Japanese character sign pattern

[BobD]

Hi everyone,
An opinion question: How interested are you all in scrolling some sort of sign based on japanese or chinese characters. It seems popular in other areas (my wife does rubber stamping and the stamps for the oriental symbols for welcome, wealth, happiness and prosperity are always out of stock. Is this at all interesting for you in general?

Thanks
Bob

[CanadianScroller]

CHaracter Scrolling

I want to do some candle holders with Feing Shui characters
There has been some interest where I work for this.
I was aslo thinking we could get a list of Scroller fonts that have open cups in the a's etc.
I dont mind doing the groundwork for something like that

[Jimpask]

Letters

Rather than attempt to cut oriential characters, I'd much perfer to find a nice script pattern for english letters as I'd like to try and make a nice desk nameplate for my daugther.

Any suggestions on finding script style letters?

Thanks

Jim

[jttheclockman]

.Check on your computer there probably was a program installed when you bought it. Like microsoft word program. Good place to start. Many different fonts to choose from.

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

I do them quite frequently, both scrolled and relief carved. You need to be careful though because I have found some that were reversed for some reason. Probably something to do with the printing process.

[sheltiecarver]

Bob,
I'd like to try doing some Chinese words - after a trip to China about 10 years ago I am very interested in their calligraphy - it can be really beautiful. I had also thought about trying to copy some of the stone stamps I got while I was there.
Actually, any neato project you publish we will evenyually appreciate - there is such variety in interests, skill levels, etc. among us.
Sandy

[BobD]

Sheltiecarver,

Do you mean the "chops?" When I was on Semester at Sea (through the university of Pittsburgh) we stopped in Hong Kong, and I was fascinated by the chops! I must have a dozen at home!

Bob

[sheltiecarver]

Bob,
Yes! I'd forgotten that they are sometimes called chops. In Northern China, where I was, they were just called stone seals. Anyhow, I love them too. I even bought some blank (uncarved) stone blocks, and a small carving set. (No, I haven't gotten around to trying carving them yet. Since I have a limited supply, I want to know what I'm carving before I ruin some of them)
Sandy

[redballjets]

Jimpask,

You can download free fonts from the Internet. Here are two sites, www.1001freefonts.com and www.fontsnthings.com

[PiALaModem]

I do shadowboxes of various characters. I learned the basics of chinese (japanese) calligraphy and design the characters myself based on what I find in dictionaries. I have the designs (and choice of characters) vetted by native speakers, which is easy for me, since I'm an ESL teacher and have many adult students with good education in their native languages.

I started out on learning the strokes and general principals of drawing the characters here: http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/methods/bihua.htm This is a great little page. I went on to use several books on Japanese calligraphy. Note that books on Chinese calligraphy are a little thin on the ground. The Japanese use many of the same characters (they represent different sounds in Japanese, and sometimes different meanings) and of course the brush techniques carry over so once you find a character in a good dictionary you can make a good, authentic drawing of it even if it's not one used in Japanese.

This site http://www.zhongwen.com/ is a wonderful resource including a powerful online chinese dictionary.

The character pictured below is "fu" and represents good fortune.