"Let Calligraphy Flourish" exhibition opens at Bede's World

The opening of our annual exhibition at Bede's World took place on 5th August. Drinks and nibbles were provided and there was a goodly turnout of Scribes to enjoy the event. As soon as Susan had introduced the exhibition the first non-scribal visitors to Bede's World started to look round and were able to meet with and chat to some of the makers of the pieces on display. Some lucky ones got a glass of wine to take round with them too.

As can be seen from the photographs there are Northumbrian Scribes with very individual ways of viewing exhibitions.

Iranian Calligraphy

Two Northumbrian Scribes went to a class in Iranian calligraphy run by the artist Mehrangiz Modarres Tabatabaei at the Hatton Gallery. The Farsi script is very similar to Arabic letters but with a few extra characters. Like Arabic it is written from right to left and Mehrangiz showed us how to use a reed cut with an oblique nib which, if you are right-handed like we both are, means that you have to do a fair amount of pushing to make the letter shapes. The ink is held in a little pot filled with scraps of silk so that you cannot overfill the pen and if you knock the inkpot over it does not spill which is helpful.

The class was only a brief taster of the wonders of Iranian calligraphy but Mehrangiz had brought in some of her own paintings showing how she combines her calligraphy with images. Demand for the class was so strong that another will be run on 14 August from 10.30-12.30 at the Hatton Gallery. To book a place call the gallery on 0191 222 6059.

AGM and July Workshop

The Society of Northumbrian Scribes AGM will be held at 10am at Bede's World. It will be followed at 11am by a workshop with Chris Bowen. Please bring your usual calligraphy gear and paper plus brushes and paints.

Please note the earlier start time for Saturday's events. There is no fee for members who wish to attend only the AGM, but the normal workshop fee will apply if you want to stay for Chris's session.

Scribal Curses

Professor Richard Gameson of Durham University gave a fascinating talk about the work of medieval scribes. Did you know that there were professional husband and wife lettering and book illustration businesses? Or that a number of mistakes scribes made in their copying were put in deliberately to let illustrations be added? This happened particularly in the Book of Kells and he had several examples of lines that had been purposely finished too soon to allow little paintings to be inserted. How scribes handled their accidental errors was also a test of scribal skill with interesting little devices such as birds flying in with an omitted word in their beaks or a man climbing a ladder with a word in his arms to put it in the correct place.













Some scribes put a colophon with their name and some thoughts about their task at the end of their work, for example 'The book is finished. Praises are rendered to God above all, [also] to the author, but never to the scribe'!

And the scribal curses? Some scribes inserted small curses into the text about incorrect copying.

In the afternoon we had an opportunity to make up some scribal curses of our own as in Susan's workshop we tried our hands at the monastic script of the Bible of Hugh Le Puiset.

June Workshop - Monastic Scripts

The June meeting is in two parts: in the morning there is an illustrated talk from Professor Richard Gameson of Durham University on the subject of "Monastic Scribes and Scripts". In the afternoon Susan will lead a workshop where we all try our hand at reproducing the aforementioned monastic scripts using the script from the Bible of Hugh of Le Puiset as an exemplar. Please bring your usual calligraphy gear and paper for the workshop. Usual time, usual place - see you all there.

More marbling, and stamps too

The methods Marise and Mari demonstrated were simple and quick - scribes were able to make beautiful patterns after a few minutes and some of the designs made are shown in the photo.

The afternoon session changed tempo and we had a go at stamping and using templates for making envelopes and cards with the marbled papers. Mari had a board for folding cards and envelopes that was indented with standard paper sizes so it was easy to use with a bone folder.

Everyone was very taken with the large roller stamps with interchangeable rollers and different patterns. Used with multi-coloured stamp pads you could make really effective borders on envelopes and cards.

Marvellous marbelling in May!

For our May meeting we welcomed Marise Hewitson and Mari Topping from North York Calligraphers, who were demonstrating backgrounds for calligraphy, mainly marbelling techniques. Scribes waited no time in donning natty aprons and gloves in order to get stuck into the reasonably messy business of creating beautiful patterns with the inks and materials that Marise and Mari had bought with them.













A further element to the demonstration was about making and lining envelopes, using some of the patterns we had created and from the many handy templates which the two 'M's had provided. A great time was had by all and we will undoubtedly see the evidence in due course, not only in our summer exhibition, but surely also expressed in our Christmas Cards?!