The Tiger's Whisker is finished! It was a technical challenge throughout, from the choice of calligraphy, the use of new materials, to a new kind of book form to learn. I spent a great deal of time looking at old scrolls on the internet--Chinese, Japanese, and Korean--and reading about processes to make them. I knew that I could not make something in the traditional manner, but wanted it to have the feel of the old scroll manuscripts. The biggest obstacle was the calligraphy, since English is written horizontally and the beautiful brush writing is written vertically.
I settled on narrow columns of text, to give an implied vertical, and modified humanist bookhand into a monoline script, which to my eye has a less European-based feel.
This is a sample of bookhand:
Here is a sample of the
modification I used:
It was a effort to keep the writing consistent throughout the piece. I thought that if I wrote it all in one sitting (with several breaks) that it would be uniform, but my hand and eyes got so tired that it became difficult to write at all, even with the breaks and my faithful studio dog cheering me on as she hogged the space heater.
The book will be on display along with other Portland Society of Calligraphy work in the Library at Marylhurst College April 4-30th.
