New Creations

As a teacher I am always on the look out for new ideas and plans for creative projects for my students.

I have spent several weeks with a friend of mine who has shared her skills and expertise using multi-media. We've pasted, coloured. Used found objects, lace and papers. Canvas was the base and imagination essential.

Using various techniques there was no limit. And then there are surprises. An old photograph here, a leaf there. Don't forget the old nibs and pencils that lie about. All to enhance and add interest.

Of course that simply flows over to the calligraphy aspect which will take on a more colourful outlook.

The best thing of all, of course, is that I have a pile of new projects for my students.

Pretoria Calligraphers Explore Uncial

A rainy day and a warm and friendly afternoon.

A group of 12 calligraphers gathered in Penfriends Studio this afternoon to explore various aspects of Uncial. We started with Greek uncial and moved to a modern day font.

Try out some exercises. Find pictures of old manuscripts. Look at the lettershape. Observe letters that you are familiar with. How do they differ from the Uncial you already know?

Write a line of Greek uncial letterforms.

Write a block of letters. Use black, grey or white paper. Use different kinds of ink.

Explore, experiment and create a great monogram using your initials and the uncial letterform.

Crazy Calligraphy!

Not only have we been making Peace posters but we have been painting plates for a project which hopefully will highlight calligraphy and its versatility.

Here is one comment from Michael Warner, organiser of the Peace posters in the USA:
We arrived back this afternoon from a nice long Spring time walk with the grand daughters. Opened the mailbox and what peered out from the inside at us? My grand daughters were thrilled to no end to see something "... ALL THE WAY FROM AFRICA!" Well, to tell the truth, the 7 year old was thrilled because she can now find Africa on a world map. The 3 year old was thrilled because ... her sister was. So we cut the tube open and all sat around and looked at the beautiful banners from the other side of the world. "Grandpa ... the confetti is falling off." Hmmm, I have some regluing to do. Beautiful work. Flowing. Artistic. The works from France are dark and brooding. The Canadians are bright and flashy. The Australians have very controlled hands. What you sent us was so very smooth and soft. Almost ... delicate. By hands and by colors and layout. Really lovely work. The Guild sends its thanks and appreciation. I will send you photos when we hang - which has been pushed to early summer. Hopefully June, before we have our National Conference - Odyssey.

At the moment we have another project on the go: A few calligraphers have been doing an Uncial update with Heleen de Haas in Cape Town and feel that we don't simply want to STOP. So we each working on a final 'project' to give away to friends at the end of the year. So as I said - calligraphy is crazy here at the moment.