Warmland Calligraphers #57

Newsletter Team Editor Assistant Editors Photo Editors Proof Readers Regular Contributors

Distribution Cover Artists

Newsletter Issue #57 March 2014 Regular monthly meetings are held on the Second Tuesday of each month from 9am to 12:00pm (no meeting in July and August) Exhibition Grounds Duncan, BC (Exceptions are December and June)

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

Inside this issue: 2

General Guild Information

3

President’s Message / Welcome

4

Exposé — Ida Marie Threadkell

5

Front Cover Artist

6

Christmas Potluck

7—9

Christmas Cards

10

November Program

11/12

November Galleria

13

Playtime

14

Jottings From the Library

15

January Program

16/17

January Galleria

18

February Program

19-22

February Galleria

23

Words, Words, Words

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.

24

Tool Talk

25

Pointed Brush Revisited/Back cover Artist

Contact us at: P.O. Box 2, Duncan, B C, V9L 3X1 Canada http://members.shaw.ca/warmlandcalligraphers

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Cowichan Library Display

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Editor’s Message—Sunridge Place

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

Membership in Warmland Calligraphers includes three newsletters. Annual membership dues are C$30 Canadian residents and US $30 for US/International 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.

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Linda Yaychuk Ria Lewis, Alane Lalonde Jane Taylor Alane Lalonde Martha Fraser, Barbara Qualley, Denise Rothney Gwyneth Evans, Joyce Gammie, Pat Wheatley Charlotte Whiteley, Margaret Kells, Lenore Le May Muriel Heggie Front– Carolynn Dallaire Back– Ruth Rutledge Headings– Times New Roman 26pt

President’s Message As I reflect on my two-year term as President, the first thing that comes to mind is the incredible group of people that make up our Guild. No matter what is needed, there is always someone who steps up to the plate and offers help. Thanks to all of you for making my job so much easier.

Next, I think of the changes that have taken place: a new meeting venue, our first dues increase since the Guild’s inception in 1995, the Newsletters online, a monthly Playtime gathering, a Sunshine person (Carolynn Dallaire) sending cards to members, and perhaps the most exciting of all, the purchase of a document reader to be used at meetings and for Workshop instruction.

Unfortunately, we had a very sad event last summer with the unexpected death of Marilyn Silver. A valued member, Marilyn had served on the Executive in various positions including President, and was currently active as half time Secretary. We were all saddened by her passing and miss her wisdom and humour at our meetings. Marilyn generously donated her calligraphy supplies to the Guild to be sold to the membership with proceeds going into our General Funds.

Workshop offerings include a mix of big name instructors. Heather Victoria Held in 2012 and Peter Thornton in 2013 presented excellent workshops that were well received by our members. Plans are underway for Kristen Doty, Thomas Hoyer, and Xandra Zamora this year and Timothy Botts in 2015. Several of our own talented members, including Carolynn Dallaire, Betty Locke, Janet Peters, Anne Atkinson, Marilyn Lundstrom and Marilyn Boechler have shared their expertise by offering instruction in various areas. Thanks to Betty Locke and Marilyn Boechler for making it all happen.

Our Guild could not function without its dedicated, hard working Executive.

Special thanks go to our Past President, Marilyn Lundstrom; First Vice President, Lucy Hylkema; Second Vice President, Denise Rothney, in charge of Programs at our General Meetings; Treasurer, Muriel Heggie; Secretaries, Trish Peebles and Mary Nelson (taking up the position after the death of our valued member, Marilyn Silver); Workshops, Betty Locke and Marilyn Boechler; Newsletter, Linda Yaychuk; Membership, Judy Lowood; Librarian, Pat Wheatley; and Webmaster, Barbara Qualley. This

Executive has remained unchanged for two years but Trish Peebles and Judy Lowood are stepping down in March. Many thanks go to both of them for their special expertise brought to the Executive table during their term of office.

The Galleria is a very special part of each monthly meeting, a time for learning and sharing knowledge.

Warmland Calligraphers is extremely fortunate to have Betty Locke, who happily and gently critiques our Galleria whenever possible. Thank you, Betty!

My thanks go to all of you for placing your trust in me to act as President of Warmland Calligraphers. I have thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie and challenges the position has provided.

Joyce Gammie

Welcome The Guild extends a warm welcome to each of the following new members.

• Lynne Craig • Simone La Voie • Linda Lax • Joyce Bingham • Lynene Allen • Janette Dyck

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Exposé of Ida Marie Threadkell Submitted by Ria Lewis One of her step-brothers is a composer and the other is a painter who just received a Governor General's medal for his Ph.D. thesis on the influence of ancient Chinese calligraphy on Western art!

Ida Marie has lived in many interesting places since leaving the city of her birth, Winnipeg, but not before receiving her formal education there. Even though she switched high schools three times, she mostly had the same classmates from K-11. Ida Marie told me she switched high schools because of some specific goals she had set for herself; namely, wearing the coolest uniform ever, being in a play and having a boyfriend from a very cool school. She switched to public school after realizing that being taught by nuns wasn’t her thing, but then switched schools again after finding out that her father’s Alma Mater finished the school year in May which gave her the opportunity to travel to the UK with her family. She and her dad even had the same maths teacher!

