suminagashi

2026 · floating ink, drawn by code

suminagashi means floating ink. you touch a brush of ink to still water, then a brush of clear water in the same spot, and again, and the rings push each other outward. a breath or a stick pulls them into flowers and wood grain, and a sheet of paper laid on the surface lifts the pattern off.

tap to float a drop, hold to let it spread, drag to stir. comb rakes tines across the whole basin. when you like what's on the water, print lays a sheet of washi down and hands you the result to keep. leave it alone and a ghost hand makes its own.

how it works

• every drop is an exact shape, not pixels. a new drop pushes everything around it outward by exactly the area it adds, the way ink really spreads on water, so lines stay sharp at any size and never cross
• stirring and combing drag the ink with a soft stylus in small steps, so lines stretch into hairlines instead of tearing
• detail is spent only where it shows: edges get split just before something bends them, and hairlines too thin to see fold shut, which keeps it smooth even after heavy combing
• the print is drawn fresh at high resolution: washi fibres, ink soaking into them with a slight bleed, torn deckle edges and a red seal
• built with claude code, including a long detour to make it run smoothly when someone combs the water into a thousand hairlines