Tuesday, May 26, 2009

May meeting

This is what happens when you get busy doing other things! I completely forgot that I had not written about our May meeting. My apologies! Thanks to Kathleen we have photos! sadly, I haven't managed to get them in exactly the right order but I'm sure you will get the idea of what we did.

We made a meandering card with Violet. She demonstrated several ways to decorate our papers and the folds and cuts needed to make the card meander.

One of the techniques, using acrylic ink on wet paper, was to use saran wrap on the wet surface. You can scrunch it up or lie it flat to make different design impressions. Below is Violet demonstrating the technique and above is Violet and Jean possibly discussing the fact that you really don't need the super fantastic saran wrap as any dollar store plastic wrap will do.
Once the demonstration was done and the decorating underway, one step was to fold the pages correctly so that once it was decorated and then dry, you would know where to cut. Joyce, Val and Margot were at the folding stage here.....and the photo seems to be looking over Terry's shoulder!
This is the first part of the demo........spray your paper lightly on both sides with water. Everyone was busy taking notes!
Once you have dropped some colour onto the wet surface of the paper, you can tip and turn your paper to manipulate the colour a bit. Another way to spread it around a bit more is to spray your page again - lightly! you do want it to eventually dry so you can write on it and decorate it with coloured pencils, pen and ink, embossing, gel pens, rubber stamps, etc.
Margot was the lucky recipient of this card! Violet's birthday card for Margot.
Another example of Violet's lovely decorating!
A much smaller version of the meandering card.
Thank you Violet! a very enjoyable afternoon.

Homework for the June meeting is to complete yours!!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Letters of Joy

The first weekend in May, many Alphabeas members attended the Write On Calligraphers annual Letters of Joy celebration. It had been a few years since we were so well represented. Some of us are not so sure that going down just for the day of classes on Saturday is the right way to go!! a very early morning is necessary in order to arrive in time for classes at 9 am... 4:30 am is very early!!

My first class was making a Piano Hinged Folded Accordion book with Patricia Grass from Forest Grove, OR. If you ever want to take a great book class, Patricia is your gal! she has so much knowledge and information to share, she always works with the most wonderful materials, papers to die for.....and everything cut precisely for you.



My next class was Parallel Pen Empowerment with Brenda Broadbent from Paper and Ink Arts. I didn't take any photos but it was all about learning how the pen works and how to take it apart should you ever need to tweek it. I have never had any problems with my set of four but it can happen... I have also taken the all apart, or so I thought! the nib comes out too!! I quickly had to make sure that it would also go back in and sure enough, it does with ease. Phew! We also tried colour blending with the cartridge colours and learned that you can fill the barrel of the pen instead of using a cartridge should you need more ink than one will hold. If you had a job where the colour had to be constant for say, many envelopes, then filling the barrel with the same mix of ink of gouache makes perfect sense. It won't leak - apparently! I will have to give it a try.

My next class was with Lisa Engelbrecht. I had never taken a class with her but heard that she is a fabulous instructor. We were doing decorative letters using all kinds of different gel pens, pan pastels, bling......



She had us start by using a monoline tool, just doing the upper case letters of the alphabet, then said to try making each stroke with two strokes, then three, then five, then ten, up to thirty! then make the letters with many strokes and not lifting your pen / tool. Then make a masculine sort of letter, then a feminine letter, then adding embellishing marks. And finally fill in some of those spaces with one or some of the many gel pens she had with her for us to try. Some I had never seen or heard of....and I have a few!

We walked around the room at the end of the class taking photos of everyone's letters. Here are just a few to show.
Pays to sit near an artist! The Ls are Suzie Beringer's!

A many many stroke B just waiting for some sparkle gel pen......

Suzie's 'delight' using pan pastel.

It was a wonderful day, seeing old friends, taking classes, doing a bit of shopping and then having dinner in Mount Vernon on the way home and actually giving driving directions good enough for Violet and Fay to find Jo and Nan and I at El Gitano Mexican Restaurant! A long day but a good one!!

Friday, April 17, 2009

What have you been doing this week?

If anyone would like to share what they have been working on this week, please send photos and an explanation! I'll put it up to share with others.

I have been working on a guest book for a Celebration of Life this Saturday. I was given some ideas to incorporate....Tom liked restoring old cars, had a collection of bass guitars and liked the colour Plum Crazy Purple - a colour made popular with hot rods and muscle cars in the 70s. I have almost captured it in the binding and the dyed thread I used. The cover is a fibre textured paper I found at Ten Thousand Villages, the text pages are Arches Text Wove, the inside cover is some paste paper that has some metallic purple in the design and the binding is Tyvek dyed with acrylic ink. I lined all the pages iin pencil to make it easier for guests to sign. I used a hard pencil and I don't think most people travel with an eraser in their pocket so I think I'm safe!




My usual two needle binding.

Yes, I had to include a bit of gilding! on this nice monogram I found. Really, the paper is off white but for some reason my camera wants to think it isn't and if I lighten the paper to white, I lose the gilding here.


The dots are instacoll with gold leaf.
Bev

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

April Meeting

We had a great meeting on Saturday complete with a few birthdays to celebrate. Fay was just home from Australia and received some belated cards.Win and Rita (missing in photo) celebrate April birthdays while Violet looks on.
Look at the size of Galleria this month!!! It took Margot a long time to go through all the items. The assigned theme was to use something with Spring and there were a lot of gilding pieces in progress along with some of the projects Marilyn has been doing whilst recuperating.
Kathleen's gilding using a new favourite colour of gouache......Red Ochre.
Jean Bennett's gilding work.
Kathleen's work on the paper treated with Kaki-shibu (persimmon juice).
The program was Akim lettering and looking at some of the other alphabets that Hans Joachim Burgert introduced to the calligraphic world. We also tried Akim Cursive using a small broad edged nib.

