calligraphy lettering blog

A million years ago before there was electricity, I studied ballet. I was a late bloomer, starting in my early twenties and ending in my mid thirties. I had no dreams of being on the stage, I was too old and at 118 pounds, too fat. I just wanted to dance. My teacher was a wonderful Russian gentleman, Alexander Dunaeff. Just when I was considering taking lessons, in my head, he found me. I was at the counter of an instant printing place and I stood up for some reason, not looking, when I went to sit back down, there was someone in what was I thought was still my seat. So there I was sitting in a strangers lap, totally embarrassed, but he was laughing and we struck up a conversation. Ballet Teacher? Is that so? I started lessons the next week.

For the past 16 years I have volunteered my artistic services to a fund raising event, The Bright Nights Ball. Every year has a theme, and each year I make elaborate table numbers (45) to mach the color and theme. Additionally, I make matching name tags for the 30 or so student volunteers. This year, like every year the ballroom was magical in shades of teal, and white, beautifully lit and staged. Elaborate floral arrangements were at every turn and the most divine scent of roses. This year I got together all the stock, cut it down, layered two shades of teal with silver and white. I painted the table numbers with pearlescent teal paint and they looked quite nice. The student name tags followed suite lettered with Earth Safe Acrylic gouache with Luminarte Primary Elements added

Over this past Labor Day weekend Alex and I painted the living room and dining room, yellow. I had been thinking about changing the color, agonizing really, for months. My first thought was yellow and my final thought was yellow. Which yellow? Alex didn't really care as long as I made a decision already. Two paint stores and 20 color swatches later I ended up picking the first yellow I was drawn to. Why do we do that? I suppose we have to satisfy ourselves that we explored all the options, is it because we are afraid to make a mistake, or is it because like Goldilocks it has to be "just right"?

How lazy are we? We can’t be bothered to say three syllable words anymore? Vegetable is now “veggie”. That’s a word you say to a little kid, like “num nums”.

Our language is being abbreviated down to number and letter codes that you need a new dictionary to decipher. Conference=Con, Manicure=Mani, Pedicure=Pedi, Application=Apps, Favorite=Fav, Congratulations=Congrats, Proposition=Props.I don’t understand half of the Tweets and texts I read with all the > => in there. It’s intended to be faster when in reality it just slows me down.

After many weeks of reading, asking questions, curing quills, scorching quills, cutting, mangling and muttering, I finally got a quill to write. Two of them actually. The aluminum can strip reservoir is a pain as far as I'm concerned. I can't get the thing to sit straight or touch the back of the quill properly so I resorted to holding it in place with masking tape. It worked. I did the entire piece (except the painting of the stones) pictured with a quill and gouache on a very poor choice of laid charcoal paper. Put that on the list of things not to do again. The color was perfect but the surface was frustrating. I need to rework it, I think the stones look like potatoes

Inky Fingers

No matter how fastidious you are, we all get ink and gouache and paint on our hands sometimes. I try to keep my work area immaculate especially when working on a final piece, one little over-dip, one fumble and you're done. I have had many a struggle with an ink bottle cap and lost. Fountain pens and their maintenance are the worst offenders. I should just accept that ink is going to get all over the place and put on an apron and some laytex gloves before tackling a fountain pen.

Being able to determine the grain direction of a piece of paper, board or book cloth is essential to a successful book binding project. If you have ever had trouble pasting or binding paper together only to have it warp or bow, here are a few pointers for determining paper grain, what it is, and why it is, you need to know.

Cutting a piece of glass to fit a frame isn't difficult. You don't have to go to the harware store and have them cut it for you, you can do it at home. Just a few tools and some practice will help you succeed. There are all types of glass for different purposes. The process is the same for cutting any kind of glass, but window glass is too heavy and has too much color to be used in framing. You will want to use framing glass which is much thinner and has no discernable color. Picture frame glass can be bought from frame suppliers, a glass shop or you can ask your local framer. You will need a sturdy metal ruler with a non slip back and a raised edge, a measuring tape, a glass cutter, available at the hardware store, safety glasses and a bath towel or other fabric surface cover

Eco Friendly Acrylic Gouache

Acrylic gouache may not be new but this product is new. Manufactured in the US by Earth Safe Finishes. This non toxic, low VOC acrylic gouache comes in a jar as a white base that dries clear with a matte finish. Color is then added to the base in the form of highly pigmented dyes. I really like the delivery method of a colorless base that can be tinted and all the colorants can be cross-used with all the other mediums.

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to work and feeling like you are fighting a battle. Many factors must be considered when “things just aren’t working right.” Here are a few things you may want to check: Paper Quality and Surface Fluid Posture Pen Nib Temperature Light Pencil Humidity Concentration

Paper: High grade, archival, all cotton artist’s papers are best. I like, Arches Text Wove, Arches 90lb hot press watercolor paper, Diploma Parchment, Canson Ingres and Mi-Teintes. Fabriano and Twin Rocker both make excellent papers a well. Many papers made for commercial printing are also good. Check the surface to see if there are any bumps or lumps that should be scraped off

Calligraphy Made Easy...Learn To Play Piano In An Hour... Lose 20 lbs. In A Week. We want so badly to believe it but deep in ourselves we know none of it is true. If it were we would all be thin, piano playing calligraphy masters. No matter how far we sink into our immediate gratification culture some things will never change at least not very soon. Babies still need months in the womb. Broken bones will still take a few weeks to heal. It still take 365 days to make a year and 60 minutes to make an hour.

