Warmland Calligraphers Newsletter #66

WARMLAND CALLIGRAPHERS OF THE COWICHAN VALLEY

February 2017 Issue #66

Newsletter Team

Newsletter Issue #66 February 2017 Regular monthly meetings are held on the Second Tuesday of each month from 9am to 12:00pm (no meeting in July and August) Mellor Hall Meeting Room, Exhibition Grounds Duncan, BC (Exceptions are December and June)

Editor

Barbara Qualley

Proofreader

Eleanor Harris

Cover Artist

Janet Peters

Executive Meetings are held on the First Tuesday of each month at Linda Yaychuk’s home from 9am to noon All members are welcome!

Playtime is held on the Fourth Tuesday of each month from 9am to 12pm Scouts Hall, Exhibition Grounds Duncan, BC

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General Guild Information

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President’s Message Cover Artist - Janet Peters

Annual Membership in Warmland Calligraphers includes three online newsletters. Dues are C$30 for Canadian residents and US$30 for US/Int’l.

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Christmas Pot Luck

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November Galleria - One Letter

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Gentle Gothics with Alice Young

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November Meeting Programme - Backgrounds January Meeting Programme - Calligrams

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January Galleria - Mixed media (3) incl. collage

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November Playtime

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Library Exhibition

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Deck the Hall Christmas Market

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Christmas Cards

Warmland Calligraphers of the Cowichan Valley (the Guild) is a non-profit group formed to facilitate the exchange of information between calligraphers, and to promote interest in and appreciation of calligraphy as an art form within the community. Membership is open to calligraphers at all levels of expertise as well as those with a love of beautiful writing.

Contents of this newsletter are copyrighted by the authors/artists.

Requests for permission to reprint any part must be made through the Editor. The views of contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Guild.

Members are invited to submit concise pieces for publication as well as to alert the Editor to conferences, papers, speeches and other matters of interest to our readers.

The Editor reserves the right to make editorial changes in material accepted for publication. These include such revisions or additions deemed necessary to ensure correctness of grammar and spelling, clarification of obscurities, brevity and conformity to the newsletter style.

Contact us at:

P.O. Box 2, Duncan, B C, V9L 3X1 Canada http://www.warmlandcalligraphers.ca

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Inside this issue

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President’s Message - Ria Lewis According to Wikipedia, “Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, among other writing instruments. A contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as, “the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner.”

In a way, one could say that calligraphy is a more enhanced and creative form of cursive writing. Unfortunately, cursive writing has become a bit of a lost art in schools nowadays as there is a tendency to think that cursive writing no longer is necessary in the age of computers, tablets and smartphones.

Printing and learning how to use a keyboard is the norm.

However, there are voices who proclaim that there is more to cursive writing than an outdated

way of communicating. On the practical side, one still needs a signature (in cursive writing) for legal documents, such as passports and being able to write a cheque.

constant activity, hand writing gives children a chance to be still, which brings me back to calligraphy. Being still is one of the many benefits this art form provides.

In an educational blog I came across, several reasons were given why cursive writing should still be taught in schools.

For one, it develops fine motor skills as cursive writing requires the use of hand muscles in a different way than printing. It also gives students another opportunity to fully understand the alphabet, and it gives dyslexic students another option to fine tune their writing ability. Being able to read historical documents connects students to the past, but it also enables them to read cards from grandparents. There is a human element to handwriting because it is personal.

Handwriting creates room for peace. In Heather Held’s own words, “Calligraphers can lower their heart rate just sitting still in front of their paper to work. You can’t do it if you’re fighting, if you’re agitated. You have to be at peace.”

In a very busy world with

Happy writing and peace to you all.

I am proud of our Guild, the Warmland Calligraphers, and the efforts that are being made to keep this beautiful art form alive.

New members bring energy and creativity while our seasoned calligraphers organize programs and workshops throughout each year. The Guild is a true asset to the arts community in the Cowichan Valley.

Front Cover Artist - Janet Peters Last October I was in San Francisco to attend two workshops offered by Paul Antonio Attong when I received Barbara's email, and I thought, "Oh, Bloody Hell!"

A few weeks later I had an epiphany: Use the image I created in the summer with my Epsom 4490 scanner of a bouquet of Queen Anne's Lace picked while on a Sunday walk

around my subdivision. (I will include a couple of images of previous scans - hopefully there is room in this newsletter for them.)