Ida Marie was born on June 23, 1953.

Her parents were professionals—her father, Bill, an obstetrician and gynaecologist and her mother, Marie, a lawyer, artist and co-op gallery member. Ida Marie has an older sister, Betty, a retired teacher, who still resides in Winnipeg, provides care for her family and is a mad, fiend quilter.

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After high school, Ida Marie attended the University of Manitoba where she studied Clothing & Textiles (BHEc.) and then marketing (MBA).

Twenty-five years ago she enrolled in a six week continuing education class in calligraphy of which she confesses to have made it to only four classes altogether, but was still convinced that she then knew everything there was to know about calligraphy. When pursuing her Master’s degree, Ida Marie started her thesis on psychographic profiles of symphony subscribers. She soon realized that there weren’t exactly too many symphony orchestras in Canada, so she switched to comprehensive marketing studies.

Ida Marie’s career took her to Brandon, Calgary, Vancouver and Rankin Inlet. She started out in marketing research and later moved into retail administration and management. Her work included the Women’s Fashion office at Eaton’s, the marketing department at Gulf, business development in the North West Territories, and the start up of a fancy food and kitchen store. She also worked as a consultant and administrator for her husband's business. She has studied fur shops, china shops, theatre subscribers, gas stations and Canadians' leisure activities.

She met her husband, Brian, in Rankin, now Nunavut, even though he also was a Winnipegger and they had been in the same recital when they were 10 and 11 years old. There in Rankin, they managed a fish plant together and brought fresh, frozen and

smoked Arctic Char to the Canadian market whereas before only the canned fish had been available.

Currently, she resides on Salt Spring Island with Brian and Sophie, a 5-year-old Brittany Spaniel. Ida Marie enjoys swimming in the ocean, a daily activity in the summer time. In her own words “swimming is her bliss.”

Tai Chi and aqua-fit also rank highly in her weekly routine.

“Odette & Odile” a spinning & weaving project

There are many other activities Ida Marie enjoys. Some of these are gardening, weaving, spinning, sewing, studying Italian, baking bread and doing kumihimo (Japanese braiding).

She is also very involved with her church.

Recently, she completed the classroom work for Level 1 of the Master Spinner Program out of Olds College. Now she has a year’s worth of homework to finish. Her home is crammed with UFOs (unfinished projects), otherwise known as “works in progress,” in all of the above disciplines. She has a boundless interest in learning new things; for example, how to make jewellery, but feels the time constraint in trying to do it all.

A proud moment was n her silk fusion sculptures were accepted at Gallery 8 on Salt Spring Island.

After two years of trying, her good friend, Gillian, finally convinced her to return to calligraphy, just in case there was something left to learn, and become a member of the Warmland Calligraphers Guild.

Ida Marie is full of surprises and many people don’t know that she was a casual second with the Winnipeg Symphony, playing the harp, and that she danced with the University of Manitoba Dance Theatre. Her first year tuition was covered by her winning sewing contests.

In the near future, Ida Marie will be travelling to Newfoundland with her sister, Betty. This trip has been a dream for many years. Even though, in her youth, she travelled to the Maritimes with her parents, they never made it to “The Rock.”

Ida Marie’s life and experiences certainly are fascinating. Thank you for sharing this with us.

P.S. She is convinced that all of her Amnesty International letters are read because the addresses are written in her best calligraphy!

Together with Gillian Mouat, another Warmland member who is also a weaver and spinner, she is planning to enter the Weaver’s Guild “Eye for Colour” show in May.

Front Cover Artist “Reach for the moon...even if you miss you'll land among the stars.”

This quote by Les Brown, has always been a favourite because of its positive, encouraging and empowering message. Recently, I had been working on writing out the words with watercolours, using my pointed brush. The Warmland Calligraphers Galleria for February challenged us to letter a short quote

and paste on something that we had made. I came across this sheet of paste paper and thought it worked well with the quote. I tore the decorated paper into three sections...and pasted them onto a piece of Arches Text Wove, leaving enough room to letter the quote. To finish the piece, I touched up the letters with coloured pencils and a fine liner and enhanced the background colours with chalk pastels.

Carolynn Dallaire

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Christmas Potluck 2013

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Submitted by Alane Lalonde

Christmas Card Exchange by Alane Lalonde

Marg Kells

Marion Craig

Gillian Mouat

Betty Locke

Judy Lowood

Trish Peebles Denise Rothney

June Maffin

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Brigitte French Janet Peters

Anne Atkinson

Marilyn Lundstrom

Mieke van der Vliet

Marilyn Boechler

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Carolynn Dallaire

Barbara Qualley

Pat Wheatley

Linda Yaychuk

Sharron Emerson

Hans van der Werff

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November Program

Submitted by Leslie Healy

“Christmas Tags” was presented by Denise Rothney, Lenore Le May and Charlotte Whiteley.

We were instructed to bring some basic tools to construct various tags and place cards.

Lenore Le May Denise is showing us how to use the window light for embossing.

