shapes and arranged them into collage compositions — making thoughtful decisions about placement, overlap, and storytelling along the way. No two prints were alike, because no two artists are alike.

Our young artists were also connecting with a rich global tradition. Paper marbling has been practiced across many cultures for centuries, but one of its most celebrated forms is Ebru — an art originating in Central Asia and refined in the Ottoman Empire, where artists float natural pigments on water to create swirling patterns before transferring them to paper. In 2014, UNESCO recognised Ebru as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. By exploring marbling in Room 5, our children are participating in one of the world’s most ancient and beautiful decorative arts — and making it entirely their own.