Francie Alberts Bredeson

Edmonton Calligraphic Society celebrates 25 years at June Social!

2011-05-14T18:04:00.007-06:00

Yes, we are 25 years of age! And are we planning a special and colourful celebration at our June 2 Social & Silent Auction! In 1981 the guild started up with 14 charter members and we're hoping they''ll all be able to join us in celebrating.

This special night is open to members, former members, and invited guests.

If you'd like to come, tickets are $15 and as it's a catered event, we have a cut-off date of May 26. You can contact me for a ticket by leaving a message here. We're so fortunate to have 5 of us on the social committee, and the ideas are just bouncing! We are going to wear our favorite colours & party like we're 25! With gifts for everyone!

Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild Anniversary

2011-05-14T17:19:00.006-06:00

The calligraphic community in Alberta is celebrating a couple of milestones this year! The Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild in Calgary is 30 years old & planning something special for their fall newsletter. They sent out a notice for a comment along with a logo-type design, so I did up this little piece using a Techniquill pen, fine point marker and Higgins Eternal Permanent Black ink.

Below are a few I fooled around with; pretty similar but mostly trying to get a workable "s" on "years" that didn't look like it was hanging out there too much, all alone. I had another page of trials, tracing back & forth using a small lightable.Now that I look at the finished product I see the that the final "s" really looks more like a lower case "d" and the little ampersand amongst the monoline words looks more like an "e", cause I forgot to put in the "t"-like slash; ampersands having originated from the latin ET. or something.

Duhhhh. This is why I don't hold a regular job, people! Yeeesh!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! & divvy it up

2011-02-09T14:54:00.014-07:00

or "How to use up your scraps of fancy papers"

We were given a project to create for February's meeting of ECS (Edmonton Calligraphic Society) which was to create a box with 9 letters. The sample shown was

VAL

ENT

INE

however that's not something I'd have on my wall year-round. Well I could, but people would think I was weird. Which I am, but that's another story. So I opted for 'luving you'. What can I say, it was a dry day for ideas, & I had to go to a friend for that. This is how it was created:

Start with a (8"wooden) square block. (see below for how to divide an unequal measurement into equal pieces) Using clear matte medium as a paste, wrap a piece of rice paper on the front & around to the back. Paint black cheapo liquid acrylic on front & sides as a base. (Or you could just use black gesso.) Pull out all those fancy gold & red papers you've been saving for the perfect project, this is it! Then cut background squares & letters, & glue them on, alternating the color for each of the 9 squares. (Yes! the gold cross-stitch paper I saved from the 90's!) The fatter the letters, the better. Some may need a little oomph, like my U, N & Y, so outline them or the background with black pen, Gold Krylon paint or gold highlighter. Fun stuff.

Not so much fun putting all the papers away.

You can see the other samples at ECS's Facebook page. I think this is the link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=151228041582552

I may put the others up here after they've come out in the next guild newsletter.

Now, HOW TO DIVIDE INTO EQUAL PIECES WITHOUT A CALCULATOR

For example this green paper is 5 1/2" square & you want to divide it into 3 equal strips.

Hold the beginning of the ruler (0") against the top left corner of the paper. Find a number larger than the length of the paper that is divisible by 3; that's 6.

#1. Slide the right side of the ruler down until the 6" mark is flush with the paper edge.

6 % 3 is 2, so make a dot on the paper every 2"; at the 2" & the 4" spot.

#2. Slide the ruler down & line up the start of the ruler with the bottom left corner.

Slide the right side of the ruler to the 6" spot. Again, mark a dot at 2" and 4" .

#3. Join the upper & lower dots. To divide this page into 9 equal squares, turn the paper 1/4 turn & repeat the process.

'TIS THE SEASON!

2010-12-13T11:26:00.012-07:00

The Edmonton Calligraphic Society http://www.edmontoncalligraphicsociety.ca/ held it's annual Christmas Party on the 1st Thursday of this month and that always gets me kick-started into the season. This year we had a finger-food potluck social at the home of our president. It was so cozy and festive; just wonderful for socializing. By the tree infront of the fireplace sat 30-some white paper bags, each adorned with our names which Wendy Spiers had calligraphed. Into these we dropped our cards, and mine was filled with with such beautiful handmade creations.

Here's a look at a few for now.

* A very MERRY Merry Christmas by Gail Fournier. How cute is that!
*O Beautiful Star in Neuland by Jeanine Alexander. Jeanine used a star from the layering technique we learned in Nadia's "Missing Pieces"class last month.
*A new member of our guild, Carol Thomas-Bain, used her wonderful lettering to advantage on an ornamental tag inserted into a folded envelope.
*Sonja Idema's cards always blow me away with their creative presentation and this years snowflake-themed tag & folded envie with her fun monoline letters are no exception.
*I really like how Monica Robertson puts her heart & soul into her cards. This year her idea came from a meditation course she took; brown for the monk's garments, a zentangle around 2011, and a haiku about the experience of meditation.
Click on the images to enlarge.
And the Edmonton Calligraphic Society has a Facebook page now...check it out! And breathe....

Summer Lettering

2010-10-12T15:48:00.016-06:00

I don't know what's wrong with me. I've got Marv's work pants hanging on the line (yes, people still do that), I've got a stew cooking in the slow cooker, and now I'm ready to blog!

Every once in a while someone asks if I still do calligraphy.

I do, but on my own terms. For example, our nephew Roger married Sarah in Dawson Creek,BC this summer. We were camping & fishing for the 2 weeks leading up to it making our way up there, so as usual, I was creating their wedding present on holidays. We swung by their place before leaving so I could scope out the colour scheme & I packed a small box with supplies. (Keep in mind our trailer is only 18' long and when you camp in the foothills the last 2 weeks in August you got to pack clothing, shoes & boots for all 4 seasons!)

