Kick ass and calligraphy? Not in that order.

I hate calligraphy. The next time you start to suggest that I whip out wedding invitations to make a few extra bucks, you might want to keep that in mind. Furthermore, I am not particularly GOOD at calligraphy, particularly the Gothic hand. However, I have this stupid pride thing about being a full-service scribe, so I feel constrained to do both calligraphy and illumination. Besides, if I wait for someone else to do the calligraphy for a scroll, I never have any idea when it'll get done, so I just do it myself. Unfortunately, that means that I have to do the calligraphy myself. Catch 22, eh? The two people who taught me calligraphy were, to my mind, two of the best calligraphers I have known. They both love calligraphy and can do absolutely marvelous things with it. My laurel can make both sides of even narrow columns justified in even Gothic hand and make it look natural. Maddening. How does she DO that? I'm not having a good calligraphy day, so my text looks like it's written on elastic that is being stretched at random. This is not helped by the fact that I am working in gold paint on black paper, so even the "ink" is variable. Erk. Color me frustrated. Time is running short on this scroll, what with the trip to Kentucky and my having had migraines most of this month. I kept thinking if I relaxed I'd feel better and it'd all go smoothly, but I relaxed and it hasn't, so it is now officially crunch time. The grand black-gold-and-grisaille idea may not happen after all unless the calligraphy Zen kicks in.