Christmas party

The table says it all - it is the Northumbrian Scribes' Christmas Party in Sunderland and we enjoyed ourselves. Everyone brings something for the buffet.

The card exchange amongst members is one of the most important bits of the day and cards are sent on to those who could not join us for the party. Some were prevented from coming by bad weather on the day, some just not able to be there. Opening the cards when you get home is one of the highlights - so much imagination and creativity is shown. Below are the tables full of cards.

There was an olfactory quiz as part of the entertainment - thank you to Judi Postle for putting together such an original and challenging idea. She had us all sniffing little boxes full of Christmas type goodies to try and identify the scents.

In the afternoon we all sat down to listen to the Beacon Band (which does contain one Scribe, Dominic James) and they sang a mix of local, not local and Christmassy songs for us. Thank you to the Beacon Band for a lovely entertainment. Incidentally, the band said that they use their Northumbrian Scribes calendars to note down their gigs and make sure they all put down the right dates by synchronising pages using the illustrations.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all scribes and blog followers.

A whiter shade of pale

A lot of scribes turned up last month to learn from Celia Kilner about embossing. A self-confessed devotee of 'white-on-white' Celia pointed out how some quite small and simple cut outs could be re-used to make complicated designs that could be used over and over.

Making the stencil for the design meant learning to think backwards and Celia suggested that to avoid confusing yourself that you continued to work backwards throughout the process if you could manage it.

The lady at the lightbox is Mary Swales who is using a fine point to rub her paper into the corners of her stencil to make a sharp outline.

The final results were stunning - if somewhat difficult to see in the grey late afternoon light.

November Meeting

There is a change of venue for the November meeting and it will be in the Business School at Sunderland University. Anyone who is unsure where this is or how to get there please contact the group Secretary, Mary Swales, for help. The workshop tutor is Celia Kilner and we will be looking at embossing and raised letters. Celia has asked us to bring along the usual calligraphy gear plus anything you may have from the following list: white cartridge paper, tracing paper, layout paper, black card, scalpel with new blades, cutting mat, a light box, gouache paints, a 'dead' biro, sticky fixers, masking tape and carbon paper (hand copy) if possible. Don't worry if you do not have these because we will all be sharing. See you in Sunderland on Saturday at 10.30 and if you are new to calligraphy and would like to see what we do please come along and have a look.

Make early for Christmas

Northumbrian Scribes love to make Christmas cards and this year, thanks to tutor Manny Ling, we had an early start with ideas from his workshop on card-making. He came armed with about half-a-dozen good methods for using scraps, old bits of calligraphy, collage and paper-cutting in the design of cards.

Manny demonstrated how something as simple as a triangle cut out of a scrap of calligraphy with another brightly coloured scrap at the base could be an effective Christmas tree and with a short greeting added a quick way of making a personalised card.

Another idea was to fold a piece of coloured card in half, make a few cuts through at the fold and then slot some bright card or paper between the cuts to make a stunning design to which lettering could be added.

Scribes really took to his ideas and the above display is of cards that were all made during the workshop.

Charles Smith at the Shipley

If you did not make it to the Shipley Art Gallery on the 27th then you missed a fascinating talk by Charles Smith, a lettercarver and calligrapher from Gateshead. Now based in York, his work is in cathedrals, private collections and public buildings throughout the UK.

Trained in letter carving in Newcastle under L C Evetts, he also went on to increase his knowledge of letterforms by studying calligraphy at Reigate College. He has a strong interest in conservation and wildlife, particularly birds, often appear in his work. He also likes his plant forms to look as if they are being blown by the wind so that even in such a still, solid medium as stone there is a strong sense of movement.

A Flock of Books Lands in Jarrow

Our last meeting in September was very busy. Not only did we make books but we broke records - or so we think. A hardback multi-section book was made during a single workshop, created from scratch, glued, sewn and completed. And we made another book too: a concertina book was made by the nimble-fingered. Others were too exhausted to even contemplate the idea but watched the others work.