I took:

8 x10 velvet mat with 5x7 opening
a few papers, including tracing, cut to size
black Pigma pen (felt tip) for outlining & names
watercolour pencils
a few good round brushes
small containers for water
silver & gold gouache
sumi ink with old brush
pencil, eraser
8x10 foamcore for backing
clear plastic envelope 'sleeve' for presentation
small pizza box (unused) to pack the present in
a fishing tackle box full of fishing tackle

Left- Aren't Sarah & Roger cute?

Above- We also spent time there with our son Dale & his girl Tara (I love this girl!) who spent 17 hours driving from Vancouver across the province to Dawson Creek, JUST TO SEE US!

(They went to the wedding too.)

So on our way there, we camped at the Brazeau Dam where the fishing is great. It rained for 3 days.

On the dam overflow picture that has a swamp in the middle, look carefully near the left side at the bottom of the picture for the very top edge of a post. That's the post (& wire) I climbed over to get a better picture, except I tripped & fell. Luckily I skidded only a few feet. And that's not a path at the bottom of the picture; that's a road!

I never took any meat out of the freezer for dinner because we were having fish.
Here's Marv trying to remove the fishhook from his finger.

And here's Biskit attempting amore direct approach to fishing.

That didn't work either.

Bisky had a great time frolicking in the wildflowers along the top edge of the dam, though.

When we got back to our campsite the trailer awning was hanging like a hammock...we had to remove a few buckets of hail before we could open the trailer door.

So we decided to move on, driving up towards the McLeod River to exactly where Marv's work buddy, who does "a lot of fishing", goes fishing, sometimes even with other fishermen.
Marv decided to pull over to the side of the road to remove his rain jacket.

That didn't go so well.

Like I said, it'd rained for 3 days.
A couple 20-year olds with their big honking double cab truck and bigass fat trailer with brand new ATV's pulled us out, and we only lost one part off the Blazer.

That was the part Marv had welded onto the front of the truck for pulling us out of sticky situations. Duh.

We found a wonderful site for our next stop...just a few yards to the right of this lake.

Doesn't this look like a professional photo?

Marv spent the evening fishing...

apparently fish don't grow in a gravel pit with no stream feeding into it.

Here the Biskinator decide's he's had enough & goes hunting for his own fish again.

We threw the rod a few times in the river, hoping to catch something.

(That's right, the rod...not just the line.)
Nada.

There's a pretty looking mountain stream in the centre there tho if you look hard enough.

If you're still reading at this point, you'll see some exciting lettering. This is the Alaska Hotel in Dawson Creek, which is at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.
Which gets me wondering, wouldn't Edmonton or even Calgary be at Mile Zero too? If the highway hasn't started yet?

Don't you just love this old place!? It just blew me away.

We didn't go in here.

We could've, but it was noon when we stopped for these pictures & it's almost a 7 hour drive home & Marv had get up before 6 a.m. to work the next day.

This place is across the alley next to the hotel.

If you look closely (you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them) there's a mural on a building at the end of the alley. Cool, huh?

We got home around midnight, fishless.

After I'd caught 2 fish that broke the line & got away, Marv wondered if perhaps we should replace my line... because it was his dad's old fishing gear (who passed away in the early 90's & I don't recall him EVER fishing), maybe the line might be a little weak...? Ya think?

Oh, and Marv landed one that squiggled back & slipped into the water.
"It was thhiiiiiiiiiiissssssss big!!!"

ECO watercolour fairie quote

2010-07-08T10:53:00.006-06:00

I chose to do this quote from Peter Pan by JM Barrie for a baby gift, and being a lover of fairies (who isn't!) I went for a light-hearted colourful look.

After sketching the rough out, I found

in my paper stash a colourful scrapbook paper with a splashy watercolour design to use as a background border.

I chose ECO liquid watercolours

to match it.

The colours for the bouncy "laughed" was dropped in with a brush.

To get the bleed on "and they all went skipping about" I used a pointed nib and with a multitude of brushes handy continuously fed the nib with a different colour, occasionally dabbing a paper towel when the nib got too full.

Locker room graffiti card

2010-04-29T13:26:00.009-06:00

Here's my attempt at some "train art" in a birthday card for a 15 year old. Poor dude's BD is in September, so I went for a school locker theme, with for some added graffiti.

Enjoyed using various felt markers, gel pens and a Pilot Parallel Pen on a textured grey Laid-like piece of cardstock that was laying around.

Like most rush jobs, I kinda made it up as I went along.

This would've been before I got my pan pastels...that would've helped.

Marc Kennedy, Martin Rink Soars

2010-03-01T15:45:00.005-07:00

WOW! DID THEY EVER

14 Gold medals! What a thrill!

Congrats to all Olympic athletes for achieving their dreams!

And to all their parents for believing in them!

Saturday night after the Martin rink won gold, Marv & I looked to each other and said "Ya! We shook that young man's hand!" And he was so gracious... he surely must get that from his parents.

Proud to be Canadian!

Albertan!!

(St.Albertan?)

Marc Kennedy & Kevin Martin rink- my Olympic heroes

2010-02-20T11:10:00.016-07:00

TO ALL OUR OLYMPIC ATHLETES

Kevin Martin, John Morris, Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert

Ya!!!! Going for GOLD!!!

Marc Kennedy's the blonde cutie, 2nd from Rt.

OK, if you've followed the blog for a while I previously mentioned my personal connection; I was friends with Marc's mom Connie Leblanc in Jr.High, and had classes throughout jr. & senior high school with Connie & Don Kennedy (he called me metal mouth in Grade 9 when I wore braces which I'm over now so I won't mention it- I was walking down the glassed in slope from the library to class & he was just a couple feet behind. It's oK, I'm over it now. Not the braces tho; wore them from Gr.7-10 & my overbite is back!!! Life is so cruel..if not cruel, expensive!)

