Words for techniques, materials and tools

Brief

This lesson asks you to use the right vocabulary for techniques, materials and tools. The museum offers the working terms of three Islamic crafts: copying a drawing by pricking, the tiles and glazes of the potter, and the measures of the calligrapher. The words of your own studio come from your class. ¹

Is the word a tool, a material or a step?

Sort the terms in the three records into tools, materials and steps. Say which ones have an everyday word you already use for the same thing.

Can you explain it to someone new?

Choose one term and explain it in two sentences to a classmate who has not read the record. Check your sentences against the record.

Go deeper

A calligrapher's measure starts with the pen. The record says letters are measured in units of a dot, a diamond or square shape the pen makes when its full width touches the paper ². The length of the dot is the unit by which the letters, their curves and their spacing are measured, and lines are set with a ruler called the mistar ². The entry gives a rough measure of the nib: about 1 mm for naskh, rayhani and riqa', and about 2 to 2.5 mm for thuluth, ta'liq, muhaqqaq and tawqi' ².

How do we know?

The measures come from one source, an entry on the hand in the TDV encyclopaedia, and the entry gives only a rough measure of the nib ². The same record says the craft passed down through chains of masters and pupils, through schools and court offices, and through the licence ³ ². So the terms of the pen are written down in an encyclopaedia, while the training that taught them is described as passing from master to pupil.

Think about it

The record says the dot is the shape the pen makes when its full width touches the paper, and also the unit by which the letters are measured ². Take a position and answer the strongest objection to it: is "dot" a tool, a material or a step?

Into the museum

Calligrapher (khattat): the reed pen, the dot, the mistar and the nib widths of the hands.
Pouncing in Persian painting: the deerskin, the needle and the bag of charcoal.
Potter / tilemaker: the words for glazes and fired tile.

Try this

Read the records on pouncing in Persian painting and the potter. Write a short glossary of five terms, each with one sentence taken from or checked against the record.