Monday 18 January 2010

Samantha's first calligraphy and first pottery attempt











On the weekend I did some fun things which broadened my creative horizons!








On Friday night I went for dinner at Bella's house. She had cooked some very nice food and her sons also ordered in pizza so it was all very tasty! After dinner Bella's husband showed me
Chinese calligraphy and then I had a go. He is very good at it and made it look easy, but believe me, it is definitely not easy! Using the brush is really hard, my hand was shaking a bit and it takes lots of practice to be able to form the strokes in the right way, turning the brush to create ends and thick and thin corners. Plus you have to do all the strokes in order. It was hard but here is one of my attempts as shown in the photo! And no laughing at my shaky characters all of you in Taiwan who are reading this :) or at my terrified face as I contemplate how my characters are going to look when I finish!!








On Sunday I went to a place called Yingge in Taipei County where they do lots of ceramics and pottery. The shops have some really cool stuff that I would love to buy, especially the teacups and teapots. Also some pretty jewellery and statues. But I'm unwilling to buy this kind of stuff because I'm afraid it will not survive the trip back to Australia because it is too fragile!




The best part was that I got to make my own pottery at one of the shops were they teach you how. It was extremely fun but I think maybe slightly harder for me than the other patrons in the shop because I don't speak Chinese! So when the instructor was telling me how to do it, my friend had to try to translate it into English for me! But it turned out ok and I made two bowls. I got to keep one, and I engraved my name and the date around the side and then when you are finished they fire it in the kiln for you and paint it. When they are done they send it to you. So hopefully mine will arrive before I leave for Australia! When I get my bowl I will put a photo of it on here :)








So it was a fun, informative weekend, and today at school the kindergarten students did a little performance for Chinese New Year. They did a dance and handed out little cakes and they were just so cute. Some of them were dressed up and they had musical instruments and decorations. This is a photo of me with them :)




1 comment:

  1. take a look
    http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/m1.aspx?sNo=0011367&jid=71

    ReplyDelete