Connie & Don were involved in a number of school sports & starting a St.Albert teen club of which curling was a part. I had a chance meeting with Marc in '08 & he was just so friendly & humble, & it was so great to see Connie, ever so graceful, (& Don) after all these years. (And if I were 13 again & walking behind Don & not so insecure, maybe I'd say "hey, Chubbs, not so cute anymore, are ya?" heehee). Thanx Ed.Journal for not suing me for copy & pasting your photo of our Alberta champs.

The CALLIGRAPHY:

TOOLS- 1/4" or 3/8" metal Techniquill flat edge pen with Higgins Eternal ink. LETTERING STYLE- Neuland, with pen at 90 degrees. Some strokes double stroked or touched up with a pointed pen nib to create that bit of a curve at the beginnings & endings.

The 'fishtails' on the crossbars of the H, A & flourish of the Y: Created by sliding the nib along & lifting the outside edge of the nib while the inside edge continues trailing on to. Think of a plane taking of as it goes into a turn. You can have a lot of fun with Neuland by lengthening some strokes & touching & bouncing letters.

The OLYMPIC COMPUTER addition:

This was done playing around in a Microsoft Word Doc; there are just SO MANY CHOICES in their WordArt option.

A MAGICAL bookmaking structure & experience!

2010-01-13T14:42:00.017-07:00

Spend only 6 minutes watching this amazing video as the books are discovered and opened. (Sweet musical accompaniment as well. F)

http://vimeo.com/7694315
For those of you who are interested in bookmaking, here's a wonderfully made video that displays Patience, the puzzle-like work of paper artist, Randi Parkhurst of the Pacific Northwest. I found it mesmerizing to watch how each book fits perfectly into place.
It's even more impressive when you keep in mind that Randi made all of the individual papers that compose each book.
http://www.parkhurstpaperarts.com/

Thanks to Margaret L. for the heads up & write-up on this one.

Isn't it cool?

Seasons Greetings

2009-12-22T12:58:00.014-07:00

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season with good health and happiness!

We had another great meal and fun time at the Edmonton Calligraphic Society's Christmas Social. http://edmontoncalligraphicsociety.ca The theme was Christmas Around The World, where upon entering we each were presented with a handmade nametag with an airport code on the front. I thought I was visiting Romania, but my destination turned out to be Rome! Pat & Jan created a fun evening which included songs, games and interesting tales of family traditions from members and guests.

I received some wonderful cards from members. I wasn't able to reciprocate unfortunately, what with my sabbatical, and was giving out hugs instead. Ok, the truth? I spend way too much time playing with the new puppy. So much, in fact, I believe he now thinks I'm his dog mommy. What can I say...I've always been an exceptionally good barker, and in fact can bark & whine to match any mood.

So I'm posting this greeting to you from a few years ago. I've got this thing about stained glass (see how happy I was when I FINALLY received a lamp for Christmas.)

The angel original was painted in watercolors and outlined with a black fine-tipped pen; the message created in a style taught by Alan Blackman at one of the conferences in Lethbridge. It reads "and the angel said unto them fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people" Too bad I forgot about the halo; perhaps I'd intended to add it in a metallic later.

YOU INSPIRE ME and I think I'm on a sabbatical

2009-07-14T13:16:00.009-06:00

There's a reason the advice about not creating your art to fit into a certain size frame is out there. I believe that reason could be because it might sit in a file for 6 months before any ideas start to flow.

Around 30 years ago a young man wrote this letter to his girlfriend, now his wife, who wanted to surprise him with it. She had the perfect spot on the wall, and already bought a wooden frame for it. Her request was that it fit 8x16, be casual & not fancy.
For the piece to have a more masculine feel, I played around and came up with a sharper edged ITALIC with no terminals. A changing vertical slant to the letters gave it a more casual yet lively look. I highlighted a phrase that was repeated throughout by running it vertically down the left.
Walnut ink was used in varying strengths throughout. A mixture of copper powders blended with a few drops of water and a drop of gum arabic was then brushed into the still wet NEULAND 'INSPIRE', which allowed it to bleed a bit.

Overall, I'm happy with the piece, although a couple of those flourishes (again!) off the main body of letters look stiff and the flourish of the 'e' in ME near the bottom shouldn't be touching that little one. Poor planning, but hey, it wasn't like that on the previous copy that was supposed to be the good one! The client said, No, at no time has her huband called her with Yo, instead of You. As in 'Yo, Adriann!' Hmmmph. I address envelopes & sign my emails to son#2 with YO' MAMA, so I figured it was worth a shot. In doing it again I might try swinging one of those small flourishes near the middle up and over the heading & then semi back again. The writing was quite personal so it's meant to be hard to read here.

Now, I can't sign off without my current reason for being; Biskit! Who's 6 months old now! (OK, and the husband is 56) and I took this shot when we went out to Jasper last month for a final good bye to our friend Jim.

Oh, and the sabbatical? That's self-imposed, and I have to admit I'm kinda liking it. The occasional guilty feelings are to be expected; meanwhile I'm just waiting to see what transpires. No promises. No expectations. Vegging out and really just loving being a puppymaster.

SO I'M A SLACKER...but there's more..

2009-06-25T18:46:00.011-06:00

Apologies for not keeping up with the site, but I really do have this most excellent excuse...
A NEW ADDITION TO OUR FAMILY!
We have a new baby!
Impossible at my age, you say? (I'm 55 & 10/12ths.) Not at all!
Our boys are 28 & 30; one lives the next province over, the one most likely to procreate soonest (we hope), is married (6 years, has degree, owns house) lives TWO provinces in the other direction (Honestly? I didn't think we were that BAD at parenting) and a person just can't wait for grandchildren forever. Not this person anyway.

So our new baby is of the 4 legged variety & he joined us 7 weeks ago at the ripe age of 12 weeks. Formerly named Rascal (Uh, uh - why name him something he'll strive to become; that's just wrong). Marv came up with a name he liked on his way home from work, on the same day I picked the same name, and neither of us had heard or seen it before.

