Ink Drops March 2021

NEXT MEETING: April 7, 2021

7:00 PM MDT via ZOOM

Instructor: Sachin Shah

Fraktur Majuscules

LETTERS AND LINES PROMPTS FOR APRIL

“YOUR FAVOURITE QUOTE”

Using a favourite quote, proverb, scripture or saying that you have enjoyed all of your life, letter it in three different ways, using any of the tools, inks or colours you have in your workspace. Use a hand we learned in previous months. Try using all upper case letters. Let your letters bounce or follow a single line. Try a new page layout. Create some interesting texture on the page.

MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

We are pleased to welcome Vivien Twogood to the ECS. She’s from Calgary and also belongs to the Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild.

Our membership year is from July 1 to June 30, but we encourage you to renew early to help us process the information over a couple of months rather than all at once. We have an incentive to help you make that choice. Sally Towers-Sybblis will provide a small project (below) for those who renew by June 30, 2021. We have made the decision to continue hiring professional calligraphers to teach our monthly sessions for September 2021 to March of 2022 and probably to June 2022. We will keep you informed as we move forward.

The 2021-2022 membership renewal on Eventbrite will be activated after our April 7 session.

 

LETTERS AND LINES MARCH THEME: Rainbows

Barbara Keir—Blackwing Pencil Crayons & Micron Felt Marker
Gail Fournier—Pelikan 4001, Brause nib, Pentalic Paper for pens
Pens
Above–Brody pen on brown watercolour
paper. Dr. Martin’s white ink,
Prismacolour coloured pencil highlights.
ENO coloured mechanical pencil on
black Artagain paper. These pencils are
not lightfast. Jeanine Alexander
Jeanine Alexander’s loose watercolour flowers and
Ruling pen letters
size: 7″h x 18.5″w (totally open) closes to 7″h x 2.5″w x 1.25″thick
I accordion folded (every 1″) my white cardstock (unknown brand).
For the Rainbow word, I cut the cardstock to 2″w x 2.5″h and wrote
each letter for the word on a separate piece of cardstock. I trimmed a
refill nib on the edge to get a fine point broad edge, inked it with 3
colours of Copic Alcohol ink refill (Crimson. Maize and Ultramarine).
Cut the coloured pieces 2″w x 3/4″h in all the colours of the rainbow.
The quote was written on pieces 2″w x 1″h using a 2.4 parallel pen
and Sumi ink in an Uncial style.
Covered the inside flaps of the cover with a navy blue Ruche card stock and the front with a white Ruche. Wrote out the letters for the rainbow colours on the white card stock, added some coloured pencil shading in the matching colours and added a red border with a red Zig Writer. Adhered the top and bottom edges to the front cover, leaving enough room to insert my belt made from red Ruche folded in half for strength. One end was adhered to the cover and the other end cut to a point to slip easily under the label.

On Bee Super Deluxe paper. (Above)

I pulled out my Copic wide pen which I had altered the tip making it a straight edged broad nib. It’s 3/4″w. It was dried out so I dropped some Copic alcohol refill on the tip (Crimson and Ultramarine). It gave me some interesting effects on my calligraphy paper. But for what I wanted the tip was a bit too big for my main word and the colours to overpowering – so… I covered part of the tip with masking tape, added “Maize” (a lovely yellow) and some 99% alcohol and started writing my “Rainbows” word. The yellow didn’t really show up other than the ink was less intense. So I added a line of Derwent Inktense watercolour pencil “Sun Yellow” on the right edge. Much better. Then I added the rest of the quote using a 3.0 parallel pen and Sumi ink in one of my funky styles.

Yogi Grunwald

Handwritmic Pen, Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White &
Pencil Crayons—Peggy Marce

 

Member Projects

Alexis Reiter made this treasure box
from a workshop done through
Calligraphy Crush magazine. She made
the box from a stack of thickened
envelopes she enjoyed decorating.

Barbara Keir created these pieces using her Handwritmic ‘Brody Pen’ after taking Julie Wildman’s workshop.
Barbara Keir—Handwritmic Pen Workshop (Above) Bone Letters from Carrie Imai’s Workshop (Right) and with Carrie’s comments and coaching (Below)

Envelope Exchange

WEATHERGRAMS PROJECT

We have asked our members to create positive, supportive messages for our healthcare workers at the Grey Nuns Hospital, and I thought you should see some of the examples our creative ECS people have made! Please make sure you drop off your completed Weathergrams by March 31 at one of the locations we posted in our recent email, as we want to stamp the backs with our ECS logo before we hang them. We were told there are about 1000 staff members at the Grey Nuns Hospital, so we need as many as possible!

These are some of the over 200 Weathergrams made by Jeanine Alexander . On the left she has a regular size one next to a giant one for the trees!
Roxanne Fairbrother
Kathy Gynane
Peggy Marce (above & below)
Sherry Springall

Pauline Baynes

A THOUGHTFUL SUBMISSION TO THE ECS

When Jeanine and I attended the Red Deer Series session with Reggie Ezell (Blackline Variations) in 2019, we met two delightful senior sisters who had never done any calligraphy . We thought they were very brave to jump in for a week of intense learning, and they did find the days quite long. Both were friendly and very generously shared their gum sandarac with me.

At the beginning of March, I discovered a lovely email from Gilda, sent at the end of January, in the ECS spam folder. She wrote that her sister “has maintained and developed her interest in calligraphy, and has been exploring some earlier works demonstrating ornamental alphabets. She came across this item, which I thought might be worthwhile passing along. It is out of copyright, and therefore free to reproduce. A reprint is available, but this Internet Archive work is entirely free of charge.”

I am happy to share Gilda’s link with you to enjoy: Berling Alphabet Book

SPEEDBALL TEXTBOOK

As I was preparing the Ink Drops, Jeanine Alexander shared this old Speedball poster with me, and it appropriately fits this section of the newsletter!

The 25 Anniversary edition of the Speedball Textbook can be pre- ordered at The Paint Spot. Call them at (780) 432-0240 and they will notify you when the books arrive.

Carl Rohrs hosted a free lecture about this book which he co-edited with Suzanne Cunningham and Sachin Shah. Carl did the title, Suzannne contributed the Copperplate lettering and Sachin provided the ‘S’ for the cover.

If you missed this session, you can access the recording here: Speedball Textbook Lecture

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

The first place to check is John Neal Bookseller, as there are numerous instructors listed there. If you know of someone who is not posted with JNB and is offering classes in 2021, please let me know and I’ll add them to our information.

Alexis Reiter recently told me about this magazine and I thought it would be of interest to you. Calligraphy Crush Online Magazine Calligraphy Crush

John Neal Bookseller Numerous Online Classes

Denis Brown A Variety of Classes

Sandia Workshops Online Calligraphy Classes

Paul Antonio Classes Lectures and Workshops

Benoit Furet Filigrees II

Loredana Zega Two Upcoming Classes

Society for Calligraphy Mini-Workshops For Non-Members

Future Learn History of the Book & The Book of Kells

Lettering Daily Tutorials and Guides

European Pointed Pen Collective Several Classes

Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society Videos For Beginners

Bakersfield College Uncial Hand

Calligraphy Masters Frak One Free Foundational Tutorial

Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild Drawn & Built-up Capitals With Yukimi Annand

Edmonton Calligraphic Society

Beginning Brush Lettering For Teens (Mar.31/2021)

Focus on Italic With Barbara Close

A card Jeanine made to welcome

her new granddaughter.

 

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