underglaze pencils

Ingredients

blue underglaze pencil

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The author used underglaze pencils to write chosen lines from poems onto ceramic pieces (p. 111). Specifically, the text was written on 3D geometric tiles that had been slip-cast before being fired (p. 113). The writing followed the circular lines of the underlying geometric grid (p. 113).

Evidence

"I embossed these lines in low relief on some pieces while writing them on using underglaze pencils on other pieces (Fig. 72, 73, & 74)."

Remarks

The underglaze pencils were used to reproduce the thuluth Maghrabi/Andalusi script, which the author describes as a 'cursive writing style' found in the epigraphic poems of Alhambra (p. 109). The lines chosen for the work include text from the Tower of the Captive Princess (p. 111).