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 - 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 ...

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.

June Meeting - AGM of the Society of Northumbrian Scribes

Saturday 18 June is the AGM of Northumbrian Scribes. The meeting is at Bede's World and will start at the usual time of 10.30. After lunch there will be an activity for which you will need to bring a pencil, eraser, 12 inch ruler and fineliner. After the activity there will be a talk by Richard Gameson of Durham University on the Lindisfarne Gospels. If you recall his talk to Scribes last year then you will appreciate that we are in for a treat. See you all there.

The end of the world is nigh ... oh, no it isn't!

I suppose it was tempting fate to have a workshop on the day that Mr Harold Camping, the US evangelist, had declared to be the day the world was to end, but as that event was not due to happen until 6pm we decided to go ahead anyway and enjoy the day.

David Price showed us how to make the elegant and fluid Sanvito capitals created by Bartolomeo Sanvito in the fifteenth century. Partly written, partly drawn, most of the letters are written at a 30 degree angle with a broad-edge pen and the serifs drawn in afterward with the edge of the pen.
David demonstrating that the accomplished scribe can write sideways too
One Northumbrian Scribe chose to work on the floor

Provided with some Latin quotations scribes were encouraged to add a second script with the translation into English

A number of scribes rose to the spirit of the day with their selection of quotations and the above seems to sum up pretty well. (For those who made it past 6pm unscathed apparently Mr Camping's new prediction is that the world will now end on 21st October - fortunately not a workshop day for Northumbrian Scribes)

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.

Calligraphy and Painting Classes in Sunderland and South Shields

New sessions start after Easter:
Monday 10-12 at Sunderland Museum (starting 9 May) and Thursday 10-12 at St Bede's, South Shields (starting 5 May).
Scribes will be looking at alphabet designs and creating their own original alphabets and using them to make a design rather than write a text. Written, drawn, painted or printed - the choice is yours. The cost is £40 for ten classes.

Wednesday 10-12 at Age UK, Sunderland starting 4 May.
This session will focus on illuminated letters, while still doing some calligraphy, and there will be a visit to the library at Durham Cathedral to look at some originals. Cost is £35 for ten sessions, please contact Age UK on 0191 514 1131 to enrol.

If you would like to learn more about watercolours then there are two classes at Age UK, Sunderland. One is on Monday afternoon, 2-4 (starting 9 May) in which the focus will be on painting textures with watercolour. The other is on Thursday afternoon from 2-4 (starting 5 May) in which working with watercolours, coloured pencils, gouache, pastels and pencil will be covered. Both courses cost £35 for ten weeks, and again contact Age UK on 0191 514 1131.

All the above classes are taught by Susan Moor. If you would like further information about them please contact her at Susan.Moor (at) givemail.co.uk.

Southern European and Curvaceous

Mike introduced us to the friendly, curvaceous and very southern European Rotunda hand at the February Scribes meeting in Sunderland. Rotunda script was particularly favoured in Spain and Italy over the more angular picket-fence style of the northern Gothic letters. It is more rounded and less compressed than its straight up and down northern cousins. When letters have a bowl such as 'o' or 'b' or 'd' the internal curves become sharper than in roundhand scripts and the straight strokes the bottom of the letter finishes with an upwards curve rather than diamond shaped feet.



Using examples from writing manuals by Antonio Tagliente and Juan de Yciar we wrote large letters with broad nibs to get the feel of this hand. Many scribes found this a comfortable hand to write and some of the work created during the workshop is shown here.


One remarkable thing we did learn was how to rotate our tittles when making letters like 'i' and 'j' which had a dash at the top. For further information about how to do this and also what a jot is please contact Mike.

Merry Christmas from Christine

Christine Markey emailed to say that she had recently cleaned out her calligraphy bag and found all her Christmas cards for fellow scribes (as well as her TV remote). So, as late is better than never, here is Christine's design which she created using versals coloured in with watercolours. She had planned to bring them to our Christmas meeting but couldn't make it and forgot about her cards. Merry Christmas.

Calligraphy makes you live longer - it's official

Northumbrian Scribes now have the honour of having two nonagenarians amongst the membership. Our President, Tom Fleming, celebrated his 90th birthday at the beginning of January and here he is receiving some gifts and a card from Susan Moor at the last monthly meeting. Tom thanked everyone and promised that he would definitely be back to celebrate his 100th birthday with us in due course.Scribes Janet Ashmore, Mike Mavromichaelis, David Karle, Judi Postle, Maureen Ormston and others watch Susan Moor present Tom Fleming with his birthday presents.
Tom Fleming at the January meeting.

Calligraphy Workshops in Hexham

There are two calligraphy workshops on the uncial script being run in Hexham as part of the Northumbrian Fragments project. Robert Cooper will be leading the workshops which cost £10 per day. For further information contact Judy Lloyd on (01434) 6062930.

Calligraphy Classes in Sunderland and South Shields

Winter term classes will be starting in the week commencing 17 January. The venues are the Sunderland Museum on Monday mornings, St Bede's in South Shields on Thursday mornings and Age UK on Wednesday mornings. All classes are taught by Susan Moor. Newcomers are welcome and if you would like further information about fees and times please contact Susan on susan.moor (at) givemail.co.uk.

November workshop with Jilly

The meeting was at Sunderland University rather than our normal venue but two dozen scribes came to the workshop to explore how to modernise a traditional hand with Jilly Hazeldine. Using Insular Capitals as the model Jilly explained that we would need to keep some features to maintain the essential nature of the script. First to go were the archaic letterforms, the g, the r and the d, while Jilly suggested retaining the insular-style serifs in a lighter form would help preserve some essence of the script. The photographs show Jilly teaching and demonstrating during the workshop.

CSI: Alphabet

Manny's decorative alphabet ideas are shown above.

Manny investigating alphabets

Some work produced during the October workshop

At the October workshop intrepid CSI: Alphabet investigator Manny Ling noted at the scene of the incident that there were 'many common body parts to letters'. He drew this conclusion while exploring how decorative letters can be made by adding fine lines or lifting off corners of the nib when writing. Using automatic pens to create the straight strokes then embellishing them or dragging the nib to make a fishtail are part of the hardened letterer's modus operandi.

Scribes were able to test their own investigative powers later when encouraged to be free with their hand movements and create decorative letters of their own. Released from the shackles of formal alphabets some interesting findings were made and the afternoon came to a satisfactory conclusion with an identity parade of work done during the day. Whether any of them were crimes ... I could not possibly say.

Manny Ling workshop in October

Manny will be doing a workshop on decorative letters at our 16 October meeting. Please bring walnut or Chinese inks, size 3A automatic pens, small nibbed pens, red gouache, cartridge and layout paper and a ruler and pencil. We are at our usual meeting place at Bede's World in Jarrow and will start at 10.30. Anyone interested in learning about calligraphy is welcome to drop in and see what we do. See you there.

M.A. Show at the Design Centre in Sunderland

Visitors to the preview evening of the MA show at the Design Centre saw work by students on the MA course including Northumbrian Scribe Susan Moor, shown in the photograph above. Also visible is some of Susan's work including the illustrated and bound journals of her research work. The book in the front of the photograph is bound in ostrich skin with small bells attached, the other book is bound in driftwood from Lindisfarne. The show is open weekdays at the Design Centre until 30 September.

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.....'

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.