greetings for the season

It's that time of year...less than 2 weeks til Christmas when the quote gets down-sized to just one word to calligraph, and the hand made cards get reduced to bookmarks (no inner message necessary), THEN the bookmarks with fancy yarn become bookmarks with just a fold over top. This year the Christmas greetings will become "seasonal" as in sometime this winter for those on the mailing list, and I shall enjoy a relaxing guilt-free time doing puzzles with the yule logs burning in the fireplace...real logs really burning; none of that energy efficient fake crap here. Well, we did replace all the Christmas lights with LED's. And for the 2nd year in a row have not bought any new Christmas wrap or bows. But we're thinking we might put up the fake tree with the fake lights today, with only 1/2 the month left that'll cut down on the energy draw!

(Oh, and that one word? I did spend 2 days on it, haha!

Thank you Thomas Hoyer, for the flourishing class.)

I do hope you enjoy YOUR winter season, and if you don't get to spend it with loved ones, remember them in that special place in your heart!

Crazy calligrapher...I mean calligraPHY

I'm back! Ok, not sure WHERE I went, but it wasn't all that much fun.
The Art Muse LEFT the building, even if I didn't. Literally, my other 1/2's car tranny cratered so he's been using my car. Hate being housebound, but on the positive side, 'cause I dislike going out after supper anyway, HE had to get groceries on his way home!

Unfortunately, because of other circumstances, I also had to cancel the Kersals course I was supposed to teach in Edmonton this month. I am sorry about that. Calligraphers are an especially forgiving species, thank you!


ART STUFF; I actually entered & remained in the studio today AND finished this wedding piece.
For something totally different, I used my new Pan Pastels
(Thanks for the birthday gift, Mom!) and did all the outlining with a bright copper gel pen. With pan pastels you need to use a fine pointy sponge to tap the color on. Check out
http://www.panpastel.com/

The monoline names at the bottom are 4 mm tall (less than 1/4") so you can imagine my frustrationkeepingthecoloroutsidetheletters but withinthehorizontallines.
Then tried erasing the pastel that went over the lines & inside counterspaces. After an hour getting nowhere I thought "Why don't I try out that eraser shield that came with the Ames Lettering Guide I got 35 years ago?"

It's a small piece of thin tin with a bunch of different shapes cut out. Draftspeople use it for erasing lead pencil marks. Layed the shield on the paper with the open shape on top of whatever tiny similar shaped area needed erasing, then wiggled or patted a kneaded eraser on the opening. Keep kneading the eraser & the color disappears. See all the size possibilities? Works like a dam_!


So the J & S are a little wild, but my cousin that got married is in her late 30's, so she must have a sense of humour, right? And they've been together for a while, so it's not like she's desperate.
You can click on the pictures to enlarge them, Mom.

Kersals from Kids

Check this out.

These are samples from a youth group. Various ages; I believe 12 & up.

ECS member Gail, a retired teacher & student of mine, taught them a pared down version of Kersals over a period of just a few hours. (After checking with me for permission; Thanks, Gail.) Gail showed them a few basics then just let them go at it.

Kids are so amazingly creative.

They don't hold back.

They don't show fear.

I think

we have to

remind ourselves sometimes that when taking a workshop:

Not to expect perfection from ourselves. The classroom is an unusual setting & we won't create as we might in a quieter, more comfortable setting.

Why worry that our classwork isn't up to par with others (or even what we perceive others expectations of our work should be)? The stages we're at in our calligraphic journey are distinctly unique to US.

We all learn in different ways; "it" may come to us when we take time to review and if it's a letter style, it will definitely require practise.

Take notes if you need to in class, but really when the situation calls for it (this is ART, after all) just let go and have fun.

Explore. Experiment. See what happens. Be a kid again!

(Now that's definitely a lesson I need to remind myself!)

I'll be teaching Kersals again for ECS on Nov.8 & 9th. It's been a while so expect some changes & be prepared to play!

p.s. The Edmonton Calligraphic Website is temporarily under...undergoing a change of servers, if that makes any sense...or something.