August's Watercolour Workshop

In a well-attended August workshop, which was also a DIY session because four Northumbrian scribes demonstrated during the day, we learned about watercolour paints and painting techniques. Susan Moor topped and tailed the day with practical experiments using paints to explore making dry and wet washes, the properties of different pigments and whether painting red on top of blue had a different effect to painting blue on top of red. She also had us try different watercolour papers to see how they felt.

Rosemary Evans, above, showed us how to make interesting textured backgrounds for calligraphic work and even let us play, or mess up depending on your viewpoint, some pieces that she had brought with her.

Margaret Empson explained what magic effects could be produced by using watercolour pencils and how a calligrapher could create backgrounds and letters with them. We drew both letters and abstract shapes and then experimented with a wet brush to blob and blur the colours into soft shapes and subtle blends.

Meg Hogg concentrated on demonstrating how straightforward it could be to make a pleasing image using watercolour paints. For those who did not think they were artists this was a revelation because she had us all painting trees by holding the brush loosely and high up and simply dabbing on the paint. She also had us painting a flower by using about six brush strokes. Below is Mike Mavromichaelis, the paint mixologist, demonstrating how he mixes his watercolours to create graded colour effects he often uses on his envelope exchange pieces. He is making careful paint dilutions with an eyedropper. The bottom picture shows some samples of his work.

During the workshop we discussed various problems with using watercolours including the difficulty of writing over a painted surface which requires the use of sandarac to prepare the surface although Susan said she had had some success by using blending chalks on top of paint and then writing on that. She also talked to us about the different qualities of watercolour paint on offer including artist's quality and student quality and the importance of buying well-known brands for reliability. She had also prepared a comprehensive worksheet with useful information about the colour wheel, recommended water colour papers and the names of suppliers she had tried and liked. Thank you to all the scribal-volunteers for making this such and interesting and useful session.

Calligraphy at the National Glass Centre

Beyond Traditions is an exhibition in the Gallery of the National Glass Centre in Sunderland and it features the work of five artists including two Northumbrian Scribes. Manny Ling, Susan Moor, Ewan Clayton, Ayako Tani and Peter Furlonger all have pieces on display. Shown is one of several works on paper by Manny Ling where he has added calligraphy to paper marked with burns made by molten glass. There is a video display showing how the glass was applied to the paper to produce the marks.

The stone piece by Peter Furlonger is Bede's Death Song cut in black slate and mounted on a marble base. He also has some glass vases etched with calligraphy on display.

Although a small exhibition it is well worth a visit for the variety and quality of work on display. The exhibition runs until 9th October. For further information visit the link below:

http://www.nationalglasscentre.com/whats-on/2011/08/12/beyond-traditions.html

Calligraphy Classes in Sunderland and South Shields

Susan Moor's autumn term classes will start again towards the end of September:

-Monday morning 10 -12 at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, starting 19 September, £40 for ten weeks
-Thursday morning 10 - 12 at St Bede's South Shields, starting 22 September, £40 for ten weeks
-Wednesday morning 10 -12 at Age UK Sunderland (near Park Lane) probably starting 21 September, but contact them on 0191 514 1131 to check date and cost.

All three classes will be back to straightforward writing after recent excursions into what is sometimes called 'calligraphic peripherals'. The scripts have not yet been decided upon, but suggestions are welcome. For information on classes classes at Sunderland Museum or St Bede's South Shields contact Susan on susan.moor(at)givemail.co.uk.

August Workshop

Susan Moor will be doing a workshop on 'Watercolour for Calligraphers' at Bede's World on Saturday 20th August. Watercolour is a great medium for calligraphers: you can write on it, use it for coloured backgrounds or images to accompany writing. Please bring a water jar, palette of some kind, drawing board and kitchen roll. If you do have paints and brushes, or any other materials please bring them along. Susan will be supplying paper which will be pre-cut for binding into little sample books at the September meeting.

We will be meeting at Bede's World as usual and if you have never tried calligraphy before and would like to join us then please come along at 10.30 to see what we do.

Writing 2011 - Friday 29 July

Last day of the symposium - and David was presented with a handmade book by Thomas Ingmire's group - he had been working with them directly and writing a poem about them doing calligraphy.

