Warmland Calligraphers

WARMLAND CALLIGRAPHERS OF THE COWICHAN VALLEY

November 2016 Issue #65

Newsletter Team

Newsletter Issue #65 November 2016 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

Miriam Beechey

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

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.

Inside this issue 2

General Guild Information

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President’s Message Cover Artist - Miriam Beechey

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June Wind-up Pot Luck Lunch

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All That Glitters - Harvest Crittenden

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September Galleria - 50 words, 4x6 size

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September & October Meeting Programme

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Christmas Pot Luck / Paper Ink Arts logo

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November Galleria - Pencil crayon on black

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Contemporary & Decorative Caps With Cheryl Tasaka

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://members.shaw.ca/warmlandcalligraphers

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President’s Message Practice! Practice! Practice!

insights and ideas on how to approach a new piece.

To be good at anything, one has to practice. And so it is with calligraphy.

I am the first to admit that I don’t practice my calligraphy on a daily basis and I have no excuses, after all I am retired. Deep down, however, I know that to become good at one or more calligraphic hands, it takes much practice. I notice how rusty my calligraphy has become after an absence from the studio during the summer months when sunny weather keeps me mostly in the outdoors.

Local, national and international instructors are invited to present workshops on specific calligraphic art forms, several of whom have pushed me onto a huge learning curve. This can be both frustrating and exhilarating; the last, when finally I come close to achieving what is being taught. I absolutely love the intellectual challenge often required of the participants.

That is why I am so thankful for our guild’s activities that keep motivating me. The monthly galleria, through its changing themes and challenges, is an opportunity to practice and create. To see the varied ways in which others interpret the monthly task never ceases to amaze me. I learn from other member’s pieces and the critiques offered by a talented and experienced teacher.

We are fortunate to have many talented local instructors who are members of our guild and who give freely of their time to teach, accommodating beginners as well as more advanced calligraphers. I am grateful to be able to attend workshops given through the guild or through Elder College. Attending a workshop on Black Letter through Elder College, approximately 9 years ago, was how I got started and learned about the Warmland Calligraphers.

Programmes offered at the general meeting, often paired with an upcoming galleria theme, also give

I see the same enthusiasm in our new members, many, who like me, started

with taking a calligraphy class and ended up attending one of our general meetings to see what we were about.

Through the efforts of many guild members, we keep growing and are a vibrant calligraphy guild in the Cowichan Valley.

My enthusiasm has never waned, however, I could work on a bit more self discipline and get myself into the studio on a daily basis.

Ria Lewis

Front Cover Artist - Miriam Beechey When I was asked to do the next cover for the magazine, at first I was surprised, but after thinking it over well, I said to myself, 'this is a big challenge, but it is a chance to push myself,' and so I said I will do it.

I tried with many different techniques, with no success. Finally, I found a piece that needed a quote. The quote was suitable for it since we take

nature as its model. After few times practicing I decided to do it.

Calligraphy has been in my mind since I was in high school, but being busy in life with career, work and family, I did not do it, until seven years ago when I start taking classes.

I later joined Warmland Calligraphers and enjoy being part of the Guild.

- Miriam Beechey

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June Pot Luck Luncheon

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Great View Fabulous Food And Talented Members

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All That Glitters with Harvest Crittenden Gold! It definitely glitters and it’s something that members have wanted to know more about and Harvest was the perfect teacher.

In its purest form, we can all conjur up pictures of gold coins and jewelry.

But how does gold get from this heavy weight to the light as a feather product used by artists? It gets beaten. Literally. Quite astonishing to view a couple of videos on Google.

We are not paying by weight, but by man-hour of time to beat the gold into thinner-than-hair sheets.

The Making of Gold Leaf - English Version https://youtu.be/k7dgrTuCq20 How Gold Leaf is Made Wehrung Billmeier, Chicago IL http://www.nickgarrettsignwriter.com/ london-glass-gilding/ Scroll down to watch the video featuring the great goldsmith Urban J. Billmeier of Wehrung Billmeier – Gold Leaf’s Grandfather. This is the brand of gold leaf favoured by Harvest. Ordering information is found on our website under LINKS.

will not fly away on you. The downside to this process is that it is a tiny bit duller than loose gold.

Most of us have invested in a Finetec Artists Gold Set. Mica gives a lovely glitter and the product is lovely for writing.

