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Chinese inkstone- Inkstones are made from stone or pottery. They are flat and hard, and are sometimes shaped into beautiful objects. The calligrapher puts water on the inkstone, then grinds the stick of ink against it. This makes ink that can be brushed on paper. It is important to grind enough ink to finish what you start. If you have to grind more ink, you may not be able to make it the same shade.
Chinese brush- Brushes are made from animal hair that is bundled together and put on bamboo reeds. The Chinese use hair from wolves, sheep, rabbits, deer, foxes, or mice depending on the type of writing. For small delicate writing, use rabbit hair. For bold writing, sheep hair is good. You must take good care of the brushes to keep the point stiff and straight.
Brush rest- These stands are used to hold extra brushes. They are usually decorated.
When writing Chinese, you must always keep the brush straight up and down. Do not let your palm touch the brush. You must know how to hold the brush correctly to become a good calligrapher. Calligraphy takes lots of practice.
Classification
When studying Chinese calligraphy one must learn something about the origins of Chinese characters, which can be traced to inscriptions on bones, tortoise shells and bronzeware of which the earliest identifiable characters belonged to the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC).
Through the centuries Chinese characters have changed constantly and are mainly divided into five categories today: the seal script (zhuan shu), official script (li shu), regular script (kai shu), running script (xing shu) and cursive script (cao shu ). Chinese calligraphy, like script itself, has developed the above-mentioned styles according to various schools.
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