The Process and Techniques
Since the goal was to recreate the exemplar as closely as possible, I started taking measurements to make the folio on a 1:1 scale. The overall size of the paper was calculated and the space for the text block roughly measured out. The text space was again measured and divided into three sections (2 for the calligraphy and 1 for illumination) and then the scale was calculated. This is where I hit my first snag; I grossly underestimated how tiny the scale was. As mentioned earlier, the overall dimensions of the Divan is 23.8 x 15 cm. I printed out a scale picture of the Divan to confirm the proportions of the calligraphy to the overall piece.
Qata’i: Attempt the First -
In the first attempts at doing qata’i to scale, I used a light box to trace the letters of the first line of text onto a single sheet of mulberry paper. A #10 scalpel was used to carefully cut the letters out of the paper. While doing the first few cuts, the mulberry paper started to shred around the text. I was unsure if this was due to the large natural fiber inclusions in the paper ,so I tried this again with a few different samples of the paper (some with large fibers, some without) to see if there was a difference. I did not notice any discernible difference between the two. Again, attempts at cutting out the text resulted in the paper shredding around my fingers.
Single sheet of mulberry paper with calligraphy text. Each square on the grid is 1 inch x 1 inch.
The yellow cutting mat behind the mulberry paper marks 1 inch square increments. The fingers shown in the picture on the left are the index and middle fingers of my right hand. The picture on the right shows some of the broken fragments of the cut out text of the first line.
Qata’i: Attempt the Second -
In an attempt to prevent the mulberry paper shredding, I tried treating it with a rice starch coating similar to ahar paper’s coating. My hope was that the added starch would make the paper more firm and less prone to shredding. I made my own rice starch following directions from a cooking blog. Most of the available online resources for making this were either for cooking or for making hair treatments.
I used ¾ cup of jasmine rice (what I happen to have on hand) and followed the directions I found online. The rice was washed once and drained. I then gently massaged the rice for about a minute, which would release the starch in the next step. Approximately 1 cup of water was added back to the rice and the rice was allowed to soak for 30 minutes. After that time, the water was drained off into a container. This was the rice starch that would be used to treat the paper.
Left: Rice soaking for 30 minutes. Right: Rice starch water
The jasmine rice was cooked and used later for dinner. The rice starch was generously painted onto a single sheet of mulberry paper using a synthetic brush. The paper was allowed to dry overnight.
The first line of the text was traced on to the treated paper using a lightbox. While cutting the text out, again the paper pieces tore easily. The #10 scalpel was swapped out for a #15T scalpel which has a smaller curved blade. Again there was no discernable difference in cutting and the piece tore.
Qata’i: Attempts the Third, Fourth, and Fifth -
The next few attempts, I played with various paper options. Using the nori glue, I glued two and four mulberry sheets together to see if added weight and thickness would give the pieces more stability. I also ordered cotton paper to see if the material itself would make a difference.
During this process, I also adjusted the way I was cutting out the letters. After talking with another Eastern scribe, it was suggested that instead of long cuts I should try doing small pressing cuts using the tip of the scalpel. The tip of the scalpel was used to perforate the paper and make short precision cuts around the curves.
Both the 4 layer mulberry paper and the cotton paper were sturdy enough to cut out but cutting was difficult. Additionally, both of these papers were too thick for the fine detail of the text to show well. The 2 layer mulberry paper was more sturdy than the 1 layer, but more pliable than the 4 layer or cotton paper.
Moving forward, 2 layer mulberry paper was used for the rest of the project. The mulberry paper with large fiber inclusions as well as the paper without were glued to 2 layers. There was no notable difference between the two.
Attempting Decoupage calligraphy:
The first line of calligraphy was cut out using a combination of the #15T scalpel and manicure scissors. Sources noted that small chisels were used along with knives for this part of the decoupage process. All of my leatherworking chisels and edge bevelers were too large for the scale I was working on to try out. I ordered some beginner woodworking chisels to try to see if that would make cutting along the curves of the lettering easier than using the small scissors. While the concept was good and aligns with one of the sources I found, in practice the chisels I had were not sharp enough to cut through the paper. I briefly tried to manually sharpen them with a whetstone, but it did not yield better results. I reverted back to the use of scalpel and scissors after a few more attempts. All told, cutting out the first line of text took about 90 minutes.