Finally it was time to use the REAL gold, but first we had to learn how to use the wide variety of fixatives or gold size. The monks made gesso and many dedicated ‘gold people’ like Harvest and Peter Thornton prefer their homemade gesso to other readymade products.

For class work, Harvest (and Reggie Ezell and Sheila Waters among others) use Instacoll. This synthetic size for raised, mirror-finish gilding with gold leaf is easier to use than traditional gesso. Its yellow color allows you to see what you have applied.

Ormoline and Miniatum are two other brands of gold size. Miniatum is particularly good if you wish to gild lettering as it flows well through a nib.

We were instructed to ‘float’ the size where we wanted our gold to be applied, not paint it. Painting will cause streaks and when the gold is applied, you can see every imperfection.

Carolynn Dallaire & Harvest Crittenden transfer loose gold leaf onto acetate squares

Loose gold is usually transferred to squares of acetate to facilitate handling. https://www.johnnealbooks.com/ downloads/SWatersMylarGilding.htm Our final assignment of the day was to create a piece using… GOLD! 23k Gold Leaf comes in different shades. The subtle differences for Deep Gold, Moon Gold, Rose Gold, Lemon Gold show up quite well in the “Q” created by Barbara Qualley on the next page.

Harvest has a 42 minute video on her website on Gilding with Instacoll. http://www.acornarts.org/videos.html

Our experimenting began with liquids.

Dr. Martin’s Spectralite Liquid Acrylic comes in many shades: gold, copper, bronze, nickel, brass and silver.

The gold leaf comes in two formats: loose and patent. For beginners, patent gold is the best choice. A factory process adheres it to rouge paper. It

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It is wonderful to have this information permanently posted to refresh our memory of her day with Warmland Calligraphers.

- Barbara Qualley

Judy Lowood

Linda Yaychuk

Marilyn Boechler

Judi Hopewell

Leslie Healy

Linda Yaychuk

Barbara Qualley

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September Galleria - no larger than 6” X 4” - minimum of 50 words

Marilyn Lundstrom Ida Marie Threadkell

Marilyn Boechler

Denise Rothney

Margaret Kells

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Ruth Rutledge

Linda Yaychuk Paullette McLaren

Linda Lax

Jeanette Rawek

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Anne Atkinson

Barbara Qualley

Judy Lowood

Marion Craig

Betty Locke

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Pat Wheatley

Susan Miller

Ria Lewis

Charlotte Whiteley

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September Meeting Programme - Coloured Pencils Judith Lovell led us through an exploration of the use of coloured pencils.

Judith supplied us with a work sheet and instructions on how to produce black by using a mixture of colours.

• • • •

the appearance of colour using heavy pressure colour mixing layering - using transparent layers of different colours burnishing - blending colours using heavy pressure, which produces a solid colour with a sheen.

We were given advice on the importance of keeping our pencils sharp.

Through this exercise we learned : • tonal quality using a solid colour with light pressure

Judith mentioned that the colour of paper used would make a difference in the colour of the pencil used, i.e. a pencil on black paper appears different to the same pencil used on white paper. We were also advised to work from a photograph as coloured pencil work takes longer than water colouring or other mediums. The flowers would perish

long before we were able to capture their beauty!

Coloured pencils are a very versatile medium which can be used instead of water colours.

This activity proved to be very informative - one which allows us to add another medium to our calligraphic arsenal.

Thank you Judith for a most enjoyable activity.

- Margaret Kells

October Meeting Programme - Haiku with Terry Ann Carter During the October meeting we were lucky to have Terry Ann Carter, an internationally known poet and the Canadian Master of Haiku, present a program on this form of poetry.

She first read a number of Haikus by Japanese masters. snow melts and the village floods with children ISSA a clear waterfall into the ripples fall green pine needles BASHO

Imagine our surprise when Terry Ann suggested that we should free 12

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ourselves from the old 5-7-5 syllable divisions that we are used to.

Today's Haiku is written in two parts.

The gap (not literal) between the two parts is where the energy is created.

Haiku can be written as; one line/gap/ two lines or as two lines/ gap/one line.

For example:

Making mountains out of molehills (gap) my new push-up bra T. CARTER - Linda Yaychuk

black moon (gap) we all have our secrets T. CARTER Haiku usually contains a seasonal reference or is about human nature.

