Teck's Treehouse: Processed paper for calligraphy practice

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Processed paper for calligraphy practice

For calligraphy, you need a calligraphy brush, paper, ink, and an ink stone if you are not using liquid ink. Ink stones can last a long, long time and would not count as consumables. Calligraphy brushes can also last quite a while if you take care of them; there are people who use good brushes for decades. A stick of solid ink can last quite a while too, although liquid ink tends to be used up a bit faster. And unless you are writing with water instead of ink, paper tends to be used up the fastest.

Paper is needed for drafting works. Paper is needed for practice. Paper is needed to write final pieces of works. Paper is also not really cheap. I am therefore always looking for cheap paper that can be used for practice so that I do not have to practise using the more costly paper that I have.

So when I see cheap paper on auction sites and such, and they look decent enough for practice (paper that is REALLY cheap can be worthless even for practice because they absorb ink in different ways than good calligraphy paper), I try to get my hands on them. I pay prices that I would pay for practice paper (or cheaper) because my main purpose is to use them for practice.

This means that, sometimes, I end up with this.

This is a special type of paper where coloured ink was used in the production process to decorate the paper. Such paper is usually used for pieces that will be exhibited or sold. Instead, I am using it for practice... Anyway, in this post, I shall call them "Yellow Sumi" and "Pink Sumi".

I also got some coloured and plain paper printed with designs in gold.

Obviously, these types of paper are also used for final works, but I paid the price of practice paper for them, with the intention to use them for practice. One set was paper that had been sprinkled with gold flakes. In this post, I will refer to them as "Purple Gold", "Plain Gold", "Orange Gold", and "Gold Flakes".

First, Purple Gold is actually quite thick. It absorbs more ink than I am used to, making the resulting work look a bit dry if I use the brushes I usually use on normal calligraphy paper. Plain Gold, though, is basically the same paper as typical calligraphy paper, so writing on it was more or less the same as usual.

Orange Gold is more or less the same thickness as Plain Gold, so it also writes about the same as typical calligraphy paper. Gold Flakes, though, is slightly thicker, but it still writes like normal calligraphy paper (there is calligraphy paper that is slightly thicker too).

Yellow Sumi and Pink Sumi are both the same type of paper, about the same thickness as Gold Flakes (which means they are about the same thickness and normal, thicker calligraphy paper).

Oh, there is also something about writing on those types with gold on them... you end up contaminating your ink with gold powder picked up by the brush when writing. So if I am going to write something on a plain piece of paper after practising on these types of "gold processed" paper, it will be necessary to change ink and wash the brush first.

Purple Gold is also a bit too thick, so it can only be used with a brush that carries a lot of ink (goat hair ones). I will probably end up using it for drafting new pieces and a bit of initial practice. The others are similar enough to normal calligraphy paper that I can use them for practice in general.

Hopefully, there will also be a day when I get to use such paper for my final works. Although I need to figure out how to properly match the works with the paper first. 😅

Update 20 October 2023: I recently got some more processed paper. There is paper that is dyed with a blue tint "Blue Dye", with a brown tint "Brown Dye", and also with a light blue pattern "Light Blue Pattern". I also got some orange paper with gold dragons on them "Orange Gold Dragon". Here's how they look when I used them for practice. All of them felt like normal calligraphy paper and absorbed ink in more or less the same way.

Blue Dye