Monogram for Wedding

Here's a wedding monogram I did with the initials of the bride & groom. The original was quite large, lettered in black ink on Pentalic Paper For Pens, an extremely smooth bright white paper ideal for reproduction; the initials lettered with a large brass tool; 1/4" Techniquill. After playing with flourishes using a pencil and layers of tracing paper over the monogram until finding something that worked, I inked the flourishes onto the

original using a Pointed Pen Nib. I found by turning the paper I was able to create the thicker swells in a greater variety of places.

Having taken Thomas Hoyer's class on flourishing since then, I can now see 3 areas that could be improved. Can you find them?

Tribute to Bronwyn

There's something special about a young man just entering University who feels the need to share his life with a young pup. Chris is now my brother-in-law, and his family grew to include my sis Cathie, then shortly after, 2 lively little girls and another yellow lab. Chris' faithful companion recently left this earth. Bronwyn was an exceptional lady; quiet yet friendly, patient and content, as seen below on a 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ATC I created for an exchange.

I doctored the photo of my niece and Bronwyn in "Nero"; added the Groucho Marx quote with a flexible pointed pen nib, then I made color copies. An extremely reduced calligraphic Christmas letter creates a 3-D book. The 6 pages, glued accordion style, are just 1/4" tall, but they do turn...had to see if it could be done. The plaid ribbon is a nod to my brother-in-law's tartan and kilt and along with the star brad add a bit more dimension.

Bronwyn quietly put up with the chaos her household became; being used here as a cushion for the 2 year old, who was reading one of her books in the original photo. The photo of Bronwyn & her human family was taken on her last day. She'll be missed, but as my now 5 year old niece says "It's OK; she's still here" as she points to her heart.

Make multiple cards in a hurry

I could spend a full day creating a card! Sometimes that's not the best use of my time, so instead I might throw a whack of stuff on a large sheet of card stock (which you can buy from your local friendly printer but not just any copy shop) then chop it up & glue the pieces on. I keep a stack of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock handy ready to cut in half for 2 cards; folded to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".

This started as a 22"x35" blank sheet. I initialy worked on top of this paper while creating other cards. All the turquoise images are from the stamps I used on Sheri & Ian's card. (See previous posting below) Why waste all that nice ink? Here's the how-to:

1. Stamp your stamps clean on large sheet of cover weight card stock.
   
2. Scatter written words throughout; I used ruling pen & brown walnut ink for lettering large-they're pretty forgiving. Try sprinkling a metallic powder like Schminke over small areas of still-wet ink. A hint from Lisa Engelbrecht is to cover the jar opening with nylon pantyhose, wrap elastic band to hold in place. This ensures you'll get a sprinkle of powder, not a clump. You can still put the lid on when you're done if the elastic's far enough down.
   
3. Overlap multiple stamps using various colors dye or pigment stamp ink. I just love Suzanne Cannon's new flourish stamps @ http://www.quietfiredesign.ca/. Tiny curlicues make great fillins.

Now it's just a matter of cutting the sheet into smaller pieces & using them as the focal point on plain card stock. Double-sided adhesive tape works well.

Suzanne also has instructions to make the frame cards, which are really cool because you can see your message through the window, which takes care of "Now...what should I do on the inside". Here are the instruction for making window frame cards: http://www.quietfiredesign.com/Galleries/Projects/PinnedBackFlapsKristy.htm

Get your card layouts galore

There are days when you realize you need to make a card TODAY!...and you're just not in the mood to play (horrors).....where to start?

I stumbled on this site where you can get a new lay-out each week; what a great idea! check it out at
http://janellerichmond.typepad.com/sketchthis/

You'll also find the creations of others, using that particular lay-out, if you have time to browse. And there's http://janellerichmond.typepad.com/photos/sketchthis_layout_sketche/index.html

if you prefer to have all your layout choices "lay"ed out before you.
OK, I'm no longer stumped!