The three most common techniques are comparing, contrasting and associating images. The following is a good example:

NOVEMBER 2016

Hue: a Day at Butchart Gardens A Haiku Primer Available at Amazon for $12

2018 INTERNATIONAL CALLIGRAPHY CONFERENCE

“ S E AT T L E T T E R S ” At the August 9th board meeting of Write on Calligraphers it was unanimously voted to sponsor the 37th International Calligraphy Conference in the summer of 2018 (most likely during July). Our first task is to secure a venue hopefully in the Seattle area. Keep checking the WOC website for updates as they become available.

The Co-Directors are Katherine Malmsten and Sue Gruhn.

Several of our members, representing Warmland Calligraphers, will share a table at this annual event.

http:// www.calligraphersguild.org /envelope.html

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November Galleria - Coloured pencils on black paper

Barbara Qualley

Judy Lowood

Marilyn Boechler

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Judi Hopewell

Paullette McLaren

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Margaret Kells

Laureen Woodruff

Leslie Healy

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Anne Atkinson

Pat Wheatley

Miriam Beechey

Linda Lax

Mieke van der Vliet

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Denise Rothney

Jeanette Rawek

Ida Marie Threadkell

Marion Craig

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Joyce Gammie

Jane Taylor

Ria Lewis

Betty Locke

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Contemporary and Decorative Caps with Cheryl Tasaka

ig son - Des Mary Nel

bel ns on a la

bb ail Ro ter - G a w h d wit spritze avings h s il c pen colour Water

Judi Hopewell

i

Cheryl’s letter - so unique. I looked for it in her quotes, writing samples.

A blending stump or tortillon can be used for blending graphite, charcoal, and pastel.

Use it by rubbing and see the effect it has on your drawing.

To clean it, you can use sandpaper or just grab a new one.

They’re very inexpensive.

- Susan Miller

I really appreciated the many and varied examples Cheryl had to inspire us to do our own pieces.

- Kathy Bedard

I thoroughly enjoyed Cheryl’s workshop. Being new to calligraphy, I found her ideas and the various tools she used overwhelming. I can’t name just ONE thing that I got out of the workshop. - June MacDonald

Stencil on watercolour background - Gail Robb

My aha moment was when I saw Cheryl take a wet brush to the lead of a watercolour pencil and paint her letters. I had always put the pencil on the paper and then wet it. You get a smoother result I think using Cheryl's method with a little water and very little mess.

- Jane Taylor

Jam packed day of nothing but fun layered with new skill sets and sharing of wonderful tools. Loved it.

- Charlotte Whiteley

A plethora of ideas and techniques and equipment reviews and experimentation.

- Judi Hopewell

David Carter

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David Carter

I learned quite a bit more about working with water colour pencils but the best trick was when Cheryl showed us to use a wet brush directly onto the pencil tip to transfer colour. I like the control it gives me. - Joyce Gammie

I liked the way Cheryl used her waxed pencil crayons as a resist to prevent water coloured letter areas to remain separate from their painted backgrounds.

Her use of a stylus instead of a pencil to draw lines to write on was brilliant.

- Linda Lax

A SOFT GRAY Copic MultiLiner is going to be a new addition to my kit! It is waterproof and looks like pencil - Barbara Qualley

My Ah Ha Moment was painting on Rice Paper with watercolour & gold gouache & the uses for it after. Very cool!

- Judy Lowood

Denise Rothney demonstrates her new magnifying glass from Staples.

Linda Lax

It was when she first read the quote "Simplicity is the exact medium between too little and too much.� Too little or too much is very different for all of us and when you realize what your exact medium is it takes all the pressure off.

- Debbie Craig

That seemingly simple ideas and tools can be used to make charming and original pieces. It suits me at this stage as i keep KISS in mind‌ Keep it simple, s****.

- Mary Nelson

Marilyn Lundstrom

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Laura Eriksson

Debbie Craig

Lorraine Hoy

Margaret Kells

Jeanne Ralston

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Joyce Gammie

Carolynn Dallaire Laura Eriksson

Carolynn Dallaire

Mieke van der Vliet

Judy Lowood

Carolynn Dallaire

Judy Lowood

Jeanne Ralston

Betty Locke

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Judy Lowood

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Carolynn Dallaire

Betty Locke

Background by Ruth Rutledge

Jeanne Ralston

Kathy Bedard

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Joyce Gammie

Jeanne Ralston