Dumbo @ Art - Chinese Seal #2: The Economy of Seal Carving

On the surface, seal carving may appear to be a moderately expensive hobby, with each stone costing upwards of RM 5 a piece (used to; must be much more expensive now, with the price of everything going up), and we are not even talking about the more expensive types of stone, such as tianhuang (田黄).

But the truth is, it is not an expensive hobby at all. After all, you can actually USE the end product. And it will further contribute to your other works of art (seals are typically used on Chinese brush paintings. That is, if you paint).

What's more, compared to watercolor (my other hobby, so to speak), if you spoil a piece of good watercolor board (upward of RM12 a piece some months ago), that's it: bye bye to the money spent; but if you are not happy with a seal, well, just sand away your mistake and start all over again. There is practically no way you can waste a piece of stone.

***

I have thus far made only one seal with my name. And to be honest, I wasn't happy with it. I had used a huge knife for the first time, and the crude outcome bore proof to how clumsily I handled the knife.

But I did not rework it immediately. I decided to just let it be until I feel in the mood to correct my mistake (haven't we all procrastinated on correcting some of our mistakes?).

***

One fine afternoon, I was finally in the mood. I had completed all my works at hand, and I was looking for something to spend the afternoon on. So, I decided to give that seal a new look.

It was originally done in yangwen (阳文, or zhuwen, 朱文), i.e., the characters are red (on the seal, the non-character parts are recessed); now, I decided it should be yinwen (阴文, or baiwen, 白文), i.e., the characters are white (on the seal, the characters are recessed).

Besides, I was still feeling a bit lazy. Yinwen (carving away the characters) is easier to do compared to yangwen (carving away the background).

And so, with not more than one hour of labor (I think), my seal - the only one that bears my name; but first name only, no family name - is given a brand new look, which I like much better (and may finally actually use):


You may notice here that the seal has some side inscriptions. But I'm not going to tell you what it says. Suffice to say that it bears witness to a phase in my life when I was a bit depressed-ish. It started as something in the line of 少年不知愁滋味，为赋新词强说愁。("[I was] young and not acquainted to sorrow, but for the sake of writing a poem, [I] pretended to be melancholic". These are two famous verses from a poem by 辛弃疾), but it became worse later, complicated by a love lost, and if God had not gracefully called to me to turn me away from the path of self-destruction, I would most certainly not be here reworking this seal. All praises to the God and Father of my Lord, Jesus Christ.


All in all, not a bad way to spend a leisurely afternoon. :-)