Scroll

For another birthday present, Grip N Flip (lil cousin), decided to make an Asian wall scroll. She was already taking Chinese calligraphy at Chinese school and even took a Chinese art class. The only problem would be how to transform what she drew into a scroll.

I ended up looking online to see how it was done. And what I found overwhelmed me. The process of mounting traditional calligraphy or paintings was an art form in itself. After all that research, I humbly decided to switch my tactics since, hundreds of years of secret mounting techniques couldn't be learned in a week. I came to the decision that as long as I made it LOOK like a scroll, it would be enough.

I borrowed a wall scroll from my Chinese teacher (which I have yet to return . . . thank you 老師!!) to have an example to follow. I then bought some muslin and fabric for the scroll (as opposed to paper), red ribbon for trim, and dowels for the ends.

I first tried it with fabric glue . . . . and that was an unmitigated disaster. I was prepared for the worst and thankfully had back up drawings.

I ended up using HeatnBond for the fabric and drawing and then fabric glue for the red ribbon trim. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way but it worked.


Grip N Flip drew a phoenix because her friends name means "light" or "shine" in Japanese (can you guess the name??). The words on the right [愛是光] translate to "love is light/shine". The words on the left are her name.

I think it was a really cute gift. Something that was personal and heartfelt.