June meeting

Thank you Kathleen for the photos from the June meeting! I wasn't able to attend so didn't have anything to blog about....

It was a busy meeting with sewing the newsletters, galleria and the afternoon program. The following photos are some of the meandering books created from the May meeting program.






And then on to the afternoon program, led by Louise Menard. This was another book project to get you ready for your summer getaway perhaps? A scrapbook journal for a short trip? or it could be a card for someone special.
Louise unfolding the book......

Hope everyone has a great and creative summer! Remember to keep a journal if you go away; akim cursive is a great 'hand' to letter with, best of all because no one can read over your shoulder and understand what you have written! Fill up the book you made with Louise and bring it in October to show.

If you are planning on going to the Red Deer conference next summer, the early bird registration date is July 1st, 2009!

We have exhibition pieces due in the Fall. Margot would like to return the 2008 pieces and then start to collect new work for the upcoming dates on the exhibition calendar.

*Remember* the regular meeting days are actually a guild workshop in September. We used to take over the regular dates in November for our annual workshop so it was decided we could actually do it again just a different month. The registration form was included in the Summer newsletter. Mail in date is July 6th.

If you have any outstanding articles for the Broad Edge, I'm sure the committee would love to receive them earlier than their posted deadline of August 15th!

Hmmm shaping up to be a busy calligraphic summer!!

The next regular meeting is October 10th - Origami Tag Book with Janice Woodland. See the Summer issue of the Broad Edge for supplies required.

Lettering on the Dark Side

June third and fourth were a couple of record breaking temperature days here in the Fraser Valley. They just happened to coincide with our workshop with Connie Furgason-Card, now from Sydney, BC. Even though the classroom felt more like a sauna, spirits were still high and we had a wonderful time.

Finally!! someone who brings more to a workshop than I do........oh that was Connie's desk!!

We started by trying out the different colours of gouache on our own palettes. Testing them on the assortment of black papers that we had brought. There was a selection of Canson Mi Tientes, Canson Colorline, Strathmore Artagain and Strathmore Series 400. These were test sheets to slip into a small book we were making to keep as reference. We added notes as to what we were using, pen, paper, gouache, colour, gel pen, etc.

These photos were taken randomly throughout the two days and are in no particular order really.

We learned to be frugal! don't waste that brush full of pigment! spend it on a separate sheet of whatever paper you were using and then when you get a collection of these sheets, using your 'L' pieces of matte board, you can 'frame' certain spots to add to a broadside or a greeting card. Connie has many zip lock bags full of these gems and she showed us how she uses them on her work.
It is always interesting to walk around and see how others work in a workshop setting and look at all their supplies......finding out what you 'must' have!
Some of us work much tidier than others:
Connie had purchased some Mica Paints from Brenda at LOJ........lucky for us Country Lane just happened to have a few of them for sale just downstairs!! there was a run on them and I'm sure they could have sold more if they'd had the stock.....

Watch for our September newsletter for the reports on the workshop with lots of pictures of work by participants! A wonderful two days was had by all in spite of the extreme heat and we look forward to seeing more of Connie now that she is 'in the neighbourhood', well, one ferry ride away!

See you all at the meeting on the 13th! Fun program planned, stayed tuned for the blog report!

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!!

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!!

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

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!

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!!