Sumerian

The philosopher bought me a brand spanking new book on the history of writing, Amalia Gnanadesikian's The Writing Revolution. It's a very accessible book, probably destined for lots of good use as an introductory textbook on writing systems. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in the history of writing. I just started it yesterday, so I'm still at the beginning in Sumer, when that first system, which was logographic (that is, using symbols for ideas, not to represent language directly), was slowly being transformed into a syllabary (a system using symbols representing pronunciation of syllables). So many of the symbols from earlier cuneiform took on additional meanings.

One that really caught my attention was the symbol 'gi'. At first (3000 BC) it just meant 'reed', and looked like a reed. Over time, it also came to mean a homonymous word meaning 'render'. Eventually it was used for the syllable 'gi', perhaps as a part of words having nothing to do with reeds or renderings. But it's those first two meanings that caught this calligrapher's heart-- reeds being the tools those early scribes used to press the symbols into the clay, and the result being a rendering. I just had to do something with this, so here's my ACEO of 'gi', done with my coke can pen and handmade ink. I just love the rough look resulting from adapting a pen to this writing form that wasn't ever done with pens at all.

And here's the symbol for 'ka', meaning 'mouth' and a whole host of ideas associated with mouths: teeth, tongue, language, speech:

I recently stumbled across these instructions for making a calligraphy pen from a soda can, and had a go at it. It's very easy to do and fun to use! Here are mine (they ain't pretty, but they do the job):

They're best for doing BIG letters, I've found, and produce beautiful results when you have room to make a grand gesture with your lettering arm. Unfortunately, not so good for using on jewelry! I made the smaller pen in the hopes that I could get the same freedom and beauty the large pen allows, but on the tiny scale I use in my work. It hasn't worked out yet; even the smaller pen makes only relatively large letters. It makes me want to do enormous wall art!

My compromise was this artist card (ACEO), lettered with the smaller soda can pen. The language is Kisi, spoken by around 10,00 people in the Lake Malawi region of Tanzania. It's an ideophone (kinda like an onomatopoeia) that means 'the sound of rain falling softly'. The marks above the vowels are tone markers, again. The effect is an accent on the i and a gradual falling tone for the a's. Thought it was very evocative.

Some jewelry in Kisi coming soon.