Well, we all do, only I seem to be conscious that I have more friends that require roadtrips to visit, than friends that are local.
I'd been invited a couple of times to a debutante ball in upper New Jersey, but I hadn't had a chance to attend until things fell into place in 2012, when over the summer I went to visit friends in New Jersey, the NYC area, and Boston. At that point, I decided that I'd attend the ball in the fall.
Two of my good friends in the are happen to be twins. Which means that if I'm going to do a project for a birthday, I'll need to do two. Just ain't nice, otherwise.
I know I don't have to do the same thing for both of them, but that's what happened. Unintended. In one of the first books I looked in for ideas, the first image shown was of a particular design, from Furta, in Eastern Hungary. What was interesting, was that the description of the pattern included a statement along the lines of the design being in "red on white cloth for women, and white on dark blue cloth for the men."
Well, that solved one question.
As with 'Negative', I couldn't trace the pattern onto the board by light-box, as the boards were both too thick to let light through. Thankfully I learned my lesson with that one, and didn't try to punch the pattern into the board. Instead, I photocopied the pattern from the book, and resized it so that it matched the size of my boards. Once I had my 'positive' at the appropriate size, the task was to impress the pattern into the board, by tracing with a goldilocks pencil (you know, not too sharp, not too dull--just right!)
(Here we see my standard 5mm border, the impressed pattern, and the beginning of inking.)
Now, a note about my project sizes. My usual projects, with some rare exceptions, are at a size of 11"x14". Partly because it's a good size--not so small as to be a pain to work on, but not too big as to be a pain to display. This one was a totally different beast. If I recall correctly (it's been five years, after all...), the boards were cut down to be 18" square. Add the frame, and the fact that I was working on the diagonal, and this thing ended up being big. This also meant that for much of the time, I had to work standing, hunched over my table. My back was not the happiest with this project, I can assure you! Nevertheless, the impressing and inking were completed with little trouble, as was colouring. As usual, I lined the red project with black ink, just to define the design. The blue project, however, required a different approach. A thin black line wasn't going to be very visible, so it was lined with a white pencil crayon, as a result of which, there was no defining of the design. Despite this, the design on white, on a dark blue backing popped visually quite nicely, and lining the design wouldn't have added much.
As for the text, I went with a passage attributed to Goethe. For scripts, the sister's was in an italic script, allowing me the opportunity to play with ornamentation of the text through the letters themselves.
The brother's was one that caused me some concern. Not with the text, nor with the script (the crispness of Gothic is something I've always been fond of), but rather the ink. White ink isn't a solution in the way a red ink is, but is something of a mixture; there are small particles in the fluid, and if it's not mixed properly before inking, the letter isn't uniformly coloured. Thankfully, this was a matter I'd learned to take into consideration while working on Speak White, so I was able to plan inking accordingly--no thin, almost phantom letters, no oversaturated letters that become formless blobs due to the amount of ink being absorbed. Crisp lettering, and almost completely uniform colouring.
(The shadow around the text and design is due to the fixative used.)
Now, the other fun part was getting these gifts to their recipients.
I had an eight-hour drive ahead of me, an international border, and once at the hotel, I had to wrap them (I'd previously learned, while dating an American-Hungarian young lady, that it's a lot easier if Customs and Border Patrol can verify what I bring with me, as opposed to questions about the wrapped packages in my car--much more so, considering the size of these gifts). I also had to somehow conceal these big, 24"x24" wrapped packages somewhere in the ballroom, to await the right moment to present them.
They were wrapped in a thick blanket and strapped into the back seat. The border agent was unconcerned once I told him it was a calligraphy project as a gift; I'd wrapped them in such a way as to easily show them, if need be. They were brought up to my room and wrapped, then placed into the ballroom (the organizers were notified of their presence) a few hours before everyone arrived, hidden behind a potted plant by a doorway. Out of the way, and in an easily ignored spot. Perfect.
Once the ball began, it was just a matter of finding a moment to present them. This was during one of the band's breaks.
And it was a complete surprise. As planned.
I wonder what has become of them, since then. The projects, I mean. I'm still in touch with the twins.