BISKIT is part Shih Tzu, part Bichon Frise. Already more well behaved than the boys- this one sleeps through the night! And no diapers! (Or cracked nipples!)

Oops, I almost forgot...this site IS supposed to have something artsy so here's a quickie down below. Notice it's not spelled Biscuit; HOW TO FLOURISH THAT?!...boring. Byskit was a consideration with even greater flourishing possibilities but that just doesn't pronounce well when being read.
Lettering's done with walnut ink & a Pelikan split nib Fountain Pen (pen came in a pkg with 3 sizes of double lines about 20 years ago but they might still be available). And the backgound kinda looks like our floors now, but who gives a crap; we have a NEW SOURCE OF JOY in our lives!

About the pictures-
#1. Rec'd this photo by email while Marv was away 4 the weekend, with the heading "Marv's new puppy". My 1st thought? "I don't THINK so!" Everbody knows we're a pet free house 'cause our 1st born has allergies.
Marv comes home. No puppy. I'm a little disappointed...a lot actually, so we phone the kid & all agree: skrew 'im for moving 2 provinces away! They can stay with friends or family nearby. Puppy arrives 4 days later. Free too, 'cause he's from friends.

#2. I am SO in love! See how I no longer have time to wash my hair, put make-up on, wash clothes (20 yr old sweater), feed Marv...

#3. Puppy's 1st visitors. Val & Morley rush over as soon as they find out. Didn't say boo to us tho. Hmmm. Friends.

#4. Yes he does. Have eyes & legs, that is. 1st haircut @ 4 months @ just 4 times the price of mine. (Really...I pay $10 to a professional hairdresser who works out of her home...don't bother commenting that it looks like it too.) Biskit's strawberry blond? is JUST like son#2's hair...maybe this one will let me try those french braids on him.

#5. For Father's Day Biskit gets Marv a John Deere bandanna. It's actually a pet bandanna, but oh well. Marv's all about J.D. tho and "Nothing runs like a Deere"!

#6. I figured maybe I should do a little calligraphy this month. :)

Calligraphic Art Show in May

2009-04-27T17:06:00.007-06:00

Our guild is having an Exhibit!

MAY 1-22, 2009

M-F 9-9, Sat 9-6,Sun 1-5, closed Victoria Day, May18

Stanley Milner Library

102 Ave & 99 St. Edmonton

Members of ECS will be demonstarting & having exciting items for sale on Sundays from 1-5

Please Come!

http://edmontoncalligraphicsociety.ca

Edmonton Calligraphic Society offered their free fun day for members which I took in, and our 1st project was to decorate these canvas Pen & Brush Holders. Was that EVER fun!

Jackie Doll sewed each one of these up ahead of time for us (thank you, Jackie...mine alone would've taken me all day) and all we had to do was throw the paint on!

We used liquid acrylics; Dr.Martin's worked the best for lettering with nibs, and I used cheapie folk art acrylics for most of the rest, along with the flourish stamps from Quietfire Designs, ttp://www.quietfiredesign.com/

stamped onto the same paint, which we mixed & spread out on yogurt lids.

It was SO exciting!

Now I must finish our 2nd project, which was a decorated storage cube made from CD Cases.

This is a view of the back of the penholder.

Here's to SISTERS! and unfinished projects

2009-03-27T15:57:00.009-06:00

Yep, it's finally done. My 1st and probably last fabric piece. You know, the one I blogged about a year or 2 back? I handed "SISTERS" over to my big (wh0's getting smaller by the week) sis for her recovery period, so that must mean it really is finished, although now while resizing the pics I see there's an area across the bottom that could use something...maybe very light in color as the eye needs a place to rest. I've got it; that whole canvas at the bottom could be fringed. What do you think?

I also forgot to add the poem's author, so that I could write just above the blue cord.

Remember this original, before I decided to write the complete lyrics? I know, too bad I covered it all up. Thanks again to Lisa Engelbrecht of California who taught this to the Edmonton Calligraphic Society http://edmontoncalligraphicsociety.ca/

Yay Sharon, for getting rid of all the crap & seriously tackling that awful *!x#*!!#xx** word. (EXERCISE)

Personally, I think I'll just down another couple Tylenol 4's before I step out to pick up the mail... it seems to be working quite well these days.

A Wedding Project

2009-02-04T17:11:00.010-07:00

My cousin Danielle & Greg wanted their wedding stationery to

somehow incorporate the season without being too Christmassy. In Toronto there could be snow on the ground or still remnants of the colorful autumn leaves. Their colors were plum purple, bronze, green and brown. I did the lettering and artwork, emailed it to them, and they took care of the paper choice, printing & assembly.

After a couple attempts it finally came to me that with 3 D's and 2G's to their names a monogram could work as a decorative feature. The illustrations are a nod to the season as well as the fact that Greg owns his own landscaping company.

They had a rubber stamp made of the monogram which they thermal embossed for the invitation cover and reduced above the date on the back of their ceremonial program. Now they'll be able to use their stamp on Thank-You cards or whatever they choose.

Congratulations cousins!

Card & Envelope folds

2009-02-04T16:05:00.012-07:00

I love the way

Margaret Poznansky used photos her father took of her as a child in an accordion fold card. It's 1 long sheet; you see 2 images 'cause it was too long for the scanner. A few strokes of a pointed pen nib (allows pressure for more weight in the lines) create a playful border. The last section on the end has been scored twice to allow for the width of the card. With that folded over like a cover all that was needed was a small red ribbon tied around to add a splash of color.

Sonja Idema comes up with the most innovative ideas. Isn't this cool how she used a much larger envelope for her tag-like greeting card; here's the front, inside view and the tag itself.

'Tis Still The Season if our tree's still up

2009-01-15T01:17:00.011-07:00

Here are a few more lovely hand-made cards I received from fellow calligraphers.

"A multitude of...happiness" with gold dots accenting the bright red compressed italic was a lovely surprise from Thea Paul, a Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild member from Calgary.

http://www.bvcg.ca/

Gail Fournier's beautiful watercolour opens to a quote written in walnut ink in the Uncial style, which looks to be laser printed.

