Hi! I’m Joumana, an artist passionate about natural and historical colours, which I often prepare myself. I’m also a calligrapher specialised in the abandoned early Arabic scripts, and spend lots of time examining ancient manuscripts to unlock the workings of the pen. The meeting of these two areas recently produced a monster Twitter thread where I offered some practical insights into the inks and paints of early Qur’ans. The response was way way more enthusiastic than expected, and encouraged me to bring a long-suffering idea to life: put all this into a book.
The project: a concise, approachable, illustrated manual examining the main materials used in Islamic manuscripts, their qualities, and when safe, how to prepare and use them. The book will be A5-sized and wirebound for maximum practicality, with additional technical info (such as the difference between paint and ink, binders, other additives) and cultural insights (such as the medical uses these materials were put to) — and of course lots of historical recipes! The complete edition also includes reference sheets with painted swatches, so you can have a proper look at the real thing. I like to think that the latter, plus the insight into how the materials are used, can make the book useful to a variety of people, from medievalists and Islamic scholars to practicing artists and historical reenactors.
Why focus on materials from the Islamic tradition?
There is a large number of publications for traditional and modern pigments in general, all with a Eurocentric focus; there are none about the Middle-East, outside research papers that are neither easy to approach nor intended to be practical. Also, my own usage of traditional materials tends to be closer to medieval and Islamic manuscripts than to European realism, so this is where I can offer more experience. Finally, this reduces the scope of the project to a manageable scale that allows me to dedicate more attention to the material I do cover, namely materials and techniques during the Abbassid period (roughly 750 to 1250 AD). An annotated bibliography will open up further horizons.
Why am I so obsessed with traditional materials?
This could be a book of its own, but to put it very briefly, they are what makes art a deeply interrelated and embodied practice. Not only does each natural pigment or dye behave differently, have its own personality; to make and use them involves an understanding of chemistry, botany, seasonal cycles, the materiality of things. Most of them were also used as food or remedies, not to mention associated with celestial bodies. The artist was aware of being at the receiving end of an entire world of different substances with their own lives and interrelationships. The value of laboriously prepared colours was appreciated, and wasting them unthinkable. This entire dimension, which is a way of life, is completely cut out of the equation when the creation process only begins with squeezing paint out of a tube.
What does production of this book involve?
This is a straightforward project where all the work consists in my synthesising my research into a friendly book format, testing/adapting/illustrating recipes, and making the swatch sheets. I am not simply copy-pasting recipes from old sources; I am testing the most promising ones and adapting them to our times (I assume not everyone has access to a glass kiln). I’m giving myself plenty of time to complete this, and will continue to post my experiments on Twitter as well as some backer-only sneak previews here. The pdf version will go to all backers from £10 up, so I’m thinking it would be a good idea to release this one first, in order to take feedback/corrections before printing the paper version. The book is currently looking to be about 80 pages long, and the amount I’m raising will cover printing, the purchase of materials for testing and for the swatches, as well as Kickstarter fees and taxes. The more pre-orders, the more production costs go down, the more material I can include. So do let all your artist and medievalist friends know!
There’s not much that can go wrong with production: the printing is simple and done locally, so once the book is completed, I’ll have the hard copies in less than a week. The reference sheets take time but I can start on them as soon as the Kickstarter closes, so I can comfortably spread that process over those few months. The main risk is to get sidetracked and overwhelmed by the amount of material to process, but I’ve already processed most of the research and have a clear idea of what to include and a plan of action to follow.