Turning Japanese

'Let's do some Japanese calligraphy!' said Sarah, in a lull in our weekend activities..

She had been given a lovely calligraphy set in Japan by Tealuke . I looked through her books of kanji (Japanese characters) and chose these. The one on the left means 'healthy', the one on the right is 'heaven' or 'paradise'.

We laid out the thin calligraphy paper on a special mat and it was held in place by a metal weight. The ink was from a stick, mixed with water on an inkstone, and we used a brush which had to be held at the same angle throughout the painting. It all felt very ceremonial.

I was quite pleased with my first effort but realise that beautiful results are obtained only through hours of practice - as with all skills, I guess.

(the small characters are my name)