Both of these first 2 cards are from enthusiastic newbies...."young" calligraphers with less than 5 years of lettering behind them.

Exposure to all a guild has to offer...quarterly newsletters, knowledgeable instructors, seeing the lettering & projects of others up close, patience and a willingness to get involved have all made a difference towards the growth of these 2 ladies.

http://edmontoncalligraphicsociety.ca/

Bev Paranych has a magic touch with her Gocco machine;

she always gets good results from this small silkscreen hand printer. Her tree shaped lettering is framed by triangular cutouts with fine sparkly filligreed material behind. Or is that 2 layers of cloth...one has raised gold stars. Bev's been doing calligraphy for eons, and it shows in the smooth flow of her lettering. I have yet to figure out how she manages to put the hours it takes into the detailing of her Christmas cards, work 2 jobs outside the home, run a household and renovate, all at the same time.

(Slightly green with envy there.)

Bev gained most of her experience while a member of the

Northern Lights Calligraphers,

P.O. Box 6220.

Fort McMurray,

Alberta

T9H 4W1

Canada

'tis still the Season

2009-01-08T14:18:00.008-07:00

right? I didn't mail-out any greetings this year but sure received some beautiful cards in return.

This one from Diane Waters is for all the ECS members. I've always wanted to do a card with greetings from around the world. Her greetings in foundational lettering are offset by the country of that language in a fine monoline which creates a nice texture. The bow attaches an overlay of vellum on which she added a personal message.

Cindy's Green's watercolours are looking so professional. It's that kind of day here today, and I just have to share.

I love the way Peggy Marce created such a wonderfully crisp card with one color ink and 2 nib sizes. You sure get that winter feeling...

greetings for the season

2008-12-13T11:14:00.009-07:00

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

2008-11-28T18:34:00.013-07:00

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

2008-10-18T12:59:00.026-06:00

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

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

2008-10-14T01:11:00.006-06:00

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

2008-09-17T01:01:00.008-06:00

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

2008-08-12T14:36:00.022-06:00

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:

Stamp your stamps clean on large sheet of cover weight card stock.
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.
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

2008-08-12T12:08:00.006-06:00

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

2008-08-05T16:24:00.004-06:00

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

2008-08-05T14:42:00.006-06:00

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

2008-08-05T13:54:00.009-06:00

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

2008-07-20T18:36:00.011-06:00

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

2008-07-03T13:52:00.009-06:00

(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

2008-06-23T14:06:00.034-06:00

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?

2008-06-17T20:57:00.008-06:00

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

2008-05-19T19:10:00.008-06:00

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

2008-05-05T23:19:00.014-06:00

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?

2008-04-21T14:14:00.005-06:00

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

2008-04-08T11:18:00.007-06:00

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

2008-03-30T13:50:00.019-06:00

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.

Kahlil Gibran wedding quote

2008-03-01T17:43:00.006-07:00

Weekend's here & it's time for an update.

Here's a piece for a wedding.

A great quote that's always in style.

Funny how, now matter how long you've been doing flourishes there's always at least a couple that really bug you?

Next time I'd create more contrast between the two letter styles on the left, too.

Always room for improvement.

A great day for a cold & Neuland coming up

2008-02-16T17:52:00.012-07:00

Yes, it's cold season and I'm feeling it. Hmphh. Sniffle snort.

How can I complain though,

when I look this good!

My art college buddy Bo Kim Louie painted this wee portrait in oils. It's just 2 1/2" in diameter.

Isn't that cool?

If you want yours done too,

send me a note and I'll see

what I can do.

I'd better be well for Saturday,

Feb.23 as that's the day to teach

N E U L A N D E X P R E S S

for the

Edmonton Calligraphic Society.

There's still room for you in it! It's gonna be fun stuff...

kinda like this and with umpteen options and variations!

It doesn't get any easier than this style.

Happy Valentine's Month everyone!

2008-02-14T10:43:00.007-07:00

Yes,

this is the

2 1/2"x 3 1/2"

Artist Trading Card

created for

last years' exchange that I placed

on a pink card stock

so as to have something

cardlike & special for my loved ones,

but the message is still the same,

so we're recycling this year!

In the immortal words of KOJAK,

"Who loves ya, baby?"

I do!

Does anyone know the name of the author?

Thea Paul's Kersal Piece

2008-02-10T18:00:00.001-07:00

THINK SPRING! ISN'T THIS A BEAUTY?

And to think this is an in class piece done by a student of mine makes me feel very proud of her. Thea Paul considers herself a "newer" calligrapher from the Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild, http://www.bvcg.ca/ who took Kersals when I taught it in Calgary last spring. She needed a gift that weekend and it often happens that we're able to make use of our classwork this way. Thea did a wonderful job of giving the letters a softness in fresh Spring colours. She had a second line below the name with the child's date of birth. I was totally amazed at the creativity produced in class.

I'm excited that the Wheatland Calligraphy Guild has invited me to teach Kersals in Melfort, Saskatchewan! Woohoo! They sound like a very active community group. My flight has been booked, and March 14th will be here before I know it! (I'd better get practicing.)

First up though, is a one day course for the Edmonton Calligraphic Society http://www.edmontoncalligraphicsociety.org on Feb 23. The class will be Neuland Express, a favorite for all levels and especially beginners. I'm sure to see some fun stuff happening, so must remember to take the camera!

Monica's Swami Beyondananda

2008-01-13T17:44:00.001-07:00

How about a little colour out there?