There has been some discussion lately on the Cyberscribe's group about breaking in new nibs and I thought it worth a little research. All metal nibs are sprayed with a very fine oil when they are manufactured to prevent rusting in shipping and storage. Before you can use any new nib the oil must be cleaned off or the ink will bead up and not flow. There are many methods for cleaning a new nib, some better than others. You can wipe the nib with a soft cloth and a mild mix of ammonia and water, glass cleaner or saliva. Spit solves just about everything but do not put the nib in your mouth, not because it’s unsanitary, but because you run the risk of getting your tongue caught in the slit or stabbing yourself with a pointed nib. Oww

This is a great article about creative envelope addressing and the Glasgow Mail Centre. Enjoy! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/arts/2008/10/05/sv_harrietrussell

When I first wrote this blog almost a year ago, I said that social media would become a mainstream marketing tool, and it has. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others have changed the way we communicate, sell and inform. If you are not already using these tools to market yourself, your artwork and custom services, better get busy.

As things change, they remain even more the same. Ways of interacting, communicating and building commerce change, but the reasons behind it do not. The means we use to communicate and socialize have evolved according to need and capability. Fifteen years ago, when the computer took a firm hold on our society, calligraphers were up in arms, this would put us out of business, the same way we thought movable type would

There is a long history between cats and calligraphers. Written in the margins of an illuminated manuscript at the Abbey of St. Paul at Reichenau, Corinthia, a poem about the scribes cat, inspired a book telling of the adventures of Pangur Ban who finally ends his travels at Cashel Castle in Eire, keeping it rodent-free and where he was greatly loved. Pangur Ban is Gaelic for "white Pangur" or "little white cat." Complete poem below.

Going just by anecdotal research, a surprising number of calligraphers/artists own cats. What then is the connection? Is it our love of graceful curve and pleasing line? The contrast, in my case of black and white? Simon Kramer, a painter, writes in his very entertaining blog

A few years ago I built out part of my attic to serve as a studio space, thereby freeing my living room to be just that. In the process I learned a few things which you may find helpful. The studio is on the third floor, good exercise, not so good for hauling stuff, which I do all the time. It's the attic so the ceilings are pitched, good for me, I'm only 5 foot, not so good for tall people. Very easy to heat in winter, warm air rises, but expensive to cool in the summer. It takes two air conditioners to keep it comfortable and dry, humidity being a big issue with paper. I like things to serve double duty whenever possible, giving me twice as much use out of a small space. My camera put ten pounds on my studio, it looks a lot bigger here than it really is

A spontaneous discussion among the members of Masscribes* at their 20th Anniversary Celebration, in 2007, brought forth a nearly unanimous thought. Hardly a new or revolutionary idea, in fact it was just the opposite. We all wanted to spend more time and effort refining our letterforms. We had all been the route of learning a dozen hands, flourishing, illustrating, painting, gilding, carving and owning every calligraphic tool and gizmo on the market. It was fun, exploratory, expanding, but it didn’t do anything for our letters.

As a young graphic designer in the dark ages before computers, I produced everything by hand. Concepts were rendered in marker, all type had to be drawn, especially headlines

I get some pretty unusual and interesting calligraphy jobs. This one in particular is the numbering of 200 limited edition books. The 750 pounds of text blocks were shipped to a paper marbler for the fly leaves and edge marbling and that's where I come in. Chena River Marblers is a couple, Dan and Regina St.John in Amherst MA that has been producing some of the finest marbled papers and fabrics, for decades. The first two books were numbered by someone who was no longer available, so the publisher asked Regina and Dan if they knew anyone who could do the job. How handy, I'm in the next town.

This book is the third in a series of five. The first two books were numbered in black Copperplate and they wanted the rest of the books to follow suit

Although I try very hard not to leave my calligraphy nibs lying around with stuff caked all over them, it happens. Practices for keeping metal nibs clean, range from wiping them off with spit to buying commercially available cleaners. Brushes and pens can get expensive so keeping them clean will extend their performance and save money. I found this "recipe" in a calligraphy guild newsletter, sorry I don't know which one and it works so well I had to share it. This cleaning solution is ideal for cleaning metal pen nibs that are caked with lacquer based permanent ink, waterproof ink, gouache, masking fluid and pretty much anything else. It will also work on fountain pen nibs (not gold plated ones), technical pens and nylon brushes. It will dry out natural bristle brushes so don't try

Mostly sold in tubes, gouache (rhymes with squash) is an opaque form of watercolor known for its brilliance and even matte finish. With the addition of more water it can be used like watercolor for transparent effects or with less water for more opaque applications. There are many manufacturers of gouache, Winsor&Newton being the most popular, Schmincke, Holbein, Talens, all of which are of good grade. Student grade gouache is available too but I have found them not well suited for calligraphy. . Gouache is powdered pigment with Gum Arabic as the binder. Unlike watercolor, gouache has fewer fugitive colors making it more suitable for broadsides