Denise took the lead and helped us to emboss gift tags from the hand out card stock on which were designs of stencils for embossing and many premeasured tags. We were asked to choose one of four designs, cut out the stencil and then working from the back of the design with the premeasured tag on top of the stencil, press the embossing tool in each of the cut outs until the form was complete. This gave each tag a very sophisticated look.

Cutting out a stencil to use in embossing.

Lenore then took the floor and demonstrated a “pop-up” place card.

We folded out name cards lengthwise

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Charlotte Whiteley

with a half circle drawn along the centre of the fold and cut out so that when folded on the table, the half circle stood upright from the card. We also did a tree design. All of these made simple place cards look very professional.

Measuring and folding the template.

And last but definitely not least: Charlotte gave each of us a template for making three dimensional triangular place cards or even tree ornaments.

All decorating was done before the final folding and gluing in place. It was very impressive when finished.

Thank you ladies for the instructions and fun!

November Galleria Submitted by Jane Taylor The challenge for this month was to present a food recipe that could be easily followed in an unusual format. The piece had to be 8x11 inches or larger. We have some very tasty selections for you. Marilyn Boechler led the discussion.

Leslie Healy created her appealing piece using watercolours on Arches text wove. She drew in pencil first, then painted it. The lettering with the tomato and garlic were added last.

Trish Peebles used colour for the first time on the background of her piece. The splash of blue pulled it all together. She has used a combination of uncial and italic for the lettering.

Trudy Kungold combined pointed brush and monoline for the body of her piece. The most difficult part was the pointed brush work at the end. She added extra colour and shadows to the letters using paint and pigma pen.

Pat Wheatley’s clear illustrations meant that only minimal writing was required. The lettering was done in monoline and she used a B nib for the title.

Her clever illustrations certainly made us laugh.

Betty Locke used a B nib for her title and then ‘jazzed up’ italic for the recipe. It was felt that it flowed nicely down the page and members liked how the ‘R’ in caramel was brought down.

Ida Marie Threadkell found it a challenge to use her newly acquired pointed brush skills for this piece, especially this small. Her colour choices reflect the ingredients, beets and quinoa. The brackets are an effective device to unite the parts.

Marion Craig’s piece required a lot of planning in order to get the lettering just right.

All her hard work has certainly paid off.

Lenore Le May’s piece combines a recipe with a Christmas card. Her copperplate is beautiful. This recipe would be potent as well as decadent, mmm.

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Judy Lowood created a piece which was light and fluffy, to complement the recipe. She even went to the bakery to get a meringue. Oh what lengths we go to, for art! She used a pointed pen for the flourishing and copperplate lettering. It was felt that she demonstrated effective use of white space in this piece.

Margaret Kells used watercolours on Arches text wove to create her tasty recipe. The crab is well integrated into the two written sections.

Lettering is well done in italic. It was suggested that the letters of the title could be turned sideways and written up one side.

Mieke van der Vliet had an extra challenge for this piece as her vision was somewhat impaired following surgery on one eye. It was felt that the piece went together nicely and the pictures allowed for a minimal amount of writing.

Marilyn Boechler’s piece was created in sections using layout paper. She felt it lacked unity. Some suggestions to improve this ,were to have all the illustrations closer to each other, perhaps even touching or maybe a light watercolour wash of swirls in the background. Adding shadows under the bowls was suggested to give it a little depth.

Charlotte Whiteley gets the award for creativity and patience this month. Her piece was created by baking pumpkin, scraping away all the pulp, letting it dry, and attempting to iron it flat. Not being totally successful she tried to fill in the wrinkles with matte medium and ironed again.

This caused all the acrylic medium to lift off .

Lettering is done in mixed monoline using a Sharpie pen.

Ruth Rutledge’s colourful piece was done using watercolours and gouache. The title is done in pointed brush and the recipe in italic. Members liked the tail going beyond the border and how James Barber was incorporated into the border.

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Joyce Gammie practised with her casual pointed pen in preparation for addressing Christmas cards.

Pat Wheatley created a template to be carved out of wood as a house sign for her friend.

Playtime November 2013

Marilyn Boechler worked on her homework for the Black Letter course she is teaching.

Marilyn Lundstrom practised her pointed brush and Copperplate hands.

Ruth Rutledge used a stencil as part of her Christmas card.

Denise Rothney perused the Decorated Letter books that Marilyn brought to give us ideas for this year’s Loft Show.

Marion Craig used watercolour paints to enhance her delightful Christmas cards.

Guest Jane Hourihan just wanted to get out of the house. Great decision Jane.

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Jottings from the Library

Submitted by Pat Wheatley

Please spend time with both these incredible additions to our library.

I would urge everyone to read our exchange journals. Every single edition has something to appeal to someone, to spur imagination or give a shot in the arm for the next galleria piece. I would particularly mention the Bow Valley Guild November 2013 edition. The Guild created a book for their membership to “play” in. This is a “must see” and a great idea as a future project for Warmland.

I will begin this issue of Jottings with a review of two of our recent library purchases.

Scribe by John Stevens All you need to know about calligraphy lies within the pages of Scribe. John Stevens says things like, “Letterforms have no bounds, only limited in design and variety by our skills and our imaginations.” The only trouble with this book is that you can only read one page at a sitting because he gives you so much to think about.