I love this piece by fellow Edmonton Calligraphic Society member Monica Robertson & thought you would too. It's quite large and really draws you in to take a closer look. The quotes are by Steve Bhaerman. Monica calls it “Swami Beyondananda” and this is what she had to say about it:

"Our study group decided to explore layering for the ECS library project. I immediately went to “Swami isms” and contacted Steve Bhaerman. He very graciously endorsed the idea, i.e. no copyright infringement. I enjoyed the freedom of the layering process. (If you don’t like it, cover it up.) I began with 140 lb. w/c paper, masked off areas with masking tape, and poured, painted walnut ink and watercolor, then lettered, then collaged, then painted, then lettered."

She makes it sound SO EASY!

This one says Happy New Year!

2008-01-08T16:51:00.001-07:00

Marv surprised me last night by handing me the words Hunter and Douglas that he'd clipped from an ad. When I gave him the totally clueless look that I'm so good at, he mentioned I must be running out of names by now as I've made so many snowflakes. He might have a point, since I've even made one for the son's cat. Perhaps I'll start on spring flowers soon.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T20:56:00.001-07:00

OK, took a little break there from the blog, but look what I did over Christmas!
Marv & I were off to Van to see the boy over Christmas & I needed something to do besides chew my fingernails while Marv was driving (his driving is actually pretty good & it was I who drove us into the ditch one dark blowing night on the Coquihalla) SO I made
Paper Name Snowflakes!
Lotsa fun. Did one up for all Dale's roomies in the mansion, his girlfriend and even the cat Charlie. Can you pick out the names Adrianna, Shane & Karl on the pic below?

I had a nice Happy New Year snowflake all ready to post, but the man has done something with the connections so no scan tonight.

What you need for a 6 sided snowflake is a 30 degree triangle. Cut mine from a file folder. Any photocopy paper will do for the snowflake. Vellum won't work...rubbing the fold with your fingernail causes the folded edge to become a torn edge. I also thought Tyvek would be great 'cause it doesn't tear, but it's too thick & the layers that tyvek is made with create all kinds of scratchy looking edges.

Fold a square piece of paper in half, then half again, then line up the 30 degree triangle to create 3 more folds. Draw up your name in your sketchbook 1st to decide where each letter should connect to the next. A block letter style like Neuland works great. Erase the connecting lines. After folding the paper, pencil the name on one triangular section.
Use cuticle scissors to cut out the unnecessary bits. Be sure to leave bits of paper all over the house when you get up!

You can iron your paper snowflakes to flatten them out when you're done, but if you use a steam iron, flip the snowflake over 1st or you'll get all kinds of gunk all over your nice white snowflake. The voice of experience.

All about snowflakes
http://www.its.caltech.edu/-atomic/snowcrystals/
for the most amazing photographs of real honest-to-god snowflakes like you won't believe!
For some great patterns & what to do with them once you've made them, check out http://www.papersnowflakes.com/patterns.htm

We'll be making paper name snowflakes at the January 10 meeting of the Edmonton Calligraphic Society. http://www.edmontoncalligraphicsociety.org/

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Let us share this holiday wish of love and peace to all!

I really enjoyed creating this year's card & except for a few dollars spent at the copy shop & $ store, it's all recycled materials; using 16" strips of card stock compliments of Taylor Printing and a circular Mandala that I'd painted for an ATC exchange.

COVER: I decided to take advantage of my new Score-It-Board by making as many folds as I could (also so the card would stand up)... 80 cards, 6 fold scores each -just a couple hours. The best part? No measuring! After scoring & before folding I placed a tuna tin on each end to cut a circular shape around the edges.
The original mandala? Sketched one "pie", traced it for the remaining sections of the circle, added color with watercolor pencils, watered it in, & outlined letters with black Sharpie marker.

TP color copied the 8" original to produce 20 (2" diameter) up on one page!, then I had a few reduced even more for the pie "peace". Glued the 2" mandala on right hand section of card stock, between the cut circular edge & the fold, leaving 1/4" space. Cut closely around left half of the mandala so the front left cover would slide between the cut parts, which is what holds it in place when standing/closed. Pressed a 1/2" translucent colored raised adhesive-backed circle (?) to the center of the mandala to add a little shine.
Glued smaller pie "peace" to the left side.

INNER MESSAGE:
Expressive, huh? Created using a Pilot Parallel pen,
with the knowledge gained from Denis Brown's Developing Expression in Calligraphy course.
Glued peace piece on. Scanned it, placed 3 up in a Word Doc, printed, cut into 3 strips.The plan was to use our printer to print this directly onto white Unryu paper (kinda filmy, fibrous, looks handmade, also free from Kim Fjordbotten at The Paint Spot, Edmonton).
I even folded the top edge over a plain sheet 1st. Didn't work, so just used plain white copy paper.

THE ATTACHMENT: Placed inner message strip inside card stock, used tiny punch to punch 2 small holes in upper left corner, threaded $ store yarn through all & tied.
Peace out!

Kersals by Francie

2007-12-15T10:07:00.005-07:00

KERSALS is an alphabet created and copyrighted by Francie Alberts Bredeson

THE KERSALS COURSE

I teach consists of 12 hours of instruction over a 2 day period in a classroom setting of up to 20 students of all levels, beginners to seasoned calligraphers.

This contemporary adaptatio n of the centuries old Versals

is a very VERsatile alphabet that adapts well to many different

art mediums.

Students enjoy the fact that they can easily personalize the letters to make it their own; creating from quick gestural almost abstract forms to precise and delicate words and monograms.

At this time I'm not able to offer instruction by email or snail mail, but I do travel out of province to instruct.
A Kersals Alphabet Forest.

2003

Kersals "Savior" Christmas card

2007-12-12T09:32:00.001-07:00

OK, I cheated; this is from a previous year's card.
The lettering style used for "Savior" is one of my own creations.
(more later)

Calligraphy computerized

2007-12-01T10:09:00.001-07:00

All this by lettering just one word!

After much experimentation,

I inserted the 3 images below to a Microsoft word doc, created transparent edges, layered them, printed a copy, then scanned it to be able to add it to the blog.