Calligraphy dust

After all that blogging, unloading the trailer from a weekend Antique Car Tour in the Rocky Mountain House area, hanging sleeping bags out to air & finishing a birthday card for Laurie who's (ahemmm) 39 she says, it looks like the house could use a bit of dusting. I say a bit, cause a lot would be too overwhelming, so why even bother to start.

Could this be why the boys have allergies?
Well, can't say I never gave them anything!

Sheri & Ian's wedding

I love how Sheri & Ian sent luggage tags as their Save The Date notices. Doesn't this just make you wanna hop on a plane & get out there, NOW? I know it's going to be fun. Their invitation is just as cute, with a Lemony Snicket phrase on the front

"One of the remarkable things about love is that despite very irritating people writing poems and songs about how pleasant it is... it really is quite pleasant".

I used this and their chosen colors as the basis for their wedding gift, which is on 8x10 Arches wc paper. That quote was written with Sakura Glaze pen, their names with ruling pen & walnut ink with metallic added later which actually came out a little 3-D so I was happy about that.

I was going for the whole "Let's not make this another nice flat piece with some nice flat writing on it... let's see some depth & pizazz to it!" The brown ribbon, copper sticky-backed tape (from my stained glass TRIAL period 29 years ago...when I tried to halve a full sheet of glass, which ended when I crawled up from the basement & drove my pregnant self in my little green Honda to the Foothills Hospital for stitches on 3 fingers).

Oh yeah, found the raised embossed love hidden in my paper files and stuck on some thread, plastic sticky-backed squares & little stars and with pointed pen wrote the Elizabeth Barrett Browning quote

"I love you not for what you are...but for what I am when I am with you".

I think they'll like it.

Love on the eighth

I thought June was the month for weddings, but in my studio it's carried on into July and August.

On the left is a card for Sheri & Ian, whose wedding date will be 08-08-08!

I created the word LOVE in Kersals and photocopied it on various white papers. This particular one is 80lb Silk Text. Then I took watercolor pencils and water to it to add a little color, cut the word out, glued the back with a glue stick, and used the rubber roller to smooth it onto the card. Then used a pointed nib & ink to finish the flourishes & write their names.

The vellum envelope is shown with then without the card inside. The envelope is decorated primarily with my own carved letter stamps. The smallest lettering for their street and city are stamps I bought at Michaels-$1.50 for each alphabet! In the bin near the cashiers.

They're so cute!

the stamps, not the bins, or the cashiers.

Happy day, Sheri & Ian!

Thomas Hoyer ruled Edmonton

Thomas Hoyer is a graphic artist calligrapher from Germany who spent about a month teaching in Alberta.

The Edmonton Calligraphic Society http://www.edmontoncalligraphicsociety.org had him teach Flourishing, Beautiful Watercolor Letters and two full days of Ruling Pens Beyond the Rules.

Super nice guy who generously allowed us to use all of his handouts and in-class demowork for our newsletter.

He likes to use the Haff ruling pen with Ecoline liquid watercolours.

These are all samples he whipped off!

He wrote each of our names up and here's a picture of him with a piece he did for us to raffle at the June Social.

I LOVE THE RULING PEN! ... and Thomas! Check out his site; he creates lettering for wedding bands, logos, tatoos, walls, objects, even carves letters. http://www.callitype.de/en/index.html

Handmade sketchbook art journal

(OOPS, accidentally deleted this one from a couple years ago trying to minimize labels)

Happy birthday, kiddo!

A personalized sketchbook/writing journal with pens for the boy (son#2) who has everything, or wants to write about it (having everything).