And at the end of a busy final day came the displays of work ... books ...

glass ...

more books ...

collage ....

more collage ...

even more collage ...

and two Northumbrian Scribes (the third is behind the camera).

The quality and variety of the work shown is amazing. The photographs here can show only a small amount of the pieces on display. However, there is a film being made of the event and it will eventually appear on the International Research Centre for Calligraphy website. After a talk by Suzanne Moore in the evening a 12 minute fragment of the film was shown - it is currently being edited into a final version from hours of footage.

That is all from Writing 2011.

Writing 2011 - Thursday 28 July

First thing this morning we got to ask David some questions about poetry. One query that often came up was did he mind calligraphers altering line layouts of his work and the answer quickly came back 'no'. He is just grateful that someone takes an interest! He is also not worried about copyright and wants artists to work with his words. During the afternoon David held an open session when anyone could take their poetic writings to him for advice.

Above is a picture of the zen-like calm of Edward Wates' workshop. Or maybe it is exhaustion because they are making a manuscript book and have 24 pages of writing to complete before the binding can start. Below are some sheets of writing waiting to be bound.

The collage workshop with Ann Hechle (above) was also very calm - or maybe it was just lunchtime. Her group are working on their projects with her advice and input. There were some pieces of glass on display in the National Glass Centre symposium catering area - Ayoko Tani's students are taking advantage of being on the spot to display their works.

One thing that David keeps saying is 'that calligraphers are patient'. Maybe we are.

Writing 2011 - Wednesday 27 July

The morning session with David Annwn was slightly different today. He gave us four words - river, bridge, sea and sky - and then asked each of us to think of one word in our own language relating to those words. Then he went round the entire room and everyone said their word-response one after the other like a kind of verbal Mexican wave. The sharp ear heard Spanish, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Finnish and Greek spoken.

David returned that favour later in the morning by visiting one of the groups and then writing a poem about them at work. He scribbled his first thoughts on the papers you see pinned up behind him.

The folks who are with Ayako Tani doing work in glass have been tucked away separate from the main symposium in the depths of the National Glass Centre. However, today some of their work appeared taped to the windows of the catering area. These images have been created using hot glass and paper - apparently someone had to stand by with a water spray to put out the flames as hot glass was applied to the paper - and astonishingly beautiful they are too.

Writing 2011 - Tuesday 26 July

The symposium routine is becoming established with David Annwn having everyone think about words for the first hour of the day. This session considered poems with lines that were not in English and also works written entirely in languages that you would never have come across before. How do you deal with these when you don't even know what they are about?
In Susan Moor's class they were considering backgrounds for their pages of words. And also looking at many ways of binding hand-made works.At lunchtime Calligraphity brought their books and stayed all day.In Edward Wates' class busy people were at work and found the floor useful for ruling and arranging pages.
Thomas Ingmire's workshop produced a late afternoon burst of creativity with several collaborative pieces made by his group using music for mark-making. In the piece shown everyone followed a different instrument and made their marks to represent that on the paper, layering and overlapping their marks. David Annwn, symposium poet, composed a poem about the whole process as the scribes worked.
Festival of Calligraphy in St Peter's Church
After dinner everyone went over to St Peter's Church for an evening of calligraphy that included talks on the Japanese poet Basho and David Jones, demonstrations and exhibitions of work by Northumbrian Scribes, Calligraphity books and more.

Susan Moor discusses some of the books she has made.

Manny Ling is a blur of activity as he shows how to write the graceful letter in front of visitors to St Peter's.

Writing 2011 - Monday 25 July

The first hour of the day was spent working with words with the symposium poet. David Annwn showed us how to increase our 'word hoard' with exercises in word association, pairing random words, examining our feelings about loved and hated objects, and translating 'nappy' into German, Finnish and Japanese. Then we took our collections of words with us into the individual workshops.The above photo is of Suzanne Moore's group working on making their books. Frantic scenes of pasting have been observed. And a lot of tables moved.

Thomas Ingmire's class are taking a break to look at his day books. He encourages students to react to the sounds around them by making marks and his daily pages are bound up into small books. The group was experimenting with musical mark-making today.