Letter from the Éditeur!

Bonjour, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you a

Happy New Year 2015.

New Year, new ideas for calligraphy!

2015 brings us new inspiration in the form of Painting and

Gilding by Margaret Stanley, San Vito Capitals by none other

than Gaynor Goffe and Legende by our very own calligraphy

expert par excellence…..Sue Cox!

Don’t forget to complete your Booking Form and also renew your membership

for 2015.

This year’s programme starts on 7th February with a Spring workshop on

Painting and Gilding given by Margaret Stanley, which promises to be very

interesting and inspiring.

I attended one of her evening talks at the North Downs Calligraphers and it

was really fascinating.

Highlight of our year will be the Signs of the Seasons Exhibition from April 1st –

May 2nd. Hopefully your artwork is underway. Don’t forget to leave time

for framing. Set-up day is Tuesday 31st March.

If you are still waiting for inspiration, a walk out in the Surrey countryside is

bound to provide food for thought. Earlier in the year I visited the Hampton

Court Flower Show and also the Botanical Gardens at Wisley and took photos

of the gardens and plants for ideas. I’ve included a few at the end.

Ros (et Marcel!)

Spring Term 2015

SPRING Beginners & Improvers mornings and Follow on

MEDIA study details are shown on the programme page of the web site.

B&I class 10 - 1pm includes a half hour MEDIA study.. .. .. .. .. .. .. Saturday 14th February

B&I class & Follow on 10 - 2pm includes a half hour MEDIA study .. .. .. .. Saturday 14th March

We are very privileged that our lovely Sue Cox plans media study classes for us as part of our Beginners and Improvers mornings. These last half an hour and are suitable for all levels. They are run in the same room. Beginners are invited to take part if they wish and will be loaned kit as required.

During beginners and improvers morning, those starting calligraphy receive tuition from Sue on their chosen script. They are taught calligraphy skills and basic equipment know-how.

Follow on sessions are designed for members to practice & revise skills from a workshop or media study or who need tutorial help to complete a project. Please let Sue if you wish to have help with a particular project and she can provide expert advice, tips and very often a different perspective if you are stuck for ideas.

14th February 10-1pm: Beginners & Improvers class

A ½ hour MEDIA demo & examples: Designing an illuminated letter or image with coloured pencils. Using thumbnail sketches. How to plan ahead by trying different colour combinations over a tracing or sketch. Creating optional designs to work from. Suitable for all levels. Handouts and materials to experiment with are provided.

14th March 10-2pm Beginners & Improvers & Follow on with extra time

A ½ hour MEDIA demo & examples: Illuminating practice & making a sample page of trials. Using size & PVA on different surfaces of paper, card, or mount board. Applying transfer gold, bronze & silver metal leaf over a letter or image. Suitable for all levels. Handouts & materials including transfer metals, size. PVA & 0-00 brushes can be provided to experiment with.

A workshop to explore simple gilding ~ the application of gold leaf, and also the techniques of mixing & using gouache paint. Margaret will bring a variety of designs to inspire the class and examples of her personal work. Margaret studied Graphic Art & Design at Birmingham And later at Kingston University for a BA Honours Degree after three years living in West Africa. In 2004 while at the Reigate School of Art and Design studying calligraphy, illumination and heraldic art, her tutor Gerald Mynott chose her to receive the Painter- Stainers Award. The Guild has been in existence since 1502 and still continues to support and encourage the Arts. Margaret was presented the award by the then Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Robert Finch, and the Master, Mr B P Botting. For the last couple of years she has become a recording artist for the Royal College of Arms in London. She has taught Adult Education Classes and now enjoys the private teaching she does for her local Art Group. She has work in private collections as far afield as

Denmark, Luxemburg, France, America and Japan as well as England. Her work is very varied, painting in watercolour gouache, calligraphy and guilding. She is never happier than with a paintbrush, pen, burnisher or pencil in her hand! Margaret is a well known member of the North Downs Calligraphy Group and has given several lectures regarding her work. The beautiful illustration here shows you how you can transform the character of your writing through use of colour and gold leaf. The gilding really lifts the letters and lends them gravitas. This seems sure to provide us with inspiration for our Signs of the Seasons work or any other projects you might be working on such as special birthday or anniversary cards.

Workshop Report – ‘Bringing Half Uncials Into The Twenty first

Century’

With Marion McKenzie

This was our first workshop with Marion and what a joy she was! Uncials is still my

favourite script and I was very keen to learn half uncials. I wasn’t disappointed.

Marion started the day by looking at the hand that was written in the Book of Kells and

Lindisfarne Gospels. She advised us to look at Stan Knight’s book ‘Historical Scripts’ for a

good review of the hand. This beautiful script was made famous in the Book of Kells and

this was what Marion used as a basis her script.

We started the day by comparing uncial letters and half uncial letters. There were many

differences. Changes in the letters a, b, g, h, l, m, p, s and x. Half uncials are written with

a flat pen angle and have notable wedged serifs. We then worked through the alphabet

using our handout, tracing any letters we felt were difficult, so as to get a ‘feel’ of the

hand. There were some tricky letters – b and g still continue to baffle me! We used a

fairly wide, left oblique nib and the x height was 5 nib widths. Once we got used to the

letters we wrote some sentences.