I lettered the original SOAR using Walnut Ink in a 3/8" Techniquill pen, then dropped in the green Dr.Martin's Luminescent Acrylic Ink. When dry I used a metallic green gel pen to doodle around the edges.

The following are playing with it on the computer in the Nero Photosnap Image Viewer program.

Right: Emboss,

Solarize,

Find Edges

Above: Invert Colors, Remove red, Water Effect

Below: Invert Colors, Kaleidoscope

Calligraphic exhibition

2007-11-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

In looking for something to post this week I was reminded of some of amazing works of art that members of our guild, the Edmonton Calligraphic Society, displayed at a showing in the Stanley Milner Library. This Doris Darbasie painting is particularly exciting. Quiet and delicate, Doris is known in the Edmonton art circles as one of the finest floral watercolorists. Her Orchid paintings are particularly yummy. So where, I'm wondering, did she get the vibrant burst of energy that is this creation?

From our city, naturally.

Monday presentation YOU"RE INVITED!

2007-11-09T14:24:00.001-07:00

Ros

& Francie's

night out

Monday, Nov.12 7-9:30

Church of Christ basement

114 St & 61 Ave. Edmonton

On Monday, Nov.12,

Ros & I will be giving a presentation about our trip to Island Magic, the International Calligraphy Conference that was held at Shawnigan Lake School on Vancouver Island this summer, to anyone who is interested (mostly Edmonton Calligraphic society members). There were 320 calligraphers there from 18 countries (I read that somewhere)You would not believe the site...about 300 acres of antique-y looking Hogwarts type buildings, lots of gardens, a couple ponds and even a house for the gnomes! We'll have lots of pics as a slide show; about 20 from the Instructors Exhibit (they're all International Superstars!), a whole wack of exciting pieces that students in our & other classes created (like Christmas candy for the eyes) and of course quite a few pics to help explain the process we went through trying to learn how to

"Develop Expression In Calligraphy".
Oh yeah, we'll even have a few pictures of Denis Brown's work.
And our sheets from the class.

And refreshments!

Hope to see you there! RSVP Ros or I

How to find the Church:If you went straight West on 63 Ave (that's Argyll) instead of following the curve past the School for the Deaf, you'd end up beside the Church, which is on the Avenue, N side of the street.

Check out http://www.islandmagic2007.ca/ >class grid

for samples of instructors work & what they taught.

More from Island Magic conference

2007-10-19T15:19:00.000-06:00

"Developing Expression in Calligraphy" was just that...The normal upright Roman & Italic alphabets distorted; condensed, oblique, twist upward, fit into rectangular, parallelogram, trapezoid shapes, to bring movement & energy.

TOP: Instructor Denis Brown's in-class example of lettering and the spacing between & within letters was done quickly and with borrowed tools.

There was such creativity in our class!

PIECE with 3 dark areas and

TAKE STRANDS by Suzie Beringer

LEFT

wonderfully shaped letters by Susan Richardson

Also by Suzie Beringer, prolific and precise!

You really need to click on these to enlarge & appreciate them.

The rhythm of calligraphy

Mono-rhythmic has equal positive and negative spaces. Duo or Polyrhythm are more organic and add excitement, and some options to break the rhythm are counter-filled “a & o’s”, elongated ascenders & descenders, thicks & thins, extended strokes and harmony of direction and proportion.

Baby Piece, Kersals based initials

2007-10-18T10:08:00.000-06:00

Just finished up a piece for a friend's grand-daughter. This little 8x10 is lettered with metallic gel pens; the letter interiors are watercolor pencil. For a little pizazz I added gold thermal embossing powder, so they're raised. It's such fun to go wild with the initals to make them unique.The initials are beased on an alphabet I created called Kersals.

(Personal info deleted)

Happy Thanksgiving & Halowe'en Everyone!

2007-10-07T13:21:00.001-06:00

OK, the art is not exactly "Thanksgiving " looking, but it is time to clean the crap out so those creepy crawlies don't find a place to overwinter! Now I'm outta here- it's a balmy 18C & time to clean up the outdoor patio pots!

My Artist Trading Card for the ECS exchange,3.5"x2.5" Background-Black FW Acrylic Ink on Tobacco Mi-Tientes card stock. Fly-traced from wrapping paper with Pitt artist pen, colored with Sakura Glaze pens; Wings-Winsor Newton Liquid Iridescent, Eyes-Iridescent Pearl Paint Dimensional Fabric & Craft Paint pen. Ribbon-Textured stuff found when cleaning out my Mom's house. Lettering-orange Permapaque marker & Black Pitt artist pen. Other eyes are iridescent green beads.

EASY PAINT SPLATTER BACKGROUND
For 10 ATC's start with an 8.5"x11" sheet of card stock. Using a pipette, drip black ink across card stock. Blow through a straw held perpendicular .5" above an ink drop & the ink will splatter.

FOR VARIETY:

-vary the size of ink drops & space between

-hold straw at an angle then blow

-vary direction of straw

-wiggle straw while blowing

-exchange ink for watercolor or other liquid media

TEMPLATE to cut 10 ATC's from 8.5"x11"

Measure carefully, & draw the lines on tracing paper, then run clear tape around the edge of the sheet to protect it. Now you can play with which direction will be most pleasing before you cut the actual card stock into 3.5"x2.5" cards which you can then continue to decorate.

2007-10-03T19:08:00.000-06:00

I've just been tagged,
which means I'm supposed to name 7 little known things about myself...

I don't think there are any.
I know how to fly.
I have a husband who keeps a pet seagull in our travel trailer.
(not a real seagull though; that'd be cruel)
I'm afraid of being homeless.
I have a childhood secret only my husband, my sister & a friend know.
I could live on popcorn & Pepsi.
I don't play tag.

Oops...it's supposed to be RANDOM things...now I have to add "don't read very well".
Happy Nadia?

Art college revisited

2007-09-28T17:51:00.001-06:00

Last year we had a little reunion at ACA(D).

Crazy fun.