The cover and pages are 17" x22" Krypton Parchment paper, which handles water nicely and folds easily. The cover is deocrated with Walnut Ink (of course), Lanaquarelle crayons, a few globs of instant coffee to ignite ALL the senses. If he ends up on the street he can just add water (... out comes the mother in me). When dry I folded it and decorated the visible center area some more with Derwent Inktense watercolor crayons, letter stencils and FolkArt Metallic Taupe acrylic, my handcarved stamps and Faber-Castell's Artist Pitt pens, which are India Ink and cover arylics nicely. I like that the pens are available as a brush as well as small, medium & bold and in so many earthy colors. I put a piece of sturdy cardboard between the cover layers to create a stiffer surface for drawing. The 2 signatures of 18 pages fold to 7"x5" and are attached with Linen bookbinders thread to a file folder cut to size. The holders for the pens are made from old Macleods fishing line- mulicolored from the factory in my favorite earthy colors & so old it's more like fabric rope than the newer nylon line. I braided it, knotted the loops, sewed them thru a couple layers then added Api's The Ultimate glue for good measure.

3 Phenomenal Womanses

Maya Angelou Poem
These are the pieces I completed last month for a client; primarily Walnut ink & watercolor pencils. I was somewhat limited by the overall size and the fact that 1 or 2 will be going up in an office, so we didn't want the word "breasts" to stand out although when you have them, you want them to, right? rather than stand in or sit down...

Photos aren't great; I'd pinned the pieces to the bulletin board where I now hang my in-progress work, so each time I enter the studio I'll glance at it and maybe something will pop out or up or in...to the brain.

There are slight changes from one to the next. The metallic on the O's came about due to the star. Why the star in just one? To cover a smudge. Call it a happy accident.

Now, would you add a star to the others?

Those O's are a combination of products over the walnut ink. Top-blue FW Liquid Acrylics with Schmincke Aluminium powder, Winsor & Newton Irridescent Medium, Createx Chameleon Airbrush Colors (love em-super bright & shiny) in Green. Center- Irridesc medium & Chameleon Lilac. Bottom-LuminArte Gold Dust and Winsor & Newton Gold Calligraphy Ink.

Are there any changes YOU'D make? Lettering dynamics, layout adjustments? PLEASE add your suggestions, 'cause there's another I've yet to finish for myself.

I'm happy with them although the 'W' in woman really bugs me now (it didn't while they were still here); it could be the same size as the 'man'. I might try Gouache for the verses and yikes! that Italic is pretty shabby. Running a brush of Gouache over the nib will create a slower rhythm; should help maintain better letterforms. But overall I'm good with it...maybe some barely visible tiny Yves Leterme-like script with "I'm a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman. That's me." after each verse. We'll see.

Have you tried this for display? If you stick a couple pieces of tape to the top back of and poking above the watercolor paper, then fold the tape over on itself to create a tab you can stick a tack in just the tab-no tape or tack holes on the piece.

You call this art?

I lied. Ive been telling people the blog is primarily art related...I've been very busy, relating to art, but as far as getting those pics up? Well, this was May; client here,Specialist appointment,Dr appt,Bank appt,Client here,Dr.appt,get 24 hour blood pressure monitor, return monitor(all that out of town),to Edmonton to buy student supplies,bus to Fort Mac to give presentation & teach Kersals (fun!),bus back 5 hours, finish 3 Phenomenal pieces, client here fro pick up-she loves em,hair appt&groceries&laundry during 2 days home, to Edmonton for 3 days of Thomas Hoyer(nice guy)from Germany(!) classes(wow!). Now INTO JUNE:create10 ATC's theme of bLING! for Edmonton Calligraphic Society Social&Silent Auction(lotsa fun)-Thomas Hoyer donated piece gets guild $70 in raffle,Dr. appt next day,visit Sam on the way home (sad...he's 80 & has emphysema;he's optimistic tho),Optomotrist appt-need new glasses (also need reading glasses now in curent frames so WooHoo! new frames!),start exercise with neighbor(Yay)in her basement gym(double yay-climb thru the fence),exercise again,another eye appt,wake up to discover 10calligraphed name place cards are due today(no spares) but forgot so fit in between exercise & another eye appt-write same name twice-wedding in 3 days,new place cards in Edmonton,fake it by cutting piece of card stock same color to fit within gold border,glue it on top, Evie from Cochrane drops by(old ECSfriend-nice),lunch with Evie&Mary(good visit),Father's Day,start card for Marv for FD(not finished but get to use Ruling writer)& Eco liquid watercolors from Hoyer class,chat to kids(always good),Gastroscopy &Botox yesterday(good-get to rest while under, plus 18 hrs no food-getting slimmer) plus Surprise! quick visit with operating room nurse Judy Langner (been 10 years-she used to be ECS member-looks exactly the same) plus visit with sis (before&after dropoff-bout time). Spend ALL of today trying to figure out insurance forms(bad idea-still brain dead). About the Botox-it's free when it's injected into your esophagus-Who's gonna see those wrinkles? Tomorrow I'm posting art pics! after I clean the studio. Oops,just remembered-I'm supposed to write the article on Hoyer's Flourishing (I think) class for the next ECS newsletter (I know). Hope I can read my notes-don't remember a thing but I KNOW I learnt a lot! If you read all this you need to get a life! Be sure to click on the studio photo to get the full effect.