After lunch, we began to experiment with half uncials but without losing its essence.

Firstly we looked at what happens when you change the nib size. By writing in a smaller

nib the writing seemed to get a little quicker. We then experimented with changing the

scale of the lettering – by using the same nib but changing the X-height. The smaller the

nib widths, the more squat the letters looked. The larger the nib width gave the letters a

more tall but compressed look. Lastly, we experimented with different serifs and putting

a slant on the letters. Finally, we wrote out a small quote in our personal, favourite

version of half uncials.

Marion summed up the day by saying that we had all achieved well and that there were

many variations of this script to use. She hoped we would all practice at home and refine

what we had started. She suggested that half uncials and its variations would be useful

for writing poetry. Sue thanked Marion, on behalf of us all, for an excellent day.

Marion was a wonderful, helpful tutor, always ready to us confidence and praise. She

had a calm, helpful manner (perhaps that was something to do with the fact that she was

an ex midwife!). Let’s hope she can come back again soon. I really enjoyed my day with

half uncials and I think that everyone else did too.

Bernie Laird

EXAMPLES OF MARION’S WORK

AVID STUDENTS!

Forthcoming Events – 2015

1st April – 30th April Signs of the Seasons – Exhibition of Members of Lingfield Scribes

Calligraphy inspired by Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter landscapes and poetry.

Work might include an Astrological view of the heavens or the solar system of Planets and Stars.

SIGNS OF THE SEASON – OUR EXHIBITION THEME 2015

CLAS Regional Day – Saturday 3rd October 2015 Please put this in your diaries. The South Hampshire Calligraphers and Sussex Scribes will be hosting the next CLAS Regional Day, which will be held at Chichester College on Saturday 3rd October 2015, and they have invited Lingfield Scribes not only to attend but also to mount an exhibition of our work! More details will follow, and Sue will notify you regarding arrangements. Please let her know if you are available to assist with mounting work on the day.

MARCEL

Bonne Annee à tous!

J’espère que vous avez passé un Joyeux Noel !

I had fun trying out Sue’s Christmas Cards ideas. I hope you did too!

St Nicholas gave me an i-Phone for Noel so I could keep in touch with my

culinary cousin Ratatouille in Paris!

I-Pads and i-Phones are handy for looking for quotes online. You can

download apps to give you inspiration. Useful ones are:

The Poetry App is a wonderful app allowing you to explore poetry and writers.

There are some calligraphy practice apps (Calligraphy Practice App is one of

them) which enable you to trace the shapes of letters on the screen using your

fingers.

Most are American and the calligraphy is standardised; they are OK for

general practice but not to replace our lovely authentic dip pens and ink and

proper letter sheets.

Unfortunately there isn’t a rubbing-out app! but Picasa is a great editing

tool and not as complicated as Adobe. It’s quick to use and has some great

special effects. I adapted a photo of Sue’s card design for her friend Ann and

changed the colour to turquoise.

Pinterest is good for calligraphy ideas as is Facebook. There are some nice

calligraphy groups you can join, where people share their ideas. Ros recently

joined ‘A Quote to Write’ where people post pictures of quotes they have

written in calligraphy. Some are très amusant others are extraordinaire!

I am told that la mère de Rosalind s’appèle ‘Technogran’ because she keeps

up-to-date with technology. My family now call me Techno-souris, which is

funny because ‘souris’ is also the French for a computer mouse!! If you have

any IT tips you would like to share, let me know! Merci!

Gros bisous! Marcel x

SUE’S WONDERFUL MEDIA WORKSHOPS

Sue’s workshops give us the great excuse to experiment with colour and form

as well as getting a bit messy in the name of art! I wish my art lessons at

school had been half as fun and informative.

In September she showed us variations on resists and in October spoke about

different types of pen nibs.

Soaking the excess resist in water to reveal the writing.

CHRISTMAS WORKSHOP

Sue showed us how to create stamps for borders and apply glitter to carefully

drawn lettering in glue, to create fun Christmas cards.

We also learnt how to fold and cut a paper snowflake and carefully cut out the

shape of a Christmas tree.

A delightfully fun time was had by all, made extra special by festive nibbles and

those wonderful spiced Christmas biscuits!

Calligraphy on the TV

I spotted some lovely examples of medieval calligraphy while watching Wolf Hall on the TV

which led me to Google the web for information (www.patricialovett.com/tag/book-of-

hours)

Apparently Patricia Lovett, MBE taught the actor Mark Rylance, who plays Thomas

Cromwell, how to use a quill, please see below a photo of him.

Not only this, but she produced a mock-up of six pages of the Book of Hours for the series!

There is a lovely scene where Cromwell’s daughter traces the gilding with her fingers.

Looking forward to seeing you all at a workshop soon!

Ros & Marcel

Newsletter edited and produced by Rosalind Ebbrell

19 West Down, Great Bookham, Surrey KT23 4LJ

01372 453211 email: rosalind@ebbrell.me.uk