Christmas Fun and Festivities

Our Christmas celebration took place on Saturday 12 December at Bede's World, with a great time of fun and festivities had by all. The annual Christmas Card exchange was a great delight, with scribes producing some wonderfully creative work to express their Yuletide greetings to one another. There followed an ingenious 'game' in which scribes were required to do some 'colouring in'. This was overseen by Susan, who with great authority and powers of persuasion encouraged folk to get on with completing their own small section of what would later be revealed in its beautiful entirety.


















Much patience was required as scribes waited for different pens to complete their work... the gold pens being much in demand! Then the various pieces of work were gathered together to form one enormous whole.... a beautiful festive greeting in jig-saw form was gradually revealed, with subtle guidance from Susan, (who declined from showing us the picture on the front of the box!) the majestic banner was completed.










































After these exertions a superb lunch was provided and enjoyed by all, from a table laden with all manner of excellent goodies scribes politely partook, with no undue jostling or fighting reported!














Following lunch a quiz, with our chairman 'chairing' so to speak. Ingenious questions and mischievous scribes being a lethal combination, much fun and hi-jinks were had by all. No cheating was apparent (at least nobody saw it) and certain scribes with a wealth of poetic knowledge seemed to come into their own. Others were similarly endowed with knowledge of all things Christmassy, that being the theme of the quiz, and the winning team were.... well, it would be wrong of me to tell!














Finally, the raffle, with a stunning array of prizes on display the scribes waited with baited breath for their number to be drawn. Many were happily rewarded, but alas the raffler-in-chief was repeatedly disappointed, as nobody seemed able to draw one of his numbers!

A wonderful day throughout, and many many thanks to all concerned for their input and help with food, cards etc, and special thanks to Susan and Mike for their hard work on the jig-saw and quiz. Here's to a healthy and calligraphically productive new year to all our scribes.

Christmassy News of Festivities Fun Friendship and Food!

Our Christmas celebration will take place on Saturday 12 December at Bede's World, and aims to include all the items mentioned in the title, as well as other interesting activities. The day will begin as usual at 10.30, but will probably finish before 3.30pm. The programme will be: cards, activity, lunch, quiz, raffle.

Ingredients:
* Distribution and exchange of cards - always eagerly anticipated and with such originality of ideas each year. It's your choice to design and make your own cards, or give ready-made versions... whichever you do, it's the thought, as they say. There's always a buzz as members find their own little stack of good wishes from other scribes.
* An activity in which everyone will be encouraged to take part - there are rumours of a jigsaw - all mystery will be revealed on the day.
* A Christmas Quiz, though you won't need to be an Egghead to take part.
* A raffle, with a copy of 'Ampersands and oddments, notes for a jobbing calligrapher' by Roland Smith, and a useful bottle of UHU glue as prizes - donated by Anne Mawson. Tickets will cost 50p for a strip of 5 tickets.

Lunch arrangements:
If your surname begins with A-L please bring something savoury.
If your surname begins with M-W please bring something sweet.

Soft-ish drinks will be provided, but you may wish to bring your own flask if you like a hot drink.

What Calligraphy is....

A change of venue for the Northumbrian Scribes did not deter the flow of creativity and skill, as we gathered at Sunderland University for our November workshop, in order to learn how to benefit from 'Unlocking our cupboards' with dynamic duo Robert Cooper and Susan Moor. After a minimum of intro, and with texts selected it was straight down to business with lettering and colour flowing in no time at all. With guidance and encouragement to trash our earlier masterpieces for the sake of art, we set about creating all manner of wonderful work, in order to see 'What Calligraphy is.....'

November meeting venue...

The Northumbrian Scribes meeting on Saturday 21st November will be held at St Peter's Campus, Sunderland University, and not at the usual venue Bede's World, Jarrow.

For an interactive map and directions to St Peter's Campus go here.

The November Workshop will be a 'double-hander' from Susan Moor and Robert Cooper. The title is 'Unlock your cupboard...' The plan is to work on a group project with a variety of scripts and styles, to make a kind of 'sampler' to show 'What Calligraphy is'. Please bring with you your usual calligraphy gear, paper, paints, and/or inks.

The Codex Amiatinus

Here is an article from The Sunderland Echo about Susan Moor, a member of The Society of Northumbrian Scribes, and her work on her full size reproduction of the Codex Amiatinus. The Codex is the oldest surviving single-volume Latin Bible in the world, and was produced at the twin monastery of Wearmouth/Jarrow.

October meeting...

At our October meeting Ian Ditchburn showed us how to combine calligraphy and colour illustration. Developed around an autumn theme, and using an abundance of leaves - both cut-out and real, scribes set to with imagination and creativity to produce some wonderful results.

Northumbrian Scribes Blog

First post on the Northumbrian Scribes blog.