According to Wikipedia, "Scanography, more commonly referred to as scanner photography, is the process of capturing digitized images of objects for the purpose of creating printable art using a flatbed "photo" FEBRUARY 2017

scanner with a CCD (chargecoupled devise) array capturing device." (Anyone interested in this form of art/photography will find lots of information through Google.)

Perhaps the above explanation sounds a bit technical, but it is a very simple procedure. Here's how I go about capturing flowers -- or it could be seashells, objects -- even you, yourself, WARMLAND CALLIGRAPHERS

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staring into the scanner, but use your darkest glasses!

Simply arrange item(s) to be scanned, set scanner to the required settings (and I generally choose at least the 600 dpi setting), select "Save as a JPEG," leave the lid of the scanner completely open, and press the "Start" button. This gives the black background to an image, which is simply wonderful for

using as a card for emailing purposes, but awful when printing because copious amounts of black ink are required.

I thought about how I had "created" that image of common roadside flowers and seedheads, which I truly love, and, fortunately, remembered the Alice Walker quote I had saved from one of Robyn Gordon's posts, a Facebook friend. To

tone with the flowers, I chose a primary red gouache and mixed it with Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen White for the Engrosser's Script lettering on Daler Rowney Black 90-pound paper. I scanned my written piece, saved it as a JPEG, emailed to Barb, and she worked her magic.

I might add the whole exercise pushed me out of my comfort zone, but I survived - LOL!

The greeting card was created in PhotoShop and makes a dramatic card to be emailed. Printing at home, as previously mentioned, would use a copious amount of black ink.

When replacing the black background with white (at the push of a button on Photoshop) the flowers lost a lot of definition, but would be OK to print at home.

Absolutely you could take the greeting card with black background to your local printshop. The price for colour copy should be the same for a little or a lot of black.

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Christmas Pot Luck I so enjoyed my first experience of a WCCV Christmas Potluck :-) Many thanks to: Pat and John, for hosting a wonderful party so warmly and generously Everyone for the delicious food and interesting conversation Betty for gift of a card for each of us The anonymous designer of a beautiful Merry Christmas tree card that I acquired - Bridget Bruneski

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November Galleria - One letter beautifully presented

Judy Lowood

Betty Locke

David Carter

Charlotte Whiteley

Pat Wheatley

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Christine Hill Linda Lax

Marilyn Boechler

Ida Marie Threadkell

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Margaret Kells

Judi Hopewell

Barbara Qualley Ria Lewis

Pauline Thompson

Marion Craig

Ruth Rutledge

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Jeanette Rawek

Simone LaVoie Laureen Woodruff

Mieke van der Vliet

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Denise Rothney

The Gentle Gothics and Pilot Parallel Pen with Alice Young So many members wanted to learn to use the Pilot Parallel Pen that Alice Young ran two back-to-back workshops for us. As a graphic designer, Alice uses the PPP often. She taught us her version of the Gothic hand which is softer than the traditional.

Alice has several online classes available at skillshare.com and is preparing a book on using the Pilot Parallel Pen. The class began with learning to clean the pen. We were advised that the ink flow is best when the Pilot pen is positioned with the slot on the (blue) collar facing up.

We moved on to pen manipulation exercises.

Alice Young

J. HERBIN inks are available at Island Blue in Victoria in a multitude of colours. Alice’s favourite.

Linda Lax

Triomphe Clairefontaine paper is buttery smooth, excellent quality and non-bleeding. Available at The Papery on Fort Street in Victoria. Also favoured by Heather Victoria Held for pointed pen work.

Class handouts were printed on this paper available at Staples.

- Barbara Qualley

Darrell Erhart

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Carroll McLaurin

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THIS is the way to take notes in a workshop! - Liz Moss

Betty Locke

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Judi Hopewell

David Carter

Judy Lowood

Judy Lowood

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Pat Wheatley

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November Meeting Programme - Background Techniques Creating interesting patterns using various techniques as a backdrop for calligraphic work was a great hit with members.

Hands-on instruction was provided by Mieke van der Vliet, Trish Peebles, Pat Wheatley, and Marilyn Boechler each at their own demonstration station.

The techniques demonstrated were: • using baby wipes, three colours of acrylic paint and watercolour paper • using shaving cream, watercolour paint, gouache, acrylic paint or acrylic ink on watercolour paper • using several sprayed inks on glass, adding water, and transferring the colour onto watercolour paper • using several sprayed inks on wet watercolour paper, and dropping rubbing alcohol onto the ink.