Addressing 111 envelopes for wedding

Long weekend...sunny out...I may have gotten a tan from the lightable. Nice area, isn't it?

I've discovered what works best for DOING MULTIPLES; first spend 2 days creating guidelines. Not necessary, but it helps, especially when you're in a hurry. OK. For addressing envelopes, draw guidelines in pen on tracing paper. Want perfection? Use the Ames lettering guide. Trim tracing paper so it's bottom edge lines up with the bottom edge of the envelope. Fold the bottom edge of a wide sheet of paper over about an inch. Find the sweet spot on the table, which is directly in line with your eyeballs if you were to lean over and touch the paper with your nose. Tape it to the light table. No, not your nose! Set the guidelines in the pocket and tape in place. Now you can slip your blank envelopes into this pocket & get them perfect every time. Not the lettering, that's a different story; perfect envelopes, dummy! You don't even have to tape them! Tape paper around the rest of the area so the light doesn't hurt your eyes.

PROCEDURE: Blank envelopes & response cards on the left. Ink & pen on the right. List of names standing (or sitting, but in a book stand) in front of you, with a sticky note on it placed under the name you'll be working from. Pick up blank envelope with left hand, set into pocket. With right hand pick up pen, dip into dinky dip (perfect 'cause you can't dip the nib in up to your elbow!) of ink, letter (it helps to turn the light table on), put pen down, pick up finished envelope with your right hand, place it on your right while picking up the next blank envelope with your left hand. Works great.

If you're lettering with gouache you'll need to brush the gouache on the nib so that's a whole other deal. I always try to convince the client to go with brown so I can use walnut ink.

Star Book for Gillian

View from the top
14 days since my last post and I'm still knee deep in the Phenomenal Woman pieces, hence the lack of posts. So, dug in my files and found this star book; Gillian was born a few years ago in Qatar, and I had the BEST time creating a baby book commemorating the event. A star book is basically an accordian book of 5 folds with the front & back tied together for display. They're usually 3 layers. The front outer layer (shortest) of the building silhouette, is Tyvek paper with Walnut Ink and a copper metallic rubbed in. Same with the covers. That paper is rip free; necessary for the tiny openings to survive repeated openings (of the book). The draft was figured out on 1/8" grid paper. The middle layer is a golden brown Thai handmade paper, but the artwork's not mine.

I "google imaged" for camels, then "borrowed" them. They were photocopied & placed image down on the Thai paper & rubbed with oil-free nail polish remover, which transferred the image. I wet the paper with a brush to be able to tear bits away. The back inner layer (longest) has walnut ink letters in Legende style on "marble" (looks more like clouds to me) card stock.

The whole thing stands about 6" tall.

Click on the pictures to see a larger image.

What's wrong with this picture?

Some days you just can't get it right. Here's a piece I'm working on, BEEN working on, hard at it for a "few" WEEKS now. There is a deadline.

Fantastic poem-all women should read it!

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou.

That's

PhenomENal WomAn,

not womEn

or phenomally,

which I don't think is a word. And it better end up reading

"I'm a woman. Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman. That's me."

