A couple of weeks ago I made contact with Tonya. Let's say I started out as a lurker on her blog, then finally got up courage to leave a comment. But she is so "famous" (in the patchwork blogging world) that I doubted if she realized she had another admirer. One reason I commented was because I was so blatantly copying one of her quilts and sooner or later I'd want to post it and someone was bound to notice that it is her quilt. I felt I needed to let her know I was using her ideas. This is the Wonky Word quilt that I've shown block pictures now and then.
Tonya wrote back and said she'd read some of my past blogs especially about how Japanese words and English words had different nuances, and she suggested I put the words in the quilt in Japanese. At least Leiya and I would know what I was writing (she's going to be the recipient of the quilt). Wow, that was an idea! Tonya was interested in what Japanese writing looked like so I sent her a picture of some of my printing. Tonya laughed and agreed that this may be harder than expected but I could at least try to make Japanese words using the English romanized system (is everybody following this?) I got to thinking. Wait a minute, I wonder if I really could use Tonya's system and make Japanese characters? So this weekend I tried.
Yeah! I did it! I actually made two Japanese wonky words! Now this may not look like anything to the rest of you but these really are characters albeit the simplest system of writing in Japan.. I'm so proud of myself and even though I gave myself a headache from all the figuring, I am planning to make two more wonky Japanese words and add them to my Wonky Word Quilt.
Well, it is not the calligraphy you saw yesterday, but it is my wonky Japanese calligraphy and I am thrilled!
9 comments:
Hi!Tanya.
Is this your calligraphy!?
Nice!I love it!!
Let's do calligraphy with me.
Shiori
So, what does it say? It's great!
Wow, that was some challenge - you did really well.
This is abso-bloomin-lutely amazing, Tanya. I've not even tried to do it in English yet! You GO girl!
Perfect! Looks very familiar to me - both my kids took three years of Japanese in high school. My daughter especially loved to write in Japanese. She often sat at a table at open house and wrote peoples names in Japanese calligraphy for them to take home. I wonder if she remembers any of it now? She originally intended to study Japanese in college but quickly decided the professors in that dept drove her nuts so she switched to Russian with an environmental science major.
These words are so amazing. You did such an incredible job. When I saw the Japanese letters I thought it would be way too hard to do, but you found a way. You are fabulous.
And you weren't blantantly copying, by the way. You were inspired by. This is truly your own now.
Tanya - they're awesome - even if they are totally intelligible to most of us - well done
What a great idea.
This is such a super idea to making Japanese characters the wonky way! Super. I've been meaning to try Tonya's technique, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
I made a quilt using Japanese characters, (I purchased fabric with the characters painted on them.)
My daughter loves all things Japanese and is planning to visit this summer. I've been listening to Japanese music for a while now. There are Japanese word stickers all around my house.
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