Image designed by me with Canva
There’s something soothing and satisfying about making art at night, be it writing, drawing … anything creative basically. This is me sitting up in bed at 2 a.m, trying to make a post about two nights ago.
Well, for some months now, I’ve been that girl who stays up late, trying to follow up her brain as it churns out idea after idea in the dead of the night. I almost always have something I need to put more work into. It could be a crochet project, piece of writing, or a book I’m reading. So even when it’s not new ideas keeping me from going to bed, something else is.
If you’re Nigerian, then you know how it is here with our unstable light. But when the apartment is bright and I’m giddy with excitement about my work or ideas, with the calm of the night and a clear head, the night could seem magical. I would almost see my ideas materialize in front of me. I get so hyper that I may leave my work and pace the apartment for a bit. Or do a short dance to some music from my earphones. Then I get back to my work. Nights like these — bliss!
Well, two nights ago was one of such nights. It was past midnight and I was actually meant to be working on my crochet project, but then I just suddenly felt like doing some calligraphy. Not faux calligraphy, but with a fountain pen instead. So I dug out my fountain pen and bottle of ink from the bottom of my craft bag and set to doing this thing I hadn’t done in a long time.
I was learning how to make fine calligraphy with a fountain pen some years back but then I got unserious — I’d only pick it up to practice once in a while. So, my calligraphy doesn’t always look nice and consistent.
While putting some letters down on a notebook, I got the idea to do a few lines of poetry and then cut out the lines, burn the edges of the paper, and do some vintage-looking design on a sheet of paper with it. Yeah, I like artsy stuff like that.
I got really excited about the idea, and put on some music on my laptop as I calligraphed. Believe me, there’s nothing like good music blaring in your ears when the world is asleep. You should have seen me doing my upper body dance in the chair as I dipped ink and did some fancy lettering. I should probably add my playlist for the night to the post. I hope I don’t forget to. Well, back to my night. I even did some hurried photography of my work table. Scratch that. I just took a picture. I don’t think I should call it photography.
So I finished with the few lines of whatever it was I came up with (definitely not poetry), cut them out, burnt the edges with a lighter to give it that old look, and left the rest for the next day. I planned on showing you guys the result of the design, but it didn’t turn out well so I won’t be doing that. Anyways, if you’re a lover of vintage papers (antique papers), old letters, that kind of thing, then the picture of my cut-out and burnt papers is just for you. Unfortunately, I took only one picture of the papers because I planned on taking good pictures of the finished work. Well, I might just make another post some other time on papers that I try to age.
🎶Here’s my playlist for that night:
Happier than Ever by Billie Eilish
Saturday Nights by Khalid
90 Days by Pink
For Tonight by Giveon
Best Days by Alessia Cara
Twenty One by Khalid
Happy by Jesi(Best Friends in the World web series)
Scars by Sam Smith
Afterglow by Ed Sheeran
Ring Pop by Jax
Fingers Crossed by Lauren Spencer
Love is Just a Word by Jasmine
Thompson and Calum Scott
For Granted by Lauren Spencer
Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran♥
That’s all I have for you, beautiful people. Thanks for reading this post about a lovely night I had, lovely nights that I have, and some burnt cut-out papers.
Fellow night owls, what is your night experience?
All images are mine, unless stated otherwise.