September

The weather in September cooperated so that the program could be held outside.  Nan and Fay helped everyone with creating Paste Paper.

 such concentration!

August

We have been having a picnic the last few years in the one of the two months that we don't meet for lettering (the other being December and the Christmas luncheon). This year we decided to have it in Redwood Park in Surrey because it was the tenth anniversary of us having lost one of our members, Diana Haines. Another group of her friends have placed a bench in her honour at the park and we thought it fitting to have our picnic close by that location. 

 In celebration of

Diana Elizabeth Haines

Trust in the circle. To end is to begin.

2004

As with every potluck event, calligraphers do know how to cook and eat well! It was also Trevor's birthday so we even had birthday cake! Hope you enjoyed your day Trevor. Even though it was a warm day, we were shaded by a large tree - the park is all about trees planted by two brothers many years ago. There are some interesting species within the park.  

 Happy Birthday Trevor!

with Kathleen and Shannon

 Great selection for lunch.

 Win, Rita and Terry

 Patricia

 Margot and Trevor

 Eileen has an iPad, it just won't be the same

seeing her without her camera!

Lunch lineup!

 Trevor and Fay. 

ask Fay about this one!

A wonderful day for the 13 of us who were able to attend and I think the consensus of opinion was to meet at the park again next year but perhaps try and get a table closer to the parking lot.

JULY

 In July we decided to have a meeting without any business, just fun. Many but not all of us had attended the workshop earlier in the year with Barbara Close and as always, enjoyed all the techniques she shows and shares in her classes.

We decided to revisit them as most of us did not use up all the paper we had cut for the workshop and it was a chance to share them with those members who were unable to attend. 

Using watercolour paper, preferably hot press for the ease of working on a smooth surface, we masked off squares with tape to paint with watercolour or twinkling H20s, pearlescent paints or whatever members had brought to work with.  

Another technique was to "walk" your large broad edged pen across the paper, creating spots for colour and visual interest to letter around. Fine lines can be added in with sumi using twigs, pine cones, etc. 

 

JUNE

Note to self: do not try to compose blog posts when you are tired. They disappear!

We offered two programs in June. 

One was a well organized mini workshop with Violet working with NEULAND.

They used in and gouache to write with, pastels, markers, gel pens and coloured pencils to decorate with and then the secret ingredient.....BLEACH!
There was even some gilding going on, using foil and gold leaf. 

The other program offered took place at Jo's where eight members met and made cards to give to our Sunshine Lady, Joyce, to use for those Thinking of You and Get Well Soon moments. I think we made about 50 cards or more! Sadly, I think the photos taken that day were on Jo's camera and they may well have gone travelling with her to the UK! 

MAY MEETING

Our May meeting program was a 'round robin' kind of day.  We had four different stations for members to work at and they did not disappoint.

Patricia is a whiz at making a layered card using your own art work.  It is a little complicated until you get the hang of it.

Jo led members through a heart card.  Nan and Fay showed everyone how they make all their envelopes out of old calendar pages, tissue paper and painted paper. And Val demonstrated her Big Shot machine. It certainly does a lot for papercrafts!

APRIL

The program in April was a continuation of a previous meeting. Anita shared with us more of what she learned in a class with Ewan Clayton at Calligraphy Northwest. 

P U S H   -   D A B   -   F L I C K

It was explained that this teaching was based on the work of Rudolph Laban, a pioneer of modern dance. 

Ewan adapted his system to encourage a deep awareness of calligraphic stroke quality and possibility.  We tried to interpret his analysis of movement with force, direction and speed in eight combinations with our stroke making.

March 2014 meeting

At our March meeting, the members in attendance were introduced to an interesting alphabet with simple lines and curves. 
It was drawn by Hungarian born artist Imre Reiner in 1939. Most of his long career was spent living in Switzerland. Nan led the group through the letters. There are many ways you can add your individual touch to the letter designs.

Thanks Nan!

Workshop News!
What is it with February and Barbara Close?! it snows! Now, Barbara may love it but this time it just didn't know when to quit. When she arrived on Friday afternoon, it was beautifully sunny, not overly warm, but it is February, remember!  By Saturday morning, it was snowing but not sticking to the ground, by Sunday, participants were wondering if we were going to cancel!! A foot of snow here in such a short time was really not a welcome event.  Having Barbara come to teach was a great event!

 

No matter, the weather didn't dampen our enthusiasm! As a start to preparing ourselves for another upcoming workshop in November, Barbara was here to get us going with pointed pen magic.

We began Saturday morning learning Copperplate. It takes a lot of discipline! and concentration but everyone came through it just fine, with a new respect for pointed pens.
In order to break out of the box, one must learn the rules. We were soon on to seeing how to relax our letters and bring freedom into them by making them more contemporary.
By Sunday morning we were ready to make some art to go with our work! This part was a good review of some of the things we have done with Barbara before - always a great reminder!

creating the artwork

showing the possible layouts of a quote

masking an area to paint and create some artwork to go with a quote

work in progress

first draft

We created a portfolio to keep our projects in and the show and tell at the end of the day with a critique of our work is always very helpful and this workshop was no exception.

Another successful weekend! Thank you Barbara and all who attended. 

February has been voted out as a possible workshop month! I think it will be good if we move it to May! more flowers, less snow!

In February, our program was to revisit the Ruling Pen. This is the Haff pen mostly used by Thomas Hoyer, Louie Lemoine, Rosemary Buczek and other calligraphy instructors. It is an old drafting or engineering tool used, for ruling lines!! And works very well for that purpose, I might add!

Our primary goal was to get as many spatters as possible from the pen and to find out what marks are possible with this tool.  Using walnut ink and Strathmore Drawing or Sketch paper, this happens fairly easily...

Lettering is easily achieved with it as well......

It is a fun tool! play with it! it makes strange and interesting marks!

Our January 2014 program saw us exploring the Button Alphabet originally designed by Peter Thornton and now taught by Louis (sometimes Louie) Lemoine.  Our members, Violet and Shannon had recently taken a workshop with him in Vancouver and kindly shared what they had learned.

The letters were originally done to use on a conference button for the name of the participants. It works very well for that! Using either the widest Zig marker or the widest Parallel pen, this is an easy hand to learn and add to one's expertise. It looks fun on envelopes - there again - best suited for the name and not the address as they aren't the easiest of letters to read and we do want our mail to get to its destination quickly!

Thank you to Violet and Shannon for sharing!

December saw us gathered for our annual Christmas luncheon and card exchange. Thank you Val for opening her home once again.  Looks like a wonderful gathering to celebrate the season!

Not only are we a group of lettering artists, but we have watercolourists in our midst as well..... this is just a sampling of the cards we exchanged in 2013.

opening our cards is always the best part!

seeing our friends is always the best part!

No food photos! that is always the best part too!!