These techniques, new to many, generated much enthusiasm amongst the participating members, and produced a myriad background designs to be used with calligraphic pieces. The attractive and interesting results could be used in creative ways, either by writing directly onto the background, or in collage or cut and paste designs, to add colour to an otherwise plain piece of calligraphy.

Spritz on glass

- Margaret Kells

in Blown

k bubb

les

Baby wipe technique Shave cream marbling

January Meeting Programme - Calligrams During our January programme Paullette McLaren discussed different forms of calligrams.

Then she had us draw geometric shapes and form calligrams using words and/or phrases related to the shape as outlines or fill-ins.

Paullette finished the session by showing us the beautiful calligram that she had done of a horse using horse words or phrases.

- Linda Yaychuk

A calligram is a work or piece of text that creates a shape. This method started with Islam as they do not depict their god Allah in pictures.

Instead, they use words in shapes relating the attributes of Allah.

A calligram can be an outline of an object made with words or an object can be created by using words to create the shape. Texture can be achieved in a piece by using a variety of tools.

For example, changing nibs to get long and skinny, short and wide or light or heavy strokes.

Paullette showed a number of examples of calligrams from Arabic to modern day.

Paullette McLaren

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January Galleria - Mixed media including collage element

Marilyn Boechler Ria Lewis

Anne Atkinson David Carter

Linda Lax

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Pat Wheatley

Denise Rothney

Jeanette Rawek

Judy Lowood Laureen Woodruff

Ida Marie Threadkell

Betty Locke

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Judi Hopewell

Barbara Qualley

Marion Craig Ruth Rutledge

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Anne Atkinson

Margaret Kells

Paullette McLaren

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November Playtime

After Marilyn Lundstrom gave an introduction into using Dr. Martin’s Bleed Proof White and similar products, members turned to their own projects.

Look at the diversity - all in one session! You never know what you will see and learn from other members.

Judi Hopewell - helping new member and showing Pilot Parallel Pen Marilyn Lundstrom - foundational practice Kathy Marven - artistry of the edged brush Linda Yaychuk - origami Betty Locke stopped by to give Mieke van der Vliet - copperplate assistance to anyone who asked.

Linda Lax - birthday card David Carter - resist and pointillism Laureen Woodruff, Barbara Judy Lowood - italic caps Qualley, and new member Carroll McLaurin - italics Laurie also attended. Apologies Jeanette Rawek - italics if someone was missed.

- Barbara Qualley Marion Craig - artwork

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Vancouver Island Regional Library (Duncan) Exhibition

The Guild had 35 pieces hanging in our Duncan Library Exhibition this year, featuring the huge variety of topics and mediums used by our members. The public was treated to everything from “Queen Anne’s Lace” to “Paradise” for the month of December.

Thank you to all who contributed.

- Denise Rothney

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Votive Lanterns by Charlotte Whiteley

Colouring Book by Betty Locke

Tooth Fairy Pillows by Linda Lax

Dog/Cat Quilts by Linda Yaychuk

For the first time Warmland Calligraphers set up a booth at the Deck the Hall Christmas Market on November 25th and 26th.

The purpose of renting a booth was to promote our Guild and make the public more aware of our existence. It was a great success and the calligraphers involved considered it an enjoyable experience.

We provided free bookmarks cut from used pieces of calligraphy and wrote visitor's names on them. People were impressed with the writing as well as the Pilot Parallel Pens which many had never seen before.

Some of the goods we sold were colouring books, cards, lanterns, Tooth Fairy pillows and gift tags.

Because of our success we will be securing a table at next year’s Christmas Market.

Thank you to all those who worked so hard putting together and manning the Warmland Calligraphers Craft Sale booth.

- Linda Yaychuk

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Artwork by Hans van der Werff courtesy of June Maffin Greeting Cards by Alice Young Monoprint Quotes by Ria Lewis Tiny Folded Ornaments by Carolynn Dallaire Personalized bookmarks by various members

Christmas Cards

Marion Craig

Jeanette Rawek

Barbara Qualley Betty Locke

Laureen Woodruff

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Joyce Gammie

David Carter

Judy Lowood

Margaret Kells

Pat Wheatley

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Carolynn Dallaire

Anne Atkinson

Carroll McLaurin

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Bridget Bruneski

Judi Hopewell

Jane Taylor

Marilyn Boechler

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Cookie hand painted with edible paints by Linda Yaychuk’s relative

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Ida Marie Threadkell