Let the book open at random and the lessons are there before the reader— colour, design, variety, balance and rhythm. He also demonstrates wonderful variety of many scripts. In the forward Denis Brown says, “Do not just glance, look deeper, find inspiration, and act on that to challenge yourself to go a little further.”

Kunstraum Kalligrafie by Joachim Propfe This book is a treasure because without being proficient in German one cannot read it. It is sufficient, however, just to look. Throughout the book he illustrates pen angles and widths with little diagrams, which is particularly helpful. There is a great chapter on the Roman hand with its basic forms and many imaginative variations. And I love his use of colour and the way he fills an entire page—just up my street!

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This is a list of the journals we receive, some more frequently than others: Alphabeas from Langley, BC; Bow Valley Calligraphy Guild from Calgary; Westcoast Calligraphy Society from Vancouver, BC; Edmonton Calligraphic Society; Fairbank Calligraphy Society from Victoria; Royal City Calligraphy Guild from New Hamburg, ON; Kelowna Calligrapher’s Guild; Hamilton Calligraphy Guild, ON; Uniquely Ours from Edmonds, Washington; Capital Letters from Ottawa and ABC from Red Deer.

I recently read bits and pieces from Chris Hadfield’s new book about his preparation and travel in space. He writes, “Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive.” I thought this a very sound philosophy. It is a great book and has much wisdom for life on earth!

Things I picked up from books in our library: Sheila Waters – “Study in depth one hand…choose a style and stay with it for a while. Enlarge it, study each stroke, study where the pen lift occurs, the direction of the stroke and the serifs.”

From Jenny Groat (calligrapher, painter, dancer) – “Do not plan ahead,

never be afraid of the blank page; each stroke is a dance gesture on the page and that determines the feeling and direction. It is a conversation, a dialogue in which the work tells me what it needs next. I listen and dance with it.”

Did you know that Georges Seurat painted for only 11 years, died at age 31 and developed pointillism in that short period of time?

Did you know that Betty Locke’s logo for the Cowichan Lawn Bowling Club is a lovely stained glass window in the club house?

My intention to have a really good library session still did not pan out this month—life has a habit of getting in the way of plans. What I would like to do is to colour code all books for easier selection and also to have a sale of magazines—maybe next time! In case you don’t know, the Warmland website has a list of library books catalogued by subject matter as well as the numerical list.

Quote of the moment: “Spontaneity is the life blood of calligraphy.”

Ray Da Boll

Thank You Our thanks go out to Martha Fraser.

Over the last few years Martha has been the primary proof reader for our newsletter. This means that she has read all the articles that were written in the newsletters during this time.

This is her last issue. She will be handing over this job to Denise Rothney.

Many thanks Martha for a job well done.

January Program

Submitted by V. Lenore Le May

Members diligently practising their monolines.

There is usually no dot on the letter ‘i’. It is simple, has few descenders and ascenders, and the lower and upper case are the same height.

Carolynn teaching ‘Mixed Up Monoline’

Carolynn Dallaire generously presented our program for the January meeting. It was titled Mixed Up Monoline using an alphabet from Lynn Slevinsky’s book “Marker Lettering Volume IV”. (All volumes are in our Calligraphy Library.)

A suggestion I found useful was to trace the alphabet a few times to get the rhythm of the alphabet and the feel of the shapes. This alphabet can be done with almost all of our usual tools and even a ballpoint pen. Of course the beauty of this alphabet comes with practice to obtain the consistent letter shapes.

Marilyn Boechler, Linda Lax and Judy Lowood

Carolynn's handout is self-explanatory and gives all the information and examples one would need to practise and learn a very useful tool for our kit: a new alphabet.

It is very useful for we calligraphers to have in our repertoire, an alphabet in which we need no special equipment. This one uses any pen or marker. It allows us to make cards, posters or name tags more spontaneously.

Jane Taylor, Marg Kells, Ruth Rutledge

Linda Yaychuk

The alphabet Carolynn showed us is a mixture of a number of hands. The letter ‘a’ is Foundational and there are some letters from the Uncial alphabet.

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January Galleria—Wild and Loose Submitted by Alane Lalonde

Inspired by an ant walking across her piece Trudy Kungold Ammann followed the ant’s tracks creating a free and loose fun piece. The large lettering was done with the edge of a brush. She did some scraping off and scratching in with gold leaf and stamping with a lid.

Charlotte Whiteley, using a 6.0 mm Pilot parallel pen, and lettering in a Foundational hand, manipulated the pen to be wild and loose. In her fabulous illustration, we love the movement her piece creates.

Marilyn Boechler, on her own paste paper, used techniques taught recently by Carolynn Dallaire in a pointed brush workshop. She used pencil and then created nice shadows with pencil crayon.

Using a misquote from Langdon Hughes, Marion Craig just put pen to paper and the piece took form. Words were added.

The free and loose forming lines created a piece that made the word crazy in her quote seem appropriate for her work.

Betty Locke created another incredible piece by using a drawn bookhand lettering style which she filled in with pigma pen to create the dark texture. The lady was done first and then an overlapping of writing around her followed. Water colour pencils gave it the lovely pastel colouring.