Looking forward to reports of members' classes at Letters of Joy coming up early in May!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

A few more workshop photos

Lots of demonstrations and information from Georgia.


Jo and Bev using the very best light table - sunshine on a window!

All very hard at work......

We all had a great time, and shared many laughs!!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Gilding Workshop

I better get a post up before John emails me!! after all, the workshop finished almost 7 hours ago!

Eighteen of us had an absolutely fabulous two days with Georgia Angelopoulos from Victoria, BC. We had our minds opened up to so many possibilities and we all came away with some wonderful pieces of work or very good starts towards some quality pieces. I am going to post just a sample of pieces of work, one of Georgia's and some of student work. I think I speak for everyone who attended, Georgia is a fantastic teacher and has an incredible wealth of information to give. We need to have her back for more!

Our focus was on the letters in Stockholm Codex Aureus (google it!) and I guess you either love the letters or not! I think they are kind of funky in a 7th century kind of way. Once we got our letters drawn on our hot press 140# watercolour paper, it was time to gild. These photos show the works in progress.

Kay came from Regina!!


Kathleen working on two pieces at once!


Wilma working hard even though her eyes weren't cooperating!


Margot chose to work on one of the treated papers Georgia had prepared for us.


I think this is Jean Bennett's work.


What we all aspire to! Georgia's fabulous work on black paper.


The group of participants!
Thank you very much to Louise for hosting Georgia and to Eileen for picking her up at the ferry and returning her there after the workshop! I hope the sail home to the island was less windy than on Tuesday morning.
Thank you so much Georgia! we love gilding now!! even if there is a lot of clean-up work....

Sunday, March 22, 2009

List of Guild Library Books

This is a list of the guild library BOOKS, it does not include the exchange newsletters. If you notice anything is missing from the list, please let either Val, our librarian, or Kathleen know.
A B
1 Alphabeas Library books (2006?)
2
3 A Handwriting Manual Alfred Fairbank
4 A Heaven Sent Grace: a Profile of Irene Wellington Nancy Ouchida
5 ABC Canada Lindley McDougall
6 ABCdarium
7 Advanced Calligraphy Techniques Diana Hoare
8 Alan Blackman's Envelopes Alan Blackman?
9 Alphabets and Numbers of the Middle Ages Henry Shaw
10 Birds in Medieval Manuscripts Brunsdon Yapp
11 Book Works Sue Doggett
12 Calligraphic Swash Initials Arthur Baker
13 Calligraphy Masterclass Peter Halliday
14 Calligraphy Now Margaret Shepherd
15 Calligraphy Today Heather Child
16 Celtic Art (the methods of construction) George Bain
17 Chinese Watercolours Josef Hejzlar
18 Coloured Pencil Techniques Iain Hutton-Jamieson
19 Copperplate Calligraphy Dick Jackson
20 Cover to Cover Shereen LaPlantz
21 Creating Handmade Books Alisa Golden
22 Creating Letterforms R. Sassoon
23 Creative BookBinding Pauline Johnson
24 Creative Paper Crafts
25 Decorative Paper Diane V. Maurer-Mathison
26 Dick Beasley: A Retrospective Catalogue of his Exhibition
27 Door Posts Timothy R. Botts
28 Faculty Exhibit of Calligraphy N.W. 11th Conference
29 Fine Words Fine Book Society of Scribes & Illuminations
30 Flowers in Heraldry Alcuin Society
31 Gift Wrapping and Greeting Cards ed. Lydia Darbyshire
32 Greetings Galore Lynn slevinsky
33 Heraldic Design Heather Child
34 How to make Holiday Pop-ups Joan Iravine
35 I Believe Alcuin Society
36 Lettering Arts Joanne Fink & Judy Kastin
37 Lettering for Architects and Designers Martha Sutherland
38 Lines I Like Emily B. Shields
39 Making your own Marbled and Decorated Letters Jane H. Reese
40 Marker Lettering, Vol. 1, 11, 111 Lynn Slevinsky
41 Reflections Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild
42 Scribe George Thompson
43 Sixty Alphabets Gunnlaugur S. E. Briem
44 Step by Step calligraphy Susan Hufton
45 The Art and Craft of Hand Lettering Annie Cicale
46 The Art and Craft of Handmade Books Shereen LaPlantz
47 The Art of Calligraphy George L. Thompson
48 The Art of Illuminating W. R. Tymms & W. D. Wyatt
49 The Calligrapher's Companion Mary Noble & Janet Mehigan
50 The Calligrapher's Handbook ed. C. M. Lamb
51 The Grammar of Ornament Gwen Jones
52 The Italic Way to Beautiful Handwriting Fred Eager
53 The J. Paul Getty Museum 1985 Appointment Calendar
54 The North Light Illustrated book of Painting Techniques Elizabeth Tate
55 The Oxford Dictionary of Quotation (Third Edition0
56 The Script Letter Tommy Thompson
57 The Spirit of Calligraphy Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild
58 ThreeClassics of Italian Calligraphy Introd: Oscar Ogg
59 Versals, Scrolls, Scripts
60 Writing, Illuminating and Lettering Edward Johnston