Except the building looks bland & washed out. They got rid of the best part of the 70's, which was the huge main hall leading down the steps to the cafeteria, & added boxy white rooms instead. Bleccchh!

Luckily, we found that the stairwells held out some hope of creativity!

The best part?

Reconnecting with Bo & Lea.

Bo still has that funny laugh, Lea still sounds so laid back,

I'm not the only crazy one,

and now we can all feel ancient together.

Art made easy

2007-09-25T12:38:00.000-06:00

Ok, I should be redoing a piece, but instead I discovered this photo of my Pointed Pen Class & couldn't help myself. Do I detect Angelina Jolie in the front row?

Love the kaleidoscope feature in Nero Photoshop.

Cute, huh?

Oops, Marv's come home, better look busy...

baby gift for Joshua

2007-09-25T11:47:00.000-06:00

A little piece for Joshua...

the client asked for it to look masculine so it will suit the little boy

as he grows.

Alas, we changed the quote partway through the email exchanges,

but when I sat down to create,

my mind blocked that out,

so here is the 1st quote,

all dressed up & no place to go!

Walnut ink, watercolor, souffle gel pen;

Techniquill, Mitchell nib on watercolor paper.

Image fits a 5x7 opening.

Proclamation to Granddaughters

2007-09-16T12:06:00.000-06:00

A recent commission;

On 8x10 Diploma Parchment.

Lettering is Walnut Ink, with watercolor flourishes, touches of gold are a mixture of gouache & Winsor Newton liquid gold.

The color around the border, last to be applied, is chalk pastels brushed against sandpaper over the paper, then rubbed on with cotton balls.

Final piece sprayed with Workable Fixative.

Isn't the idea of it, and the wording just precious?

It was a joy to work on.

Expressive Calligraphy;Denis Brown at Island Magic

2007-09-15T10:14:00.000-06:00

My instructor at Island Magic; Denis Brown demonstrates how he writes so expressively. He puts his strokes down quickly, almost slashing, even using his pen in an upward fashion, contrary to what most calligraphers have been taught.

Atom: Denis wrote in white gouache on polyfilm with black sheet under; note the corner of the penstroke on the exit hairline of the A is taken right off the page.

Quickly written

in class by Denis.

A quick demo done in class shows the fluidity of Denis' writing.

Artist Trading Card theme: Black & White

2007-09-09T13:12:00.001-06:00

I made 10 of these for the Edmonton Calligraphic Society exchange this week & have a few left.

It's 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".

The background of criss-crossed lines is actually the inside of a bill envelope.

Everything else is pasted on.

The top ribbon is a strip of scribbled layered words that reads"blackwordsonawhitepage"

with a Sharpie outlining the strip.

"WORDS"shapes were arranged & cut from black paper & I used a Hiro 111EF pointed pen to write the Akim style of "black scratch on white". The word "divine" in copperplate style suits the delicateness of the flourished ribbon. I couldn't wait to use this roll of scrolled ribbon that I'd happened upon eons ago at the 2nd hand store for just pennies and finally found just the right project!

Shawnigan Lake

2007-08-13T16:00:00.001-06:00

Just got back from a week of lettering at Island Magic,
which was an international calligraphy conference that took place at Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island.

Stepped outside the class one day to hear something musical...
it begged me to follow

down the path
beside the pond

2 little sisters

2007-05-08T10:50:00.001-06:00

My work in progress.

I'm still using up acrylic paints from the class.

A favorite is Luminescense Halo which is still viscous after a few weeks. FW Acrylics seemed to work well but the little samples dried up.

I've had to spray the fabric with workable fixative to prevent bleeding when using Rotring Transparents.

I don't like the results from the folk acrylic craft paints at all; just kind of sits there like a blob.

A 70's shot

2007-05-04T18:26:00.002-06:00

Newly married...

we bought a piano for $300.00 at an auction and I played the pieces I used to play while mooning over Casey as a lonely teen... I used to dream about him.

Never had him, but still have the piano.

And the not-so-new husband.

ATC theme "Music" for Edmonton Calligraphic Society swap.

Words by Maya Angelou

2007-04-29T18:46:00.001-06:00

Lettering on Fabric!

Fresh from a course with Lisa Engelbrecht from California, a super talented, vibrant artist; this is a piece in progress from the class. She came up to Alberta this month & taught at the 3 major calligraphic guilds in Alberta. The Lettering on Fabric in Edmonton was 2 days long.

It will no doubt sit here for months while i play with different transfer image possibilities to replace these color copies of my big sister & I. Working with acrylic is tricky; it doesn't flow through nibs with reservoirs.

It all started with a few words; I believe from Carly Simon "two little sisters gazing at the sea...wondering what their future will be".

I'd like to know more about the song.

Christmas Card 2006

2006-12-09T19:59:00.001-07:00

My card this year was created around the 25' of purple star garland that I picked up last year post-season for pennies. The card stock was a freebie from my favorite (Taylor) Printing shop. Unfortunately the snowflakes weren't cheap.

Step1.I used a pointed pen style lettering (about 20 times to get it right) with Higgins Eternal ink on Paper For Pens. The fun is in getting the letters to bounce with even white spaces within. I gained a lot from taking a 3 dayMike Kecseg pointed pen course this fall.

2.Photocopied on 7"tall by 11"wide card stock (Printer off cuts)

3.Scored & folded in thirds

4.Cut window through top 2 layers

5.Cut & attached 3" star garland with double sided tape above & below window opening

6. Glued strip of lavender text weight paper with inside message, then glued inside front to middle layer to hide the garland edges

7. Used glue dots to attach iridescent star to 1" purple card stock to same size iridescent stock

2006-12-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

I sometimes find it more difficult expressing myself verbally than creating art, especially when dealing with "meno" moments...what did I just read before...where did I read that....what was the computer terminology and what the heck is that supposed to mean?

2006-12-04T11:11:00.001-07:00

2006-12-04T11:07:00.002-07:00