More Arabic Calligraphy

I am not spending as much time creating and selling jewelry lately.  I am thinking about what angles I would like to take next.  First of all, I want my image pendants to be totally my own.  That is a little difficult because there are certain public domain images which I know sell nicely.  I am an unknown artist, so who would actually be searching for my designs?  Anyway, I was using an Arabic calligraphy design of the Lord's Prayer for one of my pendants.  It has been pretty popular. I can't even lay claim to discovering the awesome design, but I am thankful a friend shared it with me.  I decided to try my hand at some simple symbols and see if they will sell.  Valentine's Day is approaching, so I made two Arabic Love symbols (which I have practiced in my altered book before).

The simpler designs, are the ones I drew myself.  I think they are missing something, maybe some layering or distressing techniques.
I was thinking of creating some with French, Latin, Japanese words....Love, Peace, Truth, Beauty
I am planning on making some geek jewelry too.  I have a bin full of hard drives from old computers which I plan on cutting up and making earrings and pendants out of.
Can I say that finally having a computer again is so cool.

So, I destroyed the love pendants above, because I thought they were too plain.  Here are my new ones.  I used some ink pads and made an Irish Gaelic and a French pendant, both of which say I love you.

This post truly was a rambling.  Perhaps more about the process anyway.  

Arabic Calligraphy

 

I have been fascinated with Arabic Calligraphy for some time now.  I think it started a couple of years ago when I was teaching 7th grade about the rise of Islam in history and then (teaching art simultaneously) had them try out some Islamic Calligraphy.  I even had them look at some illuminated manuscripts and illustrations and tesselations to further understand the medieval Arabic culture.  Hopefully they learned something while I was rambling. 

Anyway, I have been practicing some calligraphy with various pens and nibs.  I came across this symbol for love.  I think it is beautiful.  There are several others.  Although I am no expert in Arabic Calligraphy, there seems to be different styles.

Here are some pages from my altered book which allowed me to combine some painting techniques and practice the calligraphy at the same time.

Above on the left is another version of love.  On the right is Freedom.  On the right is the Arabic Alphabet.

  

 Above is the symbol of love again, I thought it interesting to put it next to a painting by Waterhouse which shows Narcissus and his self-love.    "What thou seest fair creature....is thyself"

I hope to have some more time to practice and possibly learn Arabic.  It is drawing me in.