Summertime!

Yes, it is almost over! so sad except that it also means "back to work!" Usually guilds take the summer off but this year we experimented with a July meeting.

We decided to make the day free of any business meeting and jumped right into studying a manuscript page. This page appears in Historical Scripts by Stan Knight on the left page of B4. It is part of the Bodleian Library, Ms. Auct T. 2.26 - Jerome's Latin version of Eusebius' History of the World.  This was the basis for Ewan Clayton's class at the Chicago conference "Early Roman Uncials".  Interesting letters, no? ahhh, but we weren't looking at the main text letters, we were studying the notes in the margin!

Here is where an apology is due.... the weekend of our meeting was the weekend of my birthday, our 40th wedding anniversary and just a week before we were heading off to the UK.  I know I downloaded photos from the meeting day but I have checked all of my three computers and *poof* they seem to have disappeared!  I apologize! I have no photos to share with you from that meeting.  You will have to take my word for it........we had a great time!  I think the July meeting idea was a success and it will just be a matter of discussion to see if we would like to continue this and make it a tradition.

Late in August, we usually try and get together for lunch and a visit. Location plans changed a couple of times and it was finally decided for us to meet at Jo's house to help her with some studio decisions and have lunch there.  It was a lovely sunny day, not too hot and we had a great turn-out! you'll be sorry you missed it if you did!  And here is photographic proof with special thanks to Fay and Eileen for sharing their photos with us!

Kathleen, Bev, Marilyn, Pat (now Valley Pat not Vancouver Pat!) and Muriel

Marilyn, Pat and Muriel

Diana and Trevor

Diana and Terry

Dorothy and Diana

Jo, Diana and Trevor

Kathleen and Bev

Dorothy and Nan

Nan, Wilma, Rita, Frank and Eileen

Pat, Wilma, Frank and Terry

Rita, Trevor and Kathleen

Terry and Nan

Trevor chatting with Rita

Fay explaining to everyone about the Red Deer Cookies she had made.

Delicious cookies they were too!!

All ABC2010 participants were greeted with two cookies and the recipe at registration.

Wilma, Frank and Win

Bev, Fay, Kathleen and Jo inside Jo's new cottage studio!

And there you have it! our summer and we'll see you all shortly at our September meeting!

Enjoy the long weekend and all good thoughts for a long and warm indian summer.

How our Exhibition works....

This seems like as good a place as any to post this information for our members...

The Exhibition year is from October to May (8 months)( unless we happen to have a venue that runs into summer months).

It is a Calligraphy Exhibition of pieces done by members of the Alphabeas Calligraphy Guild.

A member can enter more than 1 piece into the Exhibition.

There is NO theme for this Exhibition, but the emphasis should be on calligraphy.

Each piece entered is to be matted and framed by the member who enters it.

Each new piece entered should have the 2 Exhibition Entry forms* to accompany it.

As of 2009

The Alphabeas Calligraphy Guild Executive decided that the Alphabeas Exhibition is to be on a 2 year rotation of exhibition pieces to be shown at 6 different venues - 3 venues the 1st year and 3 new venues the 2nd year. The reason for the 2 year rotation is that most of the listed venues require at least 30 exhibition pieces. It appeared at the time this decision was made that the average number of new pieces received each year was 10 - 15 pieces. Therefore, having the pieces in for 2 years would ensure that there would be enough pieces for each venue.

June meeting

Pieces returned that have been in the Exhibition for 2 exhibition years.

Note: this will work only if there are no Exhibition showings for the months of June, July & August. Should this happen, the 2 year pieces would be returned at the September meeting.

September meeting

Those pieces that have been in the exhibition for one exhibition year will remain the Exhibition for the next year - October to May, their 2nd exhibition year.

New pieces, accompanied by 2 Exhibition Entry forms* are due for the next Exhibition year - October to May, their 1st exhibition year.

*Forms are available from the Exhibition Committee or can be sent to you via email to print out.

June Meeting - Calligrams

Our June meeting was held on the first warm, sunny day in quite awhile. It was a newsletter release day and that always means stitching it together which is done quickly when you have so many willing to help sew.
After a quick lunch, the program was calligrams led by Kathleen Cochlan.  Thanks to Fay, we have lots of photos of the work accomplished.

Kathleen demonstrating

Eileen's

Dorothy's

Jean's

Jo's

Kay's

Margot's

Marilyn's

Muriel's

Violet's

Nan's

Rita's

Terry's

Val's

Who wouldn't like to receive a decorated envelope?  These are the ones done by members for our newsletter mailing.

Marilyn shared her journal entry from Letters of Joy in May.

lettering with Jocelyn Curry

Looks like you had a great time Marilyn!

My apologies for the shadows on some of the photos.  Sometimes it just can't be fixed!  To make it a bit easier, when sending photos to me for the blog, don't bother to resize them first, it is often easier to work with actual size than the reworked.  Shadows are often unavoidable...

See you in July for our first ever meeting in the summer!  Early Roman Uncials with me, Bev.  The supply list is in the June newsletter. Call if you have any questions.

May meeting

Another meeting full of things to do, to see and to learn! with Maryanne there to help out wherever needed!

For at least a couple of years now, we have been decorating the envelopes we use to send out our newsletters.  Nan thought it was definitely time we shared them with our members! as usually she collects them from individuals and I get to see them when I do the mailing.  Each a piece of artwork, we thought they should be shared (yes, I 'erased' parts of addresses...)

Wouldn't you like to see any one of those arrive in your mailbox?!

After the business portion of our meeting and lunch break, it was on to the program.  Lucky our morning went quickly, giving us a bit of extra time to play / work.  We were writing with bleach.  Yes, straight chlorine bleach. Good thing we had a great day as we were able to throw the windows open to get lots of fresh air circulating inside the classroom.

Different papers react differently and you can't really predict what any one piece is going to do.  We were given some Strathmore Art Paper and samples of different card stocks as well as whatever we had brought from our own studios.  Randomly, some of the best results came on some of the least expensive paper! Perhaps the more expensive the paper, the better the dye job! Some papers worked much better than others and some didn't change colour at all!

 I had some ruled gel pen paper, some black cards, a black envelope and some black post-it notes. They all worked super well! sure wish I knew where I had gotten the cards from.  We had all manner of tools to write with, brass pens, regular broad edge nibs, chop sticks sanded down to make a pen, our "Dear John" pens (dowel with a slit cut in one end to take a doll house roof shingle, voila! a pen), bamboo cut to a broad edge, pieces of matte board and several other "tools" to try.  Some worked better than others but we just had to try everything. 

Here are our fearless leaders.........

Fay was demonstrating how you can add soft pastels to your work and Nan was talking about taking watercolour paper and laying down a layer of fountain pen ink - must be non-water-proof.  When it is almost dry, you go back in with your bleach for some great results.

my evenope just waiting for an address!  I tore a piece of paper to make the star and used it as a mask and then sprayed the envelope with bleach.

note to self........check which way the card opens before you write on the front!! enough said.

Margot's first layer, bleach on the Strathmore art paper.

Margot's piece after she tweeked it and added pastel for colour and decoration.

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Jean's card - hmmmm maybe some of Carrie Imai's techniques?

Rita's tree or was it lightning?!

such concentration!! every meeting too!

and finally, we stopped working to have 'show and tell'

Thank you Nan and Fay for sharing this fun technique with us!!

Our next meeting will be June 12 and the Program scheduled is to write in calligrams...lettering in shapes.