Usually, before a calligrapher writes a finished piece of calligraphy, he or she would do some exercises – by testing the pens, the size of the letters and the consistency of the ink. It is also usual for the calligrapher to use all the available space on a sheet of paper, thus, earning it the term karalama in Turkish, which literally means ‘blackening’. Most of what is written on karalama has little meaning, as the calligraphers are really only testing out the various letter shapes. This example comes from Ottoman Turkey.