It's 100 lines long (OK, it's only 52). Client wants 3 copies (plus 1 for me, for next year's library show?) I CHOSE to lay it out with multi styles and sizes of lettering and spacing; it needs to be EXCITING! FORCEFUL! which also means there's multi sized guidelines in SO MANY uneven places that so far I've spent 3 days just lining & erasing & lining the copies, even using the Ames Lettering Guide and the light table. It's 18"x22" on Waterford Saunders HP watercolor paper (not cheap).

Mediums so far:

*Walnut ink

*watercolor pencils

*luminescent acrylic

Tools:

*Hiro Bronze pointed pen

*#3 1/2 Mitchell nib

*#2 Mitchell nib

*ruling pen

*pencils

So, this ends up being "an experimental exercise" or we could call it a rough.

Phenomally.

Whatever.

Handmade Journal Fundraiser

The Edmonton Calligraphic Society has a few of these beautiful journals left. They're about 8x11, selling for just $30.

covers

Members have had fun at work bees creating covers, painted pages and stitching it all together using the Coptic bound method which ensures the pages will stay flat when they're opened. Thanks to Barb Pankratz & Paullette McLaren for the idea. Barb has done most of the coptic stitching on these books as well.

Journal colophon by FAB

The colophon was particularly fun to create as there were no restrictions. A ruling pen was used to write the largest words, pointed brush for the colored lettering and pointed nib for the rest. Some of the media used were Walnut ink and liquid acrylic inks for the lettering, watercolor pencils for decorating the word "JOURNAL" and painting the word "HANDBOUND". The results for "use" are by dropping acrylic inks into wet walnut ink. When the lettering for "enjoy" was dry, a Sakura Souffle Gel Pen was used to decorate it. Click on the images for a larger view.

The Wheatland Calligraphy Guild

So apparently, there’s this group of 14+calligraphic friends in Melfort, Saskatchewan who get together twice a month, make cards for and with people in hospitals and assisted living homes, and travel the area to teach classes to students. They invite you out to teach a weekend class and they send a famous TV interviewer to pick you up at the airport (I know she’s famous ‘cause my Aunt & Uncle in Saskatoon knew of her and she’d interviewed my cousin!), she takes you to the best art supply store in Toontown "the gallery/art placement", then to her wonderfully eclectic and creatively decorated home so you can rest up a bit, a quick tour thru the back alleys, then entertains you on the 2 hour drive to Melfort.

Once they get you out there and during your first ever ‘slide’ presentation alone, they chuckle in all the appropriate places, laugh when you screw up, then feed you a banquet of fruits and mouth watering peanut butter and ginger snap homebaked (almost as good as Grandma Blanch’s) cookies.
So you teach the course, and they feed you homemade soups and more goodies for lunch, and MAKE SURE you take all the coffee breaks in case you didn’t eat enough earlier.
Oh, and they billet you at your favorite Saskatchewan Auntie & Uncle’s place (or at least it felt like it), out on the farm, of course.

The students were all eager learners, even allowing for the 2 sassy ladies at the back that really should have been sent to the corner...more than once. (Not!) I think I had them trained by the end of the class as they did produce some wonderful work... all under time pressured situations as well. (gotta make'em sweat, right?)

Can you believe these 3 beautiful pieces were created in class using the same alphabet, with totally different approaches by 3 separate students? Pretty cool. Kersals Calligraphy: Gail Forsyth's F,Just As I Am Lord by Teolinda Carlson-Lang & does anyone know who's wonderfully gestural H that is?

Oh yeah, as that was the closing weekend of the Canadian Brier http://www.seasonofchampions.ca/2008brier/in Winnipeg (Curling, you know) they even arranged for my flight home to Edmonton to arrive directly after the plane carrying the grand winners, skip Kevin Martin and 2nd Marc Kennedy, who were still chatting with the media, so that I finally got to meet with and exchange hugs with Marc’s parents, my old junior & senior St.Albert High friends. We hadn't seen each other since our school days!

That Wheatland Calligraphy Guild, they’re pretty special.