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.

Writing 2011 - Sunday 24 July

All the delegates gathered for the introduction to the symposium from Professor Ewan Clayton. Up on the screen is a page from a book of poetry by the symposium poet David Annwn and it has been illustrated by Thomas Ingmire. Nervous delegates were told that at 9.30 tomorrow they will start to write their own poetry under David Annwn's supervision ...

Change of Date for Calligraphity Visit

Please note that Calligraphity will now be visiting the Writing 2011 symposium on Tuesday 26 July over lunchtime and also at the evening Festival of Calligraphy at St Peter's Church from 6.30-9.30.

Black Hand Gang at Bede's World

Angela Dalleywater was the guest tutor at the July workshop with an interesting take on black and white. Instead of writing one onto the other we were to write white on white and black on black. This involved knowing the qualities and exact shades of your blacks - did they have a blueish tinge so would need to be written on a warmer colour black paper to show up? In the photo Angela is showing us how to make a series of tests of the various blacks available and whether they dried completely or would shift when wet again. The same procedure was followed for the different whites available and then we tried writing.


Shown above is writing on a tissue that has been treated with hair-spray in white paint. It can be done if you work quickly and with a light touch of the pen. And the Black Hand Gang? Well there were some very messy hands after all that paint mixing but the mark left on the carpet is crimson paint not blood, honestly.

Mark of Appreciation

Above is a card given to Mike in appreciation of his years as Chairman of Northumbrian Scribes at our last meeting. He stepped down last year and as a thank you he was presented with a set of calligraphic cards by Sue Hufton (shown below).

July Workshop

Apologies to anyone who was looking for the July workshop details and found that the August workshop information had been put up on the blog by mistake. So, to correct an error the workshop on Saturday 16th July will be as follows: White and Black with tutor Angela Dalleywater. Find out about the properties of the different blacks and whites available in both paper and inks. Please bring the usual calligraphy equipment plus all the black or white paints (gouache and watercolour) and inks (bottles and sticks) that you have to hand. We can share if you do not have a wide choice. Bring whatever black and white papers or tissues that you may have and a selection of suitable dark/light words, phrases or poems to work with.

The location will be Bede's World in Jarrow. Anyone who has not tried calligraphy before is welcome to come along and see what we do. See you there.

Scribes at the Shipley

The Friends of the Shipley Art Gallery had invited Northumbrian Scribes to speak at one of their monthly meetings in the gallery. One of the Shipley's areas of interest is collecting modern crafts and they have regular displays of craft items although, sadly, not any calligraphy is on show at present.

The talk took place in the main part of the gallery where Scribes had tables to do demonstrations and display work from the group. There was a great deal of interest in the work on show and the chance to handle some of it and turn pages and ask questions of the makers was appreciated.
Short talks were given by Susan (shown below) on the current status of calligraphy and some of the arguments such as whether it is an art or craft and whether such definitions even matter.
Mike also gave a short talk on some of the projects that the group has been involved in such as the 'Building Bridges' book and the annual calendar and had brought some samples of our work with him.

Many thanks to those Scribes who came along to support us and to show their work to the Friends, it was a very successful evening.