S is a 5 with a migraine

The April meeting was on English Church Text with Chris Bowen. And if you have ever seen this particular hand you will understand why some scribes immediately wanted to do a runner. It is a complicated mixture of Gothic letters with elaborate flourishes and very scary. However, Chris had worked out a plan to subdue it and told us to start by concentrating on the main part of the letter and to write our chosen words first before adding embellishments.

Above he demonstrates how to break a letter down into its component parts. It was also very reassuring to hear that he works out his embellishments in pencil first so that they do not have to be added freehand. In fact quite a lot of the design can be preplanned so that you know exactly where to place the strokes.

Part way through the workshop there was a visit from a local from Jarrow, seen above. Judi donned a spare helmet and became an Anglo-Saxon for this part of the meeting but no actual fighting took place.

At the end of this session Chris Bowen showed us how he had been mounting some of his work into a large bound book.

Gaps in the writing

Mike's January workshop involved exploring how much you could alter letters without destroying their legibility and he started his workshop by demonstrating that even if you part-cover letters they can still be read provided that the top half of each letter is visible. By introducing gaps in strokes (using a strategically placed pencil line as a reminder) there was then a useful space created which could hold an embellishment without the reader losing the sense of what he was reading. Some examples of work made during the day by scribe David Karle are shown below.

The afternoon session was partly devoted to discussions and designs for the 2013 calendar but as it is all currently top secret no more will be said. You will have to wait and see.

The Write Way

The Northumbrian Scribes annual exhibition opens tomorrow, 13 February at noon. If you would like to come along and see what we have been doing you are welcome. The exhibition will run until 29 February and is in the entrance hall at Bede's World so there is no admission charge if you just want to see our exhibition.