I recently purchased a Japanese Caligraphy set through a groovy bookclub I subscribe to. I recieved a lovely box containing the following items:
2 brushes (obvious enough)
A rectangular stone with a rectangular trough.
An oval wood(?) cylinder with a raised gold and silver dragon as well as some recessed characters carved into it.
A small palatte/dish containing a red pigment. (ink)
A carved marble something. With a rectangular “base” and a elaborately carved top the very tippy top of which also has some recessed carving.
No instructions whatsoever.
Neither the cylindrical implement nor the marble implement fit it the trough of the rectangular stone, seemingly ruling out my guess that they are stamping tools of some kind. Of course, I’m working the assumption that the stone is used for mixing the ink (pigment) with whatever media it’s intended to be mixed with, which may or may not be the case.
The red ink is vibrant and beautiful, but very sticky. Because of this, I’m not entirely sure it’s water based ink, the residue from little bit I dabbed on the rectangular stone over 24 hours ago still leaves a red, sticky spot on my finger.
Can anyone tell me what all these bits are and what I do with them? Can anyone tell me what to mix with the pigment to make ink?
I would assume this calligraphy set is similar to one used for Chinese calligraphy. That being the case, I’d say that you need to look for a black rectangular stone, which serves as the ink stick. Grind the bottom of this stone onto a flat recessed stone dish, and add water to the powder created thereby. There’s your ink.
The red ink dish is used for name chops (or stamps); I’d guess the name chop is the marble implement you described.
If there’s no ink stick, then you can also use bottled ink. Check the oval cylinder. My GF thought it might be the ink container, but she may not have understood my description of your description well enough.
As for the red ink and the marble thingy: the marble thing is mostly likely the inkan, or name stamp. After you finish writing (or painting) with the black ink and brushes, you press the inkan into the red ink pad and stamp your name at the corner of the paper.
The inkan probably has one end that is square, flat and blank. You are supposed to bring it to a carver who will inscribe your name (or whatever other characters you chose to use) into this end, so your can sign your works of art. As for where to find someone who can do the job, well, there’s a shop on every corner in Japan, but I’m not sure where to find one where you are.
As Zarathustra said, that’s the ink well, and you make the ink in it. It should have a deep end and a very shallow end. Put water in the deep end, push some water to the shallow end with the ink stick (actually a dense charcoal), and grind there. Then push the now black water (ink) back to the deep end, then repeat. It’ll take around 5 minutes to make a sufficiently black ink.
If it’s very black, that’s the ink stick (charcoal).
Hmm, like an ink pad for stamps? Possibly just that, an ink pad for a seal. No idea why they’d include that, as you probably don’t have a seal with your name carved.
If it’s about 2 inches long, maybe this is the seal - you’d have to get your name carved into it though. If it’s about 6 inches long, it’s a paperweight.
When we were forced to learn calligraphy in school, we didn’t have the seal. We did have, in addition to the brushes, ink well and ink stick, a metal paperweight, a felt mat for placing the paper on, and a bottle of liquid ink (when you don’t have time to grind that ink stick). And some paper, obviously, but I recall it couldn’t be just any paper. Maybe you can find some at an Asian market.
You folks are so cool. Thanks for helpin’ me out here!
lunasea - FYI: The set displayed on the link you gave me is more elaborate and priced better (!) than the set I have. It looks like a good deal. I
The marble implement would be a stamp, it’s not paperweight size. Now I just need to find somewhere to get marble carved. I’ll prolly have it engraved with the character for “bee” since that’s the meaning of “Debra”, my name.
The red pigment doesn’t look like a stamppad as much as a glop of sticky paint, it’ll make a whole lot of stamped signatures. I’d better get busy.
scr4 - I’ll check/ask my local asian market about paper next time I’m in. I stop in at least one a month.
Judging from the description of the stone and the red ink, it looks like the kit includes materials to make a seal. You’d take one end of the cylindrical or square stone and carve a seal in the end. Then impress it into the red ink, press on paper.
Or your objects could just be paperweights. Some brush calligraphy sets include small weights to hold down the thin paper.