Word a Month - Castle

Dear Members and Followers,

Whether it was from a chess set, or a medieval one, built from sand or a dream one, the results were wonderful.

Dear Members and Followers,

The last one day workshop for 2015.

It was a sunny Saturday and 6 seasoned scribes, 1 novice calligrapher together with a wise and erudite tutor (Valerie Keevers) came together to learn the ancient script of Jerusalem Hand. 

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. It does not have case, but five letters have different forms when used at the end of a word. Hebrew is written from right to left. Originally, the alphabet was an abjad consisting only of consonants. As with other abjads, such as the Arabic alphabet, scribes later devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel points, known in Hebrew as niqqud. In rabbinic Hebrew, the letters א ה ו י are also used as matres lectionis (the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel) to represent vowels. When used to write Yiddish, the writing system is a true alphabet (except for borrowed Hebrew words). In modern usage of the alphabet, as in the case of Yiddish (except that ע replaces ה) and to some extent modern Israeli Hebrew, vowels may be indicated. Today, the trend is toward full spelling with these letters acting as true vowels.  (This paragraph was taken from Wikipaedia by way of historic value only)

Under the tutelage of Valerie, we endeavoured to master this most wonderous and ancient text to best of our abilities…..writing from left to right some managed and some floundered but a most enjoyable day was had by all. It was wonderful to learn of the history surrounding this  interesting script and by end of day the challenge was set to then start scribing from right to left just to make it interesting…..as if writing left to right wasn’t  difficult enough…..however most rose to the challenge others …well…just gave it their best shot!!......Thank you Valerie, Dorothy, Patricia, Penny, Linda, Cathy and Karina for an enlightening workshop…….Zita Percival (novice calligrapher).

Swing Cards - Last Calliarts for the Year

Dear Members and Followers,


A very enthusiastic group of calligraphers gathered in the hall for the calliart swing card afternoon.
Glenis Sheather was the tutor.

Glenis gave the group the measurements of the outer part of the card, then the insert measurements.
The outside part of the card was a heavier cardboard whereas the insert was a lighter paper.
Then a part had to be cut out of the outer part of the card, so that when the two parts were put together,
a picture of your choice (usually an old Christmas cut to the desired size and shape) could be added.

Some people in the group got everything together really well, yours truly had a few problems but was very
surprised and delighted that my card turned out well for a first attempt!.
Pictures were taken of the cards for show and tell and some masterpieces were exhibited.
Thank you Glenis for your patience, and for teaching us, how to do these beautiful and eye catching cards.
Kay

Word of Month - Zest

Dear Members and Followers,

Zest had us all zinging along.

Pens and Their Uses

Dear Members and Followers,

Calligraphy Southscribes has had a wealth of workshops or Calliarts in the last few months and I'm finally catching up with all the reports.

Enjoy!

Wow! What a Wonderful Afternoon!

3 Hours non-stop explanations of characteristics of nibs and their uses plus lots more information on applications for the various mysterious calligraphic tools available kept Val talking and demonstrating all afternoon to an enthralled audience.

We looked at the myriad of nibs, some with reservoirs (plus a nifty use for micropore tape if the reservoir breaks and of course, replacements are usually unobtainable).  Examples of monoline and the drawing pens, commercial and handmade automatic, shadow and specialty nibs, plus ruling pens, with displays of their uses, were most helpful.

Quills, and how to prepare them, found objects including reeds, paddle-pop sticks and balsa, and quirky items such as the aluminium from softdrink cans making butterfly nibs were described.  Tools of heavy card covered with Chux, fountain pens and parallel pens, chisel edge felt tips and chunks and sticks of graphite were also there.

There was maintenance advice on sharpening nibs with a fine (emery) stone, and an invaluable demonstration of correcting a writing error using a fine scalpel blade used gently, a small piece of kneadable rubber to carefully remove the colour, and a burnisher to smooth the paper.

Cut down 2 commercial pencils on 1 side each to the inner graphite and tie together to get a narrow double line. 

Keep vellum flat and dry, but to remove light mildew on vellum, lightly and carefully rub over the surface with a cloth soaked n lemon.

It is so difficult to get detailed information on these specialist tools and other art materials and this helped enlighten us on many important aspects of our gear.  Valerie has an enormous range of knowledge and we all thank her for such an exciting afternoon.

Kath