Pelican Scroll for Sara van Eerde

Awarded Holiday Faire AS LVII

Mistress Sara has a Japanese persona, from the Momoyama era (c. 1573 - 1615). As I have no background in either Japanese language or art, other than as a casual admirer, I set about looking for art styles that I could do, and came across the gorgeous byobu, or wind screens, and decided to try my hand at that. As I was describing what I wanted to do, my wonderful husband Don (Lord Dunstan Stonehill) offered to use his woodworking skills to make the wooden frame. I found a poem by a sixteenth-century Japanese woman, and altered the text a bit to fit a Pelican scroll. After using an online engine to translate the words into kanji, katakana and hiragana, I sent the translation to my daughter Katt, who corrected some of the words, and also wrote out all of the names in katakana.

The scroll measures 11" x 36" x 1/4", and consists of six panels. (The exemplar is about 5' by 11') Each panel is framed with seven pieces of 1/4" square poplar, and has three layers of paper, plus paper hinges. The bottom layer of paper for each panel on both sides is gyampi, cut to 6" x 11" to fit the panel, and more gyampi strips of 4" x 2 3/4" make the hinges to hold the six panels together. The second layer is rough mulberry paper, cut to 12" x 11" or 6" x 11", and the top layer of the front is finer mulberry paper. The top layer of the back of the scroll is black unryu paper with gold-colored leaf in a flower circle pattern.

The scroll is painted gold with mica-based watercolor, and the colors are a combination of hand-prepared gouache and a commercially-prepared palette of Japanese colors. The ink for the text is hand-ground sumi ink, applied with a bamboo brush, and there is a silk taffeta frame around the scroll, stiffened with gum arabic. A black frame, cut to fit each piece, finished the scroll.

The process of making the scroll

Exemplar for painting & screen proportions

(click image to see entire screen)

Title: Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons

Period: Momoyama period (1573–1615)

Date: late 16th century

Culture: Japan

Medium: Pair of six-panel folding screens; ink, color, gold, and gold leaf on paper

Dimensions: Image: 63 1/4 in. × 11 ft. 10 in. (160.7 × 360.7 cm)
Overall: 69 3/8 in. × 12 ft. 4 1/2 in. (176.2 × 377.2 cm)

Source: metmuseum.org

Exemplar for scroll text

(click image to see entire scroll)

Hakubyo Genji monogatori emaki by Keifukuin Kaoko Gyokuei (1526 – after 1602)

This is a poem written and illustrated by Keifukin Kaoko Gyokuei, the daughter of Konoe Taneie, a nobleman and poet. This poem is a commentary on the Tale of Genji.

(click here to read a translation of the poem)

cutting the poplar dowels for the frame.JPG

Beginning the frame for the Screen

Poplar dowel pieces being cut by Dunstan to create the six panels for the screen

Dados and rabbets being cut

Dunstan cutting the notches in the poplar dowels to create a strong method of joining the frame pieces

Squaring the panel frames

Dunstan making sure that all six panels will be even and equal

Planing the surface

Dunstan using a plane to make sure that the tops and bottoms of the panels will be even

Sanding and planing

Dunstan doing the fine work with a plane, and then using a bench hook to sand the tops and bottoms smooth to take the paper

The paper layering plan - back

This explains the scheme for the various layers on the back sides of the panels; the plan for the front is below, with the drawing for the art layout

The papers used for this scroll

The black paper is unryu stamped with gold-colored foil, and is used for the backing. The brown paper and the white paper are both mulberry paper, and the ivory paper is gyampi paper.

First layer of paper

Gyampi paper glued into place using Nori paste

(...yes, that is a laminated placemat from a Chinese restaurant being used as a gluing surface - highly recommend!)

Getting glue in place for the second side of the bottom layer

Nori glue being applied - and liberal use of a water spray bottle - to get the second side of paper in place

Two sets of panels

The set of panels on the left has been trimmed and is ready for hinges, and the set on the right will need to be trimmed before hinges are added

Trimming the edges of the paper

Dunstan making sure that all of the frame edges are clean

Cutting hinges

Dunstan cutting the hinges - five per panel joining - to create the folding panel

Fitting hinges in place

Dunstan placing the hinges so that the panels will be connected, and also fold

hinges in place on a panel pair_edited.jpg

Hinges ready to be glued

When these hinges are glued into place, the panels will be able to fold in either direction

Hinges being glued into place

Glassine paper is being used to keep glue from going where it is not supposed to go

materials for gluing paper layers together.jpg

Materials used to glue paper layers together

Spray bottle of water, nori paste, wide brush, large brush, roller, and dish to mix the nori paste to "melted ice cream" consistency

Mulberry paper for interlayer

This picture shows how the hinges look when the panels are folded

Edges that are covered by the mulberry paper - art paper on top layer.heic

Mulberry paper edges against the top layer of paper

Once this layer is dry, the painting can begin

Rough mulberry paper layer for stability

The texture of the gyampi bark can be seen on the underlayer, as well as the texture of the rough mulberry paper; the mulberry paper is used to wrap the edges before paint and the final frame are added

Layout Plan for Scroll

The original screen that was my exemplar did not have text on it, so I re-arranged some of the elements to make room for it. I also wanted to practice the kanji, katakana and hiragana, and so wrote out a sketch for what that would look like. When I finished, I realized that I wanted it to look a bit different, and so the finished product is a little different than the sketch. The paper layout, however, is as shown.

Brushes and some pigments

These are the brushes that were used to paint the scroll and do the kanji, katakana and hiragana. The palette in the upper left is a commercially-prepared watercolor palette from Japan, and the flower-shaped palette contains some of the hand-prepared gouache used for this scroll

Sumi ink stick, ground ink, and brushes

The inkwell for the sumi ink is rough on the bottom, so when the ink stick is ground in it with water, it creates an excellent texture of ink

The Messy, Messy Palette

The colors on the bottom are the hand-prepared watercolor and gouache colors that I use for most of the scrolls that I do; they are mixed with various pigment powders (not all SCA-period authentic, as I do not care to have poison pigments XD), gum arabic, clove oil, glycerin, and some also have chalk in them. Some colors work better with commercially-prepared white watercolor pigment, and the metallic colors are commercially prepared, as well - though I do a fair amount of mixing

Silk taffeta frame being put in place

I brushed gold silk taffeta with gum Arabic to help keep it from fraying, trimmed it to 1/4" to be the same as the black frame, and placed it along the edges of the painting

Glueing the silk taffeta frame onto the screen

In the screens from this time, a silk band was added after the painting was finished, to frame the picture

Detail of finished scroll

The center of the three pairs of panels has Sara's arms and the pelican image. The text on the right is primarily the poem, and the text on the left is the wording for the award

- Click here to see the entire scroll text in English and Japanese -

Back of the scroll

The majority of the screens that I looked at for this project had backing materials very similar to this design - and this paper was so nice and shiny!

Detail of text on the left side of the scroll

....somehow, the way that I mixed the gold pigment was inconsistent, and the sumi ink was not as crisp on this side of the scroll....

Finished scroll with Black Frame

This image shows the final black frame put onto the scroll, as well as the blue silk in which it was wrapped for presentation

Finished scroll flattened

This image shows the detail of the finished painting as seen when the screen is flat