Cutting your first reed pen
Hamza describes cutting a qalam from a dried reed, the angle that makes Nastaliq possible, and the year his teacher refused to let him write a single word.
A Japanese brush master and a Lahore qalam compare notes
0:00 / 0:49
Sample the first 60 seconds free. Sign up free or log in to hear the whole episode.
Show notes
A Japanese brush master and a Lahore qalam compare notes
A shodo teacher from Kyoto is visiting Karachi for a workshop, and Hamza invites her to his studio with her brushes. Two traditions that have never met in the same room compare tools, posture, breath and the long road from copying to one's own hand.
- Brush versus reed: what each one allows and forbids
- Breath, posture and why both teachers say the same thing about shoulders
- Copying the masters for years, and the day you are told to stop
- Speed: one stroke in a second, one letter in a minute
- Writing a word together, each in their own script
The piece they made together is on the show page, with both signatures.
Transcript
Welcome back to Reed Pen and Walnut Ink. I am Hamza Siddiqui, and today my little studio in Karachi has a visitor I have wanted to meet for years. She teaches shodo, Japanese brush calligraphy, in Kyoto, and she is here for a workshop. I asked her to bring her brushes, and she asked me to bring my reeds, and we sat down to find out what two traditions that have never spoken might say to each other. It turns out quite a lot. We talk about breath, about shoulders, about the years both of us spent copying masters before anyone let us write freely, and about speed, because her stroke takes a second and my letter takes a minute. At the end we wrote one word together, each in our own script. You are listening on Witspeak Podcasts.
Open as text