In Mieke van der Vliet’s piece we get the feeling that spring is right around the corner. She used water colour for the flowers, background and lettering and her own lettering style for the

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Using the stained glass water colour paper technique that she learned and now teaches, June Maffin created this lovely piece. From a Facebook friend, June found out that it resembles Asemic writing.

Have a look on the internet FMI.

This piece by Leslie Healy presents very nicely. Leslie created the sun first, then lettered in regular hand writing, followed by a Gwen Weaver style. It was all done with a fine pigma pen. Then she painted the birds. For her final touches she added gold accents over the letters.

Using a quote from the Alexandria Quartet, Marilyn Lundstrom created beautiful brush strokes using a pointed brush loaded with gold and shiny red gouache for the background. Her white letters were done with Doc Martin’s white. She thought that she used a # 4 or #6 pointed brush.

Pat Wheatley did not use guidelines in her piece, wanting it to be wild and loose. The three lines from the poem

by Dylan Thomas were done with a C 2 pen in three different colours of ink and are to be read vertically.

Finally, she added pastel accents. In the end the hairspray didn’t fix as well as she had hoped.

Using her ownwords, “she dropped her shawl around her feet and gave herself to the wind” Margaret Kells created a loose piece by using her own handwriting. The leaves at the base of the tree are striking with the brilliant colours.

“Joy” says it all in this piece by Anne Atkinson.

Anne used Schmincke gouche and lettered with a pointed brush and a flat brush.

This piece is different from Judy Lowood’s normal body of work. Inspired by the galleria theme of wild and loose there was no planning. She just did it and enjoyed doing it. Texture and contrast were created using water colour over resist and finished with pointed brush lettering.

Spending the good part of three days on her complex piece Denise Rothney has your eye searching for a cat and three mice along with a different quote in each window. Working on black has it’s challenges! She used Dr Martin’s white ink, black gouache, pastels and Finetec pearl colours which worked well and gives an iridescent quality to the piece. The Strathmore paper she used is smooth on one side and rough on the other.

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February Program

Submitted by Margaret Kells

she may be seeking Betty’s assistance with the project.

When Jan’s granddaughter said she was thrilled with the idea, Jan happened to be in the middle of preparing for competing in Dragon Boat races, and put the thought of invitations out of her mind until March, for a November meeting. Then panic set in! Thus ensued a very busy summer of emailing back and forth between Jan and her granddaughter in Atlanta, Georgia—a fall theme of pumpkins and vines with Bookhand calligraphy was chosen.

Jan Greenway

The February meeting activity was a deviation from the normal instruction period.

This session was a delightful and very humorous presentation by Jan Greenway in the form of a story.

The story was called “My Labour of Love,” and consisted of details, frustrations and finally the joy of producing handmade wedding invitations for Jan’s beloved granddaughter and her future husband.

Then began the process—suggestions/ requests/more panic and practice/ practice/practice of calligraphy under the wonderful tutelage and support of Betty Locke (and Miss Merlot when things got really heavy). There were periods of doubt when Jan questioned whether she could accomplish this task. Her husband was drawn in to the process and described himself as her “man servant”. Even the neighbour helped with computer tasks.

1) How to use tons of paper, and kill many trees 2) How to acquire a taste for, or even begin a love affair with “Miss Merlot”—when totally frustrated.

Much practice went into creating a suitable calligraphic hand.

3) How to create your own vocabulary (#$%@#*) that makes the Canadian Army sound like kindergarten.

Finally in May two completed invitations were accomplished for the bride and groom to view. Then came the choice of cream cardstock for 135 invitations, and—more panic—the source of the chosen cards could not be found within a 60-mile radius.

Back to the bride for a second colour: burnt orange.

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Jan even managed to make the RSVP cards, and a guest book (made of elephant poop paper—appropriate for a bride who was studying to be a veterinarian!) to match the invitations.

Finally the mission was accomplished within three and a half months! Jan said it had taken her three and a half months to write twenty-two words and learn how to draw a pumpkin and vines. During the presentation twentyseven photographs were shown to demonstrate the growing pains and final beautiful results of all Jan’s efforts.

Jan expressed grateful thanks to Betty Locke for all her support and mentoring throughout.

There were three things which Jan said we might experience if we had been the ones to undertake such a task:

Jan wasn’t sure, but she thinks she may have been the one to suggest making the wedding invitations by hand, and hinted to Betty Locke that

Inside page of wedding invitation.

February Galleria submitted by Jane Taylor This month’s challenge was to letter a short quotation, no more than fifteen words and include some elements which are pasted on. You must make these elements yourself; no commercial stickers or other such things should be used. We had an excellent response to this challenge with twenty-one pieces submitted, nineteen of which are presented here. As always, the creativity and effort is amazing. The discussion was led by Betty Locke.

Ida Marie Threadkell has created a beautiful, quiet piece. She thought her glued on element was perhaps from a palm tree in Barbados. She back slanted the letter ‘h’ in heart to follow the swoop of the palm. Her lettering was done using a Pentel water brush. She then went back in and added other colours as she was taught to in class.

