I have long admired Ciaran Ua Meic Thire cutwork scrolls. Although he had come to me last year about collaborating on a piece for a friend, I was a bit nervous about adding calligraphy to his beautiful work. Ciaran and I had since discussed the type of paper he worked with. When he put out a request for a calligrapher to work on a project, I responded. I was even more excited when I learned that the scroll was for a friend, Catriona.
Ciaran adhered to blue cutout to a piece of black paper. It had two spaces that would work well for the calligraphy. Josh and I discussed the amount of available space and how many words would fit into those spaces. Due to the ratio of words to the space available, I decided I would need a small nib.
My challenge was how to get calligraphy on to the scroll. I could not add pencil lines as guides since a) it would not show up on the black page, and b) even if I used a white pencil, any erasing on the page would noticeably scuff the paper. Even if I wanted to add lines, I was afraid that placing a T-square on the raised cutwork could cause damage.
From my experience from the Black Hours scroll I had just completed, I came up with an idea to use wax free-transfer paper. I had to get over the hurdle of how to get an accurate size of the irregular shape of the two word spaces to practice the calligrapy for spacing. Usually, I would use a light box to copy the space onto marker paper. This method does not work on black paper. Instead, I photocopied the scroll so I could get an accurate sizing of the open areas.
Once I had the sizing accurate, I was able to practice the calligraphy in the two open space sizes.
In order to transfer the calligraphy to the actual scroll, I cut out transfer paper the size of the spaces and placed it on the scroll. I then placed my practice pieces on top of the transfer paper. I used a mandala dotting tool to trace calligraphy onto scroll.
From there, I applied the calligraphy over the transfer, directly onto the actual scroll. Although I essentially did the calligraphy 3 times, I was able to put it on the scroll without lines or scruff marks.
I had discussed the ink color with Ciaran. At first, I considered using a traditional white ink. However, this being a non-traditional scroll, and the beautiful metallic quality to the blue cut-out, I suggested the gold ink instead. I had just used the gold in on the Black Hours scroll and enjoyed how it flowed. Ciaran agreed it was a good choice.
The final piece was presented on May 6, AS 58 at Crown Tournament.
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