Minor crafting annoyance

[wiseheart]

Since I (fortunately) slept through the night today and therefore wasn't half as dead as yesterday, I decided (after having dealt with the laundry) to work a tiny bit on the originally planned baby book, which I set aside, thinking that my cousin's son and his wife might not appreciate it properly. The book I call The Thing of Beauty.

I was planned on doing some calligraphy today. elwenlj had sent me an absolutely lovely little hand-made notebook, which I wanted to incorporate into The Thing of Beauty. I intended to copy a poem into the notebook, one line a page. This is the English translation of the poem, made by someone professional:

How did I await you? (by Zsuzsa Beney)

How did I await you?
You want me to say?

Sure, as when nights do end,
that sunrise will be soon,
and that the dusk's descent
will seal the afternoon,
as when the breezes warn
that a storm is near -
from a thousand signs, I
knew you'd soon be here.

As on spring-time mornings
one knows the sun will rise,
as on frosty evenings
gloss forms on the ice,
as an apple's flavour,
bread, milk... you can tell -
though I had not seen you,
yet I knew you well.

As does light the shade and
do blossoms the rain,
as creeks do their courses,
branch yields birds terrain,
and trees on sigh-filled summer nights
know the skies above -
so I loved you, more than the rest:
this describes my love.

I've developed my own, very simple kind of calligraphy that looks pretty enough nonetheless, and wanted to do it with a needle-pointed felt pen because you can write very beautifully with those. Unfortunately, as soon as I wrote down the title, I realized that the paper is so thin that you can see the mirror image on the other side clearly. So, that was a no-go. I'll have to glue some pretty picture on the back of the title page, and I switched to a regular ballpoint pen. The script is much less pretty that way, but that can't be helped. I'm a bit disappointed, honestly.


Other than that, I was mostly lazy. Mum did the cooking - we're still on boiled potato diet - and I took a nap in the afternoon to catch up with my lost sleep.

Comments

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

Awwww. What a shame about the paper. I just used printer paper to make it, as it was a project I did for our ladies craft session a while ago. Maybe I'll make you a nicer one at some point.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is not as bad as it sounds. I've made some cosmetic corrections with the help of some pigment pads and pieces of a cut-up sponge (NOT the cake kind of sponge, of course), and the thing is saved. I'll write up a longer report in the next entry and perhaps take a photo tomorrow. It is such a lovely booklet, with the bird on the cover, I thought it would be a waste to just write shopping lists or whatnot into it. And that poem is so beautiful, even though a lot gets lost in translation. I'll try to find a sung version of it and post a link later.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

This is indeed a lovely poem! What a shame that felt pens will not work on the paper, but they are fickle little instruments of writing that make it through almost everything!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

True. One can write so much prettier with them, but one needs really sturdy paper. I use them for my creative writing, to be able to read my own hand when typing up stuff; fortunately the spiral notebooks have thicker paper.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I've had that same problem with the felt-tipped pen's ink showing through, too — it really is annoying.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, and the most annoying part is that you could produce such beautiful writing with it — if only the paper is thick enough, which often isn't.

[sister-raphael.livejournal.com]

That's such a lovely poem!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I find it beautiful, too. I wish I had a recording of the sung version how I remember it. I mean, I can sing it, but...

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

Lovely poem. I have seen your handwriting, you are lucky to have such beautiful penmanship. I am left-handed, and for some reason, everything I write is crooked, even if I write on a line.