Denise Rothney created her own prose from her experiences with her husband’s beekeeping hobby. She researched the anatomy of a bee for accuracy and moved one hexagon around to create her embossed honeycomb. The cutting and gluing was the fun part as Denise created her intricate bee.

Betty thought Marilyn Lundstrom’s piece looked like someone was holding up balloons. Marilyn’s letters were cut from paper left over from another project.

Betty enjoyed the overlapping and bouncing of the letters as well her spacing of the letters in Plato.

Anne Atkinson applied origami weaving with the marbled paper she had created at a workshop with Joan Ryan. She cut the paper into strips, wove them and used them as her pasted on element.

Betty thought that it was a very symmetrical piece and that the woven center created excitement. Lettering was done in Mouse Roman using a scroll nib.

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Ria Lewis created the word peace from both embossed and cutout letters. Her lettering is a translation of an Arabic greeting. It is done in Gothicized italic. (In the boxes are embossed leaves that unfortunately don’t show well here) Joyce Gammie’s piece made Betty want to sing. Joyce has used a very bubbly script. The multiple “b’s” in the piece proved to be quite a challenge, requiring a lot of experimenting. The bubbles make it feel light.

Marilyn Boechler used walnut ink and tried to make her letters dance. Betty explained that in a quote that contains many short words it is very difficult to make your letters dance.

Marilyn used her doll making expertise to create the girl’s head.

The sun was done in pastels.

Betty Locke’s very vibrant piece was all done by cutting and pasting. Each bird contains six to ten individual components all pasted in various attitudes with a multitude of colours. The word ‘chirp’ was cut into the branches of the tree and occurs eight times. Betty said she had a lovely time.

Lenore Le May used alcohol ink in a spritzer bottle to create her background for this scroll. She used a beautiful Gothicized italic hand for her quote. Glued onto the back is the flag of Afghanistan ,which she painted.

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Barbara Qualley used a paper cast thistle she made in a previous workshop to enhance her piece. Her beautiful uncial hand complements the quote nicely.

Judy Lowood’s piece evolved from her pointed brush classes with Carolynn Dallaire and the lettering on fabric workshop she attended with Lisa Engelbrecht. Judy added the pink accents to the dark blue lettering on the words ‘Creativity and Art’ to make them stand out more. She created the gorgeous colours of her lettering by adding accents in coloured pencil and black pigma pen. Betty felt the piece had a wonderful art sense .

Joyce Bingham’s piece was done using her own lettering style. Joyce is new to the guild and has not taken any formal calligraphy yet. Betty thought it was a powerful design and that the curve of the handle reflected in the curved lettering was lovely. The teabag tag was also a paste-on component.

Mieke van der Vliet used a hand she found online for this piece. Her use of black and white with the touches of red is very effective.

Marion Craig’s piece involves many layers. She has used italic, uncial, Neuland and free style lettering done in coloured and pigma pens. She recently learned how to make the hearts in an edged brush class with Betty.

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Ruth Rutledge created a sense of cold in this piece. One suggestion made was to maybe take the tissue covering the word Shackleton up into the lettering. Most of the lettering was done using a ruling pen. Betty loved the contrast of lettering styles and felt the beautiful uncial brought it altogether.

Debbie Craig included many beautiful hands and used every calligraphy pen she has to create this lovely, bright cover which she pasted on her guestbook.

Charlotte Whiteley created her checkerboard background from two poems she wrote out in black and white. She then cut them into strips and wove them together. The border is alcohol ink on masking tape. Lettering was done in Akim Cursive and versals based on a workshop with Peter Thornton. Charlotte used Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White and Sakura Stardust pens.

Pat Wheatley loves pointed brush lettering and used it for this quote. It’s one which they used to put in their books when they were children. She used picture wire to create the bars. Betty felt that having the bars go up into the lettering brought it altogether.

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Margaret Kells has created a “delicate and beautiful piece” to quote Betty.

The background is watercolours and the branches were done using a pigma pen.

For the italic lettering she used a Pilot parallel pen and was disappointed as it bled a bit into the paper. Margaret reflected that she would have preferred a brown ink over the black she used.

Words, Words, Words – Names Submitted by Gwyneth Evans What’s in a name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Poor Romeo has just discovered that the girl he has fallen desperately in love with is the daughter of his father’s enemy, a member of a family with whom his own family has a deadly feud. A name, in renaissance Verona, can matter a lot. Although in Shakespeare’s play the young lovers find the sweet rose of their love for each other unaffected by one’s being a Montague and the other a Capulet, the consequences of the difference of those two names ultimately kills them both. For most of us, the significance of our names won’t shape our destinies quite so drastically, but it’s interesting to think about ways in which our names –both family name and given name -- may have affected our lives, in particular our image of ourselves.

I’m sure I’m not the only person with a fairly unusual first name who remembers from a shy childhood (or, worse, adolescence) the embarrassment of giving my name in class and having it misheard or mispronounced.