Once I had the first line of text cut, I ran into another unexpected issue. The pieces were so light that they were easily lost if I was not paying close attention. Portions of the text had to be re-cut due to an errant sneeze, an inquisitive cat‘s tail brushing by my workstation, a heavy sigh, and the fan of my laptop turning on. The translucent nature of the mulberry paper made it blend in with portions of my workstation in my home office and even my kitchen workstation making any scattered piece instantly “gone”.
I had stored the cut out text in a small envelope of aluminum foil to try to keep everything in order. While it worked somewhat, many of the pieces moved or jumbled together when I removed one to start decoupage. This also resulted in small missing pieces that needed to be recut. I measured out each “line” where the text would be pasted onto the ahar paper and started gluing the text. The glue was applied with a small synthetic brush, the text pieces manipulated with a small pair of tweezers, and gently applied to the paper. Though the glue instructions say “a little goes a long way”, I found that the text moved around quite a bit and didn’t really stick to the paper. I used more glue under the text and a light coating over the text pieces to try to get a good seal when I applied pressure to the paper. After another hour of finagling the text and recutting some lost pieces, I had my first line complete!
Decoupage of mulberry paper on ahar paper
Overall, I think the first full attempt wasn’t bad. I am not pleased with the lack of detail on the first few words, but practice will likely resolve that. I set the piece aside overnight to dry in a cat-safe location.
The next day I inspected the text and noticed it looked like one of the pieces wasn’t glued down anymore. I gently touched it with a scalpel to see if it had separated and disaster struck.
After 24hrs of drying, the decoupage flaked off the ahar paper. There were tears.
The entire middle section of the text and glue flaked off the paper. Sections that had not come loose, looked brittle on visual inspection. This was my first time using ahar paper and this wasn’t a standard calligraphy application (meaning it was not “pen and ink”). I didn’t have issues with the glue becoming brittle in any of the test pieces in gluing mulberry paper together. This led me to think there ahar treatment on the paper was creating a barrier between the glue and the paper. When using ahar paper for traditional calligraphy, the ink sits more on top of the paper than with traditional paper. This allows for the “erasing” of mistakes usings a cotton swab and a bit of water. The effect is similar to scraping and burnishing when fixing calligraphy mistakes on traditional paper or parchment. There are subtle visual and textural differences left on the paper where the ink was removed. The ahar paper and decoupage were put in a “time out” while I worked on other aspects of the project using the high cotton content paper.
While making swatches of pigments on various papers, I noticed that none of the paint I put to the ahar paper initially stuck to it. The pigments beaded up and sat on top of the paper (much like the ink is supposed to) and needed to dry before more layers could be added. I was able to get the paint to “stick”, but needed many more layers than normal and the coverage was still not what I expected it to be. This led me to believe it absolutely was the ahar treatment interfering with the glue and theorize that the modern preparations might be different than the ones used in period or that the use of ahar paper was limited to calligraphy only works.
Underdrawing and tracing-
While everything and anything decoupage was in a “time out”, I began work on the other folio. I again measured the dimension of the exemplar to create a 1:1 ratio this time on the cotton paper. I’ve worked with this paper before and remembered that it has a honeycomb textured side and fine textured side. I made sure to measure and mark off the area for the text block on the fine texture side. Since the paper is very opaque, I used white carbon paper to trace the illumination design since it is very small and needed to be evenly proportioned. This would have been accomplished in period a few ways. One is by using tracing paper. Another method would be “pouncing” which involves using powder or soot (carbon) over a piece of paper with fine pin pricks over it to transfer the design. Sketching out a scene with ink or charcoal before applying paint is known as underdrawing. I made some rough sketches of where some of the designs would go in pencil knowing I’d likely adjust them as soon as paint hit the paper. Underdrawing is usually exposed in manuscripts when they are analyzed by reflection imaging spectroscopy or infrared imaging. There are a few great examples of artists making changes from the underdrawings in the Shahnama.
Gold Embellishments -
The gold detail on the paper is found in a few notable Persian manuscripts such as the Conference of the Birds (1177 CE) and Shahnama/the Book of Kings (various recreations from 1150-1525 CE). The technique of adding gold embellishments to the paper is described as “gold sprinkling” and can be done with paint or gilding. I used the mica powder gold for this and tried out a few test techniques before committing on the final piece.
