Calligraphy piece (image heavy)

[thingsivemade]

Hey all, I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right forum but I would like to share some of my calligraphy work with you.
 I'm a big drum 'n' bass fan (I like a lot of different types of music, the d'n'b is just part of it). One day a friend of mine played "Coded Language" by DJ Krust (with spoken word from Saul Williams) and I was instantly mesmerised. As I sat there listening to this track, I made myself promise to do a huge challenge and do a calligraphy piece on the entire spoken words.
 I knew it wouldn't be easy so I didn't set a deadline for myself, nor did I count the amount of hours that I put it into it. With much stopping and starting, it took me 9 months to do it all, given that each session was roughly 2-3 hours long.
 The main reason why it took so long to do was that I kept running out of ink in my pens so I would have to redo each letter two or three times to get all of the lettering even. That and the fact that the pages are A2 sizes, 7 pages in all. I must have gone through at least 6 black pens, 1 entire eraser and several gallons of tea

 Without further ado, here's my calligraphy piece:

Page 1:


Close up of the title:

I used Irish Sign Language here, as I'm Irish and partially deaf.

Page 2:


Page 3:

The silver lettering isn't very clear here but the last line is supposed to be "Thus, In The Name Of:"

Page 4:


Page 5:


Page 6:


Page 7:



 If you would like to see them in bigger sizes, pics are available on my Flickr set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photographerpandora/sets/72157608940311429/

 And for any drum 'n' bass fans out there, this video is for you!
DJ Krust & Saul Williams - "Coded Langauge"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HerpGwbLSM8

 Let me know what you think, I'd be grateful for any C&C!

[Coma]

This is great! I do calligraphy too so I know your hand was tired after each of those sessions:P I was once hooked into doing my sister's wedding invites by hand on textured handmade paper. My hand was ready to fall off.
Saul Williams is amazing. I am totally sending myself the link to that vid so I can check it out on my other computer. (Speakers stopped working on this one).

[melissanorth]

That's fantastic! I love the sign language. A2 paper...oh my..are you going to put them on the wall?

[nataluna]

it's very curious that an F in American finger spelling is a G in Irish finger spelling.  go figure!
also the calligraphy looks good.  it was interesting to decipher the message, too.

[thingsivemade]

Wow, thank you all for the lovely comments!

Coma, yep, it did hurt my hand a good bit but I feel like it was completely worth it. I got a great sense of satisfaction when I finished it

Melissanorth, I honestly wish I had the wall space to put them up so for now the piece is resting in my portfolio. One day though, one day!

Nataluna, would you believe that each country has its own sign language? For example, in England they use BSL (British Sign Language) and they would use both hands for the alphabet whereas ISL uses only one hand.
 (Also, I see from your banner that you do personal swaps, I might just ask for one!)

[nataluna]

i know, the world of Deaf sign is a totally different map to the world of spoken languages.  like, there are spanish-speaking countries that use ASL because their Deaf were taught by US missionaries, and i am told that French sign is an ancestor of ASL (because of Mr. Gallaudette) and yet here you have listed several English-speaking countries that have different signed languages.  it's wild.

i am curious, does the syntax of ISL follow Irish Gaelic language, or English ... or neither?

(my mother was a teacher of Deaf and Hearing-Impaired for quite a while, and did study ASL and SE, and so she always used to tell me about these things.)

[thingsivemade]

I'm not really sure to be honest, Gaelige (Irish Gaelic) is a weird language and it doesn't have certain letters of the alphabet, (Q, V, W, X, Y and Z) but ISL has all of of the letters so I guess it would follow the English syntax.
 I've watched a few Irish sign language shows on tv but I wouldn't be sure how different they would be to others. (I haven't watched television in years so I'm well out of touch!)

 Pretty cool that your mother was a teacher in that field, it must be a great feeling being able to teach someone to communicate.

Funny that we're talking about deafness actually because very briefly after getting my hearing aids (at age 25 and after I think 8 operations), I realised that I had never heard bass before in my life. My friend Steve put on "Coded Language", leaving me gobsmacked and wanting to do this calligraphy piece

[melissanorth]

I don't know any sign language, but I wear hearing aids too. I've recently got some new ones and had them reprogrammed so they're actually worth wearing!

What have you done with the piece? Perhaps you could join up the scans/photos and print a smaller version for the wall and frame it if you like.