There weren’t many Gwyneths in Calgary in the 1950s. On the other hand, my ethnic-sounding name gave me from early years a sense of identification with Welsh history and culture, and I suspect partly shaped my later studies and enthusiasms -- notably for the harp. While some people choose eventually to change names they continue to find embarrassing or problematic, more robust souls are not bothered about how other people react, or might react, to their names. Nonetheless, I’m surprised to notice how many people seem to dislike their own names, and feel they don’t reflect who they really are. It’s clearly a “cup half full” situation, since some people with plain, simple names yearn for something more unique, while the possessors of unusual and hard-tospell names often long to fit in and not have to explain their name every time.

Among the Shona people of Zimbabwe, there is at least a choice, since a person may have as many as six names – family name, a personal name given at birth, one conferred by a diviner/fortune teller, one descriptive of character, a fifth marking an important event, and a further “disguise” name to use to protect identity during wartime. In Russian novels, too, characters are referred to by a bewildering variety of names – Tatiana, Tanya, Natalie, Natasha are all the same girl, and I’ve forgotten a few of the other names given her in affectionate or more formal variations of her name, either in native Russian or in French, the language generally used by the upper classes at the time.

My good old edition of War and Peace came with a bookmark which mercifully listed all the major characters, and the different names and titles by which they might be referred to in the course of the story – very helpful, in a book this long. Our Canadian practice of nick- naming is simplicity itself by comparison, though confusion enough may be caused by someone’s feeling she’s outgrown her nickname and would like us all to drop it and call her by her real name.

Practically all of us, however, are somewhat sensitive about our names, and want to hear them pronounced and see them spelled correctly. Calligraphers can give friends and family a lot of pleasure by writing their names beautifully on envelopes and cards, perhaps decorated in an imaginative way, and a popular activity to draw the general public to a calligraphic display table at an event is to write out visitors’ names for them.

An aspect of our names which isn’t considered as much as it might be is the rhythm of the full name when said aloud. Words in English have an accented syllables, so names fall into a rhythm. Juliet has a beautiful sound, with the accent on the first syllable: Ju’ li et. (Spelled Juliette and/or pronounced in the French way, the accent

is on the last syllable and the rhythm changes to Ju li ette’ – also beautiful.)

Each of the three words in my full name is accented on the first syllable, so the name sets up a heavier, less pleasing rhythm of Strong weak, Strong weak, Strong weak.

In Lawrence Hill’s recent book Blood, based on his CBC Massey Lectures, there is an amusing mistake about accent and rhythm in words – names in particular. In discussing the various ways in which our language makes use of blood as a word, metaphor and concept, Hill points out that the most common rhythmic pattern in English poetry is the iambic pentameter – that is, a line whose words naturally fall into the pattern of five “weak Strong” beats. An example might be “Annette and John decided on a dog,” or “When I consider how my light is spent .” Say them aloud and notice how the accents alternate between strong and weak, or stressed and unstressed if you prefer those terms.

Hill points out that this regular weak Strong alternation echoes the pulsing of the blood in our veins, and the beating of our hearts. So far so good.

Then he quotes one of his favourite childhood poems, by A.A. Milne, which begins

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James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree Took great Care of his Mother, Though he was only three.

Hill somehow manages to hear these lines, with their delightful use of names, as “beating alongside our pulse”, “mimicking the sounds of our heart.” My goodness. Listen to the rhythm of the names, and the lines, which are neither iambic nor pentameter, and don’t sound like any heartbeat I’ve heard. Anybody whose heart beats

Strong Strong Strong weak weak Strong weak weak Strong weak weak Strong weak Strong Strong Strong Strong weak weak Strong weak Strong weak weak Strong weak Strong should hurry to the doctor.

The names in the first four lines of this verse have to be stressed in this way, and the compelling rhythmic pattern set up by the names gives the poem much of its charm – but it doesn’t sound like a pulse!

Names can be made into poems, as in this example, or seem like poems in themselves because of the beauty of

their sounds – Romeo and Juliet, yes; Jim and Gertie or Bart and Maude, probably not (though Tennyson did write a long poem which begins “Come into the garden, Maud . . .” ).

Euphonious or not, the names our parents gave us do shape our sense of who we are, and usually remain with us for life, sometimes modified by our choice or chance (or marriage – another whole topic I can’t get into other than saying you probably understand why I, after all those years of having to say my first name twice and spell it out for people, didn’t change my last name to my husband’s – Bauslaugh).

Tool Talk Submitted by Charlotte Whiteley This column deals with storage again but this time it is how to store all those nibs you have been collecting since you took that Gwen Weaver workshop or the Mixed Monoline class with Carolynn Dallaire. I have tried various containers and I think I have found something that works really well. I found it in an unusual department of the “Wholesale Sports” store. I am always on the lookout and one day I visited the hunting department. They have bullet holders!

I thought why not and next time I was there I checked the sizing for a fit.

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You want one that has sufficient storage for all the sizes of the same type of nib and you want to be able to see and label them. These boxes are inexpensive (under $3.00), small 5"x 1 1/2"x 3" high and fit the bill.

Try one - you will like it.

PS It does not come with bullets!

You want to be able to pick the nib out of the container without effort.

You also want it to store so they don't get mixed up when you turn the box upside down.

Pointed Brush Revisited Submitted by Marilyn Boechler and Marilyn Lundstrom First Day:

Second Day:

1. We had a complete review of the basic letter forms with emphasis on the left and right pulls of the brush.

Some alternate letter forms were introduced.