Test “splash” patterns for “gold sprinkling. Mica gold on bristol paper.
After talking with another scribe who had done this in the past, I opted for a combination of techniques. Using a fan brush, I lightly “dabbed” a few of the bristles on the paper to create the large irregular gold flecks. After I had a decent amount of coverage, I reloaded the fan brush with a slightly more watered gold paint and tapped it against a pencil to create a small splash pattern (see below). I took care to cover the area of the calligraphy, but didn’t worry too much about it as the exemplar has spots where the gold clearly did not go where it was intended.
Left: A forensic inspired “splash” pattern that was used. Right: “Gold sprinkling” on the actual project (cotton paper).
Painting:
I have only used hand-made pigments once (briefly) and never used a full pallet of them. I have also never used real hair brushes and found them to hold paint very differently than synthetic brushes. When compared to synthetic hair, the sable hair brush holds a lot more water. The sable also has a nice bounce back when applying paint and I’m able to get very fine lines consistently.
A Persian palette of pigments I used consisted of red ochre, lazurite, malachite, yellow ochre, zinc white, and carbon black. The pigments were rehydrated with water to a consistency of “melted ice cream”. Paint was applied to the paper in multiple light layers, allowing for drying time in between layers. Two sections of the center design were overpainted with a light blue as I accidentally painted one section that was supposed to be dark blue red. I tried to overpaint the mistake directly with the lazurite blue, but the section turned into a muddy purple color. Letting it dry overnight, I mixed 2 part blue to 1 part white and painted over it without having the colors blend. All colors had at least 2-3 layers of color applied to get an even coating.
Written calligraphy-
The calligraphy on the project was written from right to left.
The decoupage calligraphy in the original is a white or an off-white color. I immediately discarded the notion of using Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White. It does not flow like normal ink even when watered down and used for my standard (European) calligraphy on colored paper. It’s difficult for me even when using tools I’m familiar with, so I removed that variable. I made a few test samples of various inks on bristol paper using the java pen. I have bought lamp black ink from an Arabic calligraphy supply shop specifically for this project to try out. I also tested my normal Pelikan black ink and my favorite Dr. Ph Martin’s Spectralite 18K gold ink.
I took the java pen for its first spin to practice calligraphy with the different inks.
Test using 3mm qalam and java pen using various inks.
The lamp black is thicker and more opaque than the Pelikan ink, but also more smooth to write with. I’m unsure if the difference was due to my Pelikan ink being old and possibly not mixed well, but the coverage on the test writing wasn’t particularly good. The gold ink is a suspension of 18K gold and has a tendency to settle if let to sit. I am sure I did not mix the ink long enough before doing the test but even in the pictures you can see the luster and shine of the gold on the white paper. After consulting with a few folks, there was a consensus opinion that while the lamp black ink looked nice, it would not show up well against the blue paper. The gold hit a more correct note with the original piece’s calligraphy and would be a stunning contrast. Gold ink has been used in other manuscripts in the time period and the recipes for gold ink also appear to be a suspension of real gold mixed with binders.
Having never used a qalam for calligraphy I was surprised at how it took up and held the ink. Once the nib was saturated with ink, I found that I was reloading it less often. The lamp black in had a very smooth application with the qalam and with the java pen. Mitchell nibs are said to be very flexible or “bouncey” by some scribes, so the rigidity of the qalam and especially the java pen was noticeable. I found myself holding on to the pen more tightly than I would normally hold my stylus using a metal nib which caused my hand to fatigue more quickly.
As I mentioned previously, the qalam took up the ink much differently than with a metal nib. The gold ink specifically tends to clog my metal nibs, inhibiting the flow of ink, and making cleaning the nib between stretches of calligraphy necessary. With the qalam, the gold ink didn’t “clog” the nib. Instead I found the gold tended to absorb into the qalam or dry more quickly than I was used to, especially with the larger 3mm qalam. I didn’t have this problem as much with the java pen. After a few practice lines, the java pen was still too large for the space and calligraphy. I ended up using the edge of the pen and another qalam as a crow quill to do the calligraphy to the correct scale. While I didn’t have the issue of the gold ink clogging the java pen, but I noticed the ink tended to dry very quickly because of how I changed my use of it from the practice piece. I had to reapply/dip my pen more frequently because of this.
