Scribbled Lives Week 7—Calligraphy Capsule

This week’s prompt invited us to share our version of a “Calligraphy Capsule.”

1. Calligraphy time capsule. Create a container and fill it with calligraphic objects, artifacts, or specimens that define this moment in your calligraphic journey. What would you preserve to communicate to your future self or to others? Or reach back to a moment from your past and share your calligraphy time capsule from that moment.
2. Capsule wardrobe for calligraphy: Identify your essential collection of calligraphic tools. If you were to choose a limited number of items to use for practice and artwork creation over the next six months or so, what would make it into that essential collection? The notion of a “capsule wardrobe” was first introduced in the 1970s; the concept has made its way in and out of fashion culture ever since. The idea is to pare your wardrobe down to the most essential trend-transcending pieces.

What an interesting concept to consider!

As a teenager on a budget, I was accustomed to sewing my own clothes, so the notion of creating a “capsule wardrobe” appealed to me. Last year I was on a box structures high, so a handmade pencil box with a sliding lid became the perfect capsule to house tools I’m learning to use: the Handwritmic and Tim’s pen.

Following the paraprosdokian prompt, I gathered a collection of watercolour practice sheets to use for more pen practice before recycling. A selection of pages are now bound into a sketchbook to remind my future self of early beginnings. This exercise turned into an experiment in palimpsest—reusing materials by effacing earlier writing to add newer text.

It’s an oxymoron to write tiny with a Handwritmic, so the book would never fit in the pencil box! However, besides the sketchbook and pens, my capsule would house Bister inks, watercolours, and a tiny ink stick and grinding stone. Also tossed in some bookbinding supplies because you never know when a book will spring forth!

It was fun to play without the pressure of creating anything spectacular. Hope you can ignore the “dolphins” that surface on every page; Handwritmic dolphins are not easy to hide…