1. After a warm up we spent a great deal of time on alternate letter forms.

We discussed how they could be used in words and how their alternate forms improved the look of our quotes.

2. We chose an abecedarian sentence

2. We had brought a quote and had made sketches of possible layouts for homework. Using all we had learned, including the alternate letter forms, we wrote this quote out as many times as possible. We tried to improve composition and letter forms with each writing.

(quick brown fox )and practiced writing it out, concentrating on the flow of the brush and ignoring mistakes.

3. We discussed the “enhancing of the letters” with pigma pens and pencil crayons.

3. Then, using pigma pens and pencil crayons as well as pastels, we finished off our presentation.

The results of pieces created under Carolynn’s excellent tutelage is evident in how many of the participants are now using these skills in their galleria pieces, which are being slated for the next public showing.

Back Cover Artist I was honoured to be asked to design the back page for the newsletter and at the same time not a little intimidated. I do enjoy the whole process of planning, rearranging, starting again and refining. However, I found an 'open slate' a challenge. I went through Betty Locke's “Dear Leslie Sixty Assignments for Inspiration”: found one I liked; planned, painted, scribed then discarded it...some angst... then ended up with the quote from John Muir.

I have to thank my cousin Marilyn Boechler for helping me decide on a hand that would compliment the quote and colour design. She encouraged me to keep experimenting by cutting, pasting and auditioning layouts. I embrace the “everything is hitched” concept and I think it worked fine with the blown palette. I call my piece “Web of Life”.

I enjoy the collected focus of the guild to stretch our limits and try new things. It is a privilege to be counted among the members.

Ruth Rutledge

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Cowichan Library Display Submitted by Linda Yaychuk The display remained in the library for the month of December and another display will be put up in December of this year.

It appears that a display of the works of our guild members in the Cowichan Library is to be an annual event. Lucy Hylkema has taken on the responsibility of organizing this event.

At the beginning of December 2013, Marilyn Lundstrom, Pat Wheatley, Margaret Kells and Ruth Rutledge joined me to put up the display in the library. The group worked hard to position the pieces and their respective labels in an attractive arrangement. We were very pleased with this year's display and attributed it to the use of larger pieces.

Feeling very satisfied with our efforts, we then retired to the coffee shop to enjoy each others company over lattes.

Pat Wheatley readjust one of the pieces of the display.

Pat Wheatley, Ruth Rutledge and Margaret Kells ponder the positions of the pieces.

Excellent work put on display at the Cowichan Library.

Pat Wheatley and Ruth Rutledge admire their handiwork.

Satisfied with their work Margaret Kells, Pat Wheatley, Marilyn Lundstrom and Ruth Rutledge prepare to go for a well deserved coffee.

Alexander School The following are pictures done by the students of Alexander School in collaboration with our members.

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Editor’s Message Connections with the Warmland Calligraphers affects more people than we sometimes realize.

For Christmas my stepson gave me a wonderful gift box. Inside were old boxes of pen nibs that our teachers used to dole out once a week for our straight pens. Death grip students such as myself, received nib replacements a little more often.

There was also a selection of old fountain pens. They were among the earliest ones produced. These pens had a rubber tube inside which was squeezed to allow the ink to flow into the tube. One of them had a brass loop on the to p for a chain.

I realized that this gift was among my favourites and that my stepson had put a lot of thought into his choices, taking into account my enjoyable association with the Calligraphy Guild.

Sunridge Place A number of years ago Shirley Johnson was reading a newspaper article about a new nursing home called Sunridge that was opening in Duncan. The article asked for various art groups to consider decorating the new halls with their artwork. With the help of Ria Lewis and Judy Dearman, Shirley collected pieces from guild members and set up the first display at Sunridge.

It was after I lost my husband that I realized how much I cherished his critiques of my Galleria pieces.

Linda Yaychuk

My mother has kept all of the cards I have made for her since I joined the guild fourteen years ago.

We have provided experiences in using calligraphic tools to the public through our booths which have been set up during special celebrations.

As a volunteer Lucy Hylkema teaches students at a local school about the joys of calligraphy. She was also instrumental in arranging for calligraphers to illustrate and write poems which were created by students. Many of these pieces will likely remain with the children and their families throughout their lifetime.

Janice Greenway created the wedding invitations for her granddaughter. I’m sure they will be cherished.

We now have three situations in which the public are exposed to our works; namely the Cowichan Library, the Loft and Sunridge Place Nursing Home.

I’m sure you could identify many other situations in which our calligraphy skills have affected family, friends and the public. I feel very proud to be a member of such a talented group of people. Our guild is not just a group sharing ideas, concepts and talents. We also influence a huge family of people who admire and benefit from the work we do.

Submitted by Linda Yaychuk When Shirley moved to Victoria, Lucy Hylkema took over the responsibility of changing the display every few months.

Those of us who have helped with the displays have received many positive comments from staff members and residents.They are delighted when a new display goes up. We repeatedly hear words like 'talented, beautiful etc.' It's very rewarding to know that we are bringing a little sunshine to the residents of Sunridge.

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