I used a modern crow quill to add the dots (i’jām, also called nuqat) on the calligraphy as the qalam was too big. The i’jām are used to distinguish consonants. Accent marks (harakāt) are diacritic marks used to denote vowel sounds. Like Arabic, Hebrew also uses diacritical marks (dots and dashes) to indicate vowels in that script. There are special cases for their use in both Hebrew and Arabic, especially with their respective holy books, but generally speaking this is the case when writing in those scripts. The exemplar did not have the vowel diacritic marks as those usually only used in religious text or texts for novices or beginner readers.
Final Pieces:
At the end of this project time period I have two folios (one complete, one work in progress). Both are 1:1 scale to the original and completed using period techniques described above.
Left: Folio 1 - indigo colored paper, 18k gold ink for calligraphy, mica gold pigment, handmade pigments
Right: Folio 2 (work in progress) - indigo colored paper, mica gold pigment, starch glue, mulberry paper decoupage calligraphy
Close up of folio #1:
What I Learned:
First and foremost, I learned that trying too many new things is not the best idea and the art gods (or Titivillus, the patron demon of scribes) will keep you humble. Secondly, I learned don’t enjoy decoupage. At all. Given the opportunity to try this again, I would have scaled up the proportions when doing qata’i. In general, paper-cutting on larger areas is much easier than making many more smaller cuts. Still the qata’i process was not a terribly enjoyable one and I’d want to think about doing this again.
I spent a lot of time on this project learning how to use new-to-me tools that probably could have been put off to another project. Usually I try to only change one or two variables when experimenting with something knew, but that concept was thrown out the window and I dove in head first. I think the entire concept of the project was what excited me and made me want to push myself to do more. While not a bad thing, I probably needed a little more self editing in my scope.
It should be noted - Collecting art supplies is a separate hobby from DOING the art.
I have not had this much fun exploring museums and digging into the science behind some of the exhibits in a long time. I hope I’m able to find another piece out in the wild that piques my interest as sharply at this one. The drive to find out more is something I’ve been missing in my SCA experience for a while now. It was a nice reminder of “why we do this”.
Possible Next Steps:
While not thrilled with the concept or technique of decoupage, I am a stubborn person and will probably attempt qata’i again on a smaller scope project. I do want to see how I feel about scaling up the size of paper-cutting and if my dislike is based more on frustration from this project (using a 1:1 scale that is very small) than an actual dislike of qata’i itself.
I want to try to do a full calligraphy piece using natural color ahar paper with the lamp black ink. The ink was really nice to use in the test pieces and I want to really get a sense of how it works for more than just a line of text. I’m also likely going to order it in red as there are a few manuscripts that use both black and red kufic script with no illuminations. There was one particular manuscript like this that was initially displayed next to the Divan at the Museum of Asian Art. While simple, the form and color used in the text was very striking. I’ve never done a kufic script before and it looks like the script forms would be less forgiving if the proportions were not as exact.
I enjoyed working with period pigments strangely enough. Usually having to do multiple light layers of paint bothers me, but for whatever reason I didn’t mind it that much for the project. I’ve like to see if that holds up for a project with larger and/or more complex illumination. I am also buying another sable brush.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank the following people for their help, commiseration, and support on this project.
Ciaran Ua Meic Thire - For talking shop, nerding out, and offering suggestions on paper cutting techniques for very fiddly, tiny bits of paper.
Gunꝺorm Dengir and Simona bat Leon - For taking the time to explain diacritical marks in both Hebrew and Arabic along their uses and general nuances in written Hebrew. These discussions led me down a path of interesting document-chasing for Arabic resources.
Leonete D'Angely - For general support and cheerleading.
Margreta Gyllensteirna - For allowing me to invite myself down to Atlantia, being a fantastic host, and being my intrepid museum-hopping buddy. No, I will not buy a $200 reference book for this project...maybe for the next one.
A very special thank you to the staff of the Freer Gallery at the National Museum of Asian Art for not yelling at me for getting too close to the artwork and offering a magnifying glass to keep any nose prints off the cases.
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