Friday 20 May 2011

May Workshop at Bede's World

The next workshop is on Sanvito capitals with David Price. Please bring your usual writing equipment including Brause nib size 2.5mm or Mitchell one and a half or two, black ink, A3 paper either layout or cartridge and a short quotation to write.

Visitors are welcome to come along to try out calligraphy.

Sans Coke


The April meeting at Bede's World was called Sans Coke and tutor Ian Ditchburn explained that what he was aiming for was the effect of writing with a coke pen but without the uncertainties that come with pen lettering. In his example shown below his top alphabet is made with a coke pen but the second alphabet is pencil drawn. He showed us a method based on a drawn ellipse to which you then freely added lines to build a letter. Having got a design you liked you could then trace that letter and re-use it.

Once you had your letters ready for your phrase or quotation then you could rough up the contours of the drawing so that it did not look too neat.

Ideas for this included using watercolour pencils which could then be splatted with a wet paintbrush or using your rubber to blur the lines and edges of the letters.

Few Scribes needed a second telling when asked to rough up lettering, after all it is not often that you get a chance to get your own back on it. The results are shown above and below with Ian using some elbows to demonstrate how framing can alter the look of a piece.

You can tell how much the workshop was enjoyed by the amount of work done during the meeting and on display below.

The Woo Woo Factor at LMD

Northumbrian Scribes rubbed shoulders with the likes of Gaynor Goffe, Sue Hufton, Anne Hechle and Janet Mehigan at the Lay Members Day on 7th May in London.

For anyone who is thinking about attending a future LMD then this is what you can expect: numerous stands filled with books, equipment and papers to buy, a sale of work by fellows of the SSI, many pieces of calligraphy in the exhibition by lay members, and practical demonstrations, this year of the Spencerian hand, painted lettering and botanical alphabets.


The gang were in fine fettle (especially our chairman who had enjoyed a Woo Woo on the 15th floor of our hotel the night before) and created a stunning display board and table top exhibition, showcasing Northumbrian Scribes' calligraphy.

The highlight of the afternoon was a talk by Tim Noad MA, FSSI, FCLAS, who works as a heraldic artist for the College of Arms in London. He recently produced the "Instrument of Consent" document (shown below), signed by the Queen, to agree officially to the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

Finally as we were saying our goodbyes, we were invited to visit Bratislava in Slovakia by three very enthusiastic young calligraphers who had travelled over for the event ... our international reputation is growing.