calligraphy lettering blog

Artists Books on Display at Odyssey, July 2010, Boston. One of the highlights of any lettering conference or gathering is the hand made books on display. Each unique in their content, construction, palette, and scale; books draw us in to a secret place, where the turn of a page is a magic revelation. Annie Cicalie's book within a book entitled "Focus" is rich with layers upon layers of color and form. Books within books, it was displayed to be handled, which is a quite a treat since most books are keep under glass. "Focus" was displayed, standing almost as if it were a sculpture whose entire surface could be viewed at once.… Continue reading… 6 comments

It's easy to get overlooked among the millions of other artists and their work on the Internet. Search Engines like Google work with words, not pictures, so describing your work accurately will give you an edge. Here are five tips to get found faster: 1. Describe your work as though there were no picture with it: If someone is searching for a "horizontal oil painting+yellow roses+vase and your description is "a recent painting of my garden" then the search engines have nothing to match. Example: Ellen Sullivan Farley described her gorgeous painting of lilies this way: "These are beautiful Casablanca Lilies that I grow in my garden. I love the gestural lines in these flowers and the interesting negative shapes generated between them."… Continue reading… 12 comments

The internet is quiet today and it is still warm in New England but today is dry and breezy. I am attending Odyssey, a Lettering Arts Conference at Stonehill College in Easton, MA. All the calligraphers are busy learning something wonderful in their multitudes of classes while I docent the Participants,Faculty and Nice Rendition Exhibit. … Continue reading… 6 comments

I made this short video for one of my on-line students and then thought others might fid it helpful also. I welcome any comments or suggestions. Continue reading… 5 comments

I realize that I have not posted to my blog for far too long, but I have a good excuse. For two years, I and other volunteers from Masscribes the calligraphy guild based in Boston Massachusetts, have been planning Odyssey 2010 . The week of July 24 -- 30, 2010 marks the 30th international gathering of lettering artists, at Stonehill College, just south of Boston.… Continue reading… 2 comments

Join me at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina the week of April 4 for a unique class in designing with Roman Letters… Continue reading… 1 comment

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.… Continue reading… 7 comments

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… Continue reading… 4 comments

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"?… Continue reading… 8 comments

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 > < # RT = 4 U 2 >=> in there. It's intended to be faster when in reality it just slows me down.… Continue reading… 5 comments

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… Continue reading… 7 comments

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. … Continue reading… 6 comments

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. Continue reading… 2 comments

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… Continue reading… 2 comments

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.… Continue reading… 8 comments

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… Continue reading… 2 comments

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.… Continue reading… 6 comments

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… Continue reading… 4 comments

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 6 comments

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… Continue reading… 3 comments