November Meeting

Building on what we learned in July, the November meeting was another look at a manuscript.  This time we studied the letters in the Lindisfarne Gospels.   The letters from the Stockholm Codex Aureus were also suggested as letters that would be quite perfect for this program.

We started with a wonderful slide show by Karen Kant from the Seattle area, compiled after the Lindisfarne Legacy tour in 2005.  It gave us a feel of what the area is like today and also what it might have been like when the gospel scribes were in the scriptorium on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

The object of the project is to create two or three lines of the drawn letters with enough space in between the lines for text written in the much smaller Early Roman Uncials we studied in July.  We were given several quotes in Latin with the English translation to choose from in case we needed some words to work with.

This is a first draft..........

and a close up.....

I decided after playing with this quote that the latin words should have each been given their own line. 

 On to plan B!!

Always a good sign in a class is the participants with their heads down! Such concentration!!

it was contagious!

And finally, the November meeting would not be complete without wishing Nan a Happy Birthday! we usually have a meeting on the actual date but this year we were a couple of days late...a grand showing of handmade cards nonetheless!

It will be very interesting to see the pieces that come from these two meeting programs.  Hopefully in January we will see what others have come up with!!

See you in December!

Lorraine Douglas Workshop

October 3 & 4 saw many of our members enjoying two wonderful days with Lorraine Douglas of Sydney by the Sea, on Vancouver Island.

Day one.......

Our first day was spent exploring the lettering of Frank Lloyd Wright.  This is a monoline, upper case alphabet used by Frank on his drawings and blueprints.  I found it very interesting how similar in style his lettering is to that of Charles Rennie MacIntosh, the two working at the same time an ocean apart.

Eileen

We started with the lettering and worked on several projects during the day.  Some of us were more productive than others, Trevor.

heads down, working hard!!

Sandi, Trevor and Kathleen

Margot, Eileen and Carolynn

Jean

Lorraine (standing), Carolynn, Eileen and Margot

We were given several haiku poems to choose from to letter around our artwork on watercolour paper.

It is always fun to see how different people treat the same words.

I've decided to only give you a 'taste' of what we did on Day one.........see the December newsletter for more!

Day two.....

Cards, cards, cards and more cards! After an exhausting day on Sunday, Monday promised to be even more packed full of ideas!

We started by decorating a couple of feet of rice paper (laid on wax paper to prevent sticking to the table top!) We splashed on colour from a variety of palettes, added gel pen, 'smooch' spots, 'smooch' spritzes, coloured pencil - you get the idea, anything goes really! and then we set that aside to dry.

Lorraine demonstrated many card ideas throughout the day and it was our duty to try and keep up! There was barely enough time to take a lunch break!  We cut, we embossed, we folded, we blow-dried, we decorated, we stitched.........so many ideas, so little time!  Each day could easily have been stretched to fit two days.  Our workshop fees included 6 pre-made blank cards and envelopes and 2+ sheets of Canson mi tientes paper. We made a folder to put the cards into using Canson and Lorraine cut some of our third sheet of Canson into smaller workable pieces for two or three projects - saving us some cutting time so we could get more done! We used a variety of embroidery thread, 'junk', beads, etc to decorate cards and projects and one large button on the stationery folder.  A very full day of fun and friendship. It was so nice to see everyone!!

to all who attended the workshops!

some examples of our cards

more cards!

Pat, Cheryl and Barb

Lorraine and Pat showing Pat's decorated rice paper

the beginnings of a pop up card with many steps to add things to

Jean and one of Frank's famous cream puffs!!

Thank you Frank for making trays for both upstairs and downstairs! no calories again, right?

after a couple of tries to capture the perfect group shot..........

we did it!!

Thank you Eileen for sharing your photographs!

Thank you Lorraine for sharing all your ideas and knowledge!! and the demonstration of your kevlar glove!

2010-2011 Exhibition

Margot sent me some photos she took of the new exhibition pieces that will show for the next two years. Our first showing will be at the White Rock Library in December. You still have time to get your piece(s) to Margot!!

Anita Boyd Johnson

Anita Boyd Johnson

Anita Boyd Johnson

Barb Cowan

Bev Allen

(photo by Bev Allen)

Fay Boyland

Kathleen Cochlan

Kay Gray

Muriel Dyson

Muriel Dyson

Nan Maione

Rita Kitching

Rita Kitching

Trevor Nash

Violet Smythe

Violet Smythe

Violet Smythe

Wendy Cowley

September meeting

The September meeting program was a look at Medieval Decorated Letters and how they can translate into modern use.  Each member was given a booklet prepared by me (Bev Allen). It starts by looking at Medieval Decorated Letters and how the decoration was done. Then either using Lombardic Caps or something more modern such as Neuland, we worked on a letter that would look more modern.  It was good to know that we could accomplish this exercise in a couple of hours as I will be teaching this in Vancouver at the Westcoast Odyssey of Letters next month.

Here are some letters to give you some ideas to try:

I find them almost addicting..........you can lost for a time decorating them.  Originally I started them to play along with Gemma Black's challenge of "A Letter a Week".  It wasn't my intention to post them on the Letter a Week blog but just to play along.

http://aletteraweek2010.blogspot.com/

  After working with them for awhile and finding them to be something I could take along with me as we travelled, I thought it would be a great program to share.

When I was asked to teach something at WOOL, this seemed a good idea.

Enjoy! I think most everyone had a good time at the meeting.

There was the tiniest mention of homework......a letter or a monogram on a good piece of paper. Maybe it could go along with the 'humour' quote for October's Galleria.