Creative Cards

It is always a challenge to inspire students to believe in their own creativity.

One 'old favourite' is a woven card.

Simply cut an A4 sheet of paper in half and preferably choose a contrasting colour for the 'frame'.

On the paler sheet - draw 1 cm lines horizontally down the page. Remember to leave a border.

Write a quotation from border to border leaving no spaces between letters, but leave a line between each line of writing. Uncial seems to work best as the letters are contained.

On the second sheet of paper draw borders of 3cm around each side. Between the borders cut lines with a craft knife from top to bottom border.

Tear the written page between lines. You will have about 5 strips of torn writing lines.

Weave these through the second [darker] sheet. The letters will 'peep' through the woven pieces. Decorate the letters with bright colour. Glue the loose tabs to secure.

Use as a birthday card or any other card you choose.

 Woven paper

 Coloured letters

Jeweled Card

Creative Journals and FUN!

Maxine is a past student, great friend and divinely amusing person. She visits South Africa at least once a year and we try to get together at least once when she is here.

She has suggested that we work on a creative project. I THINK she meant when she is here - but we have 8 months to work on 'our own creativity' never mind the fact that Maxine has started a new framing business and we are both fairly busy people.

But who says we can't pretend that we care going to do something creative between now and October. 

New posts probably every 2 weeks [or so]. If you would like to join is the 'creative frenzy' please let me know and we can add your ideas and suggestions.

Creating a Journal

 

Project for Maxine and Anne-Marie over 8 months

 This was a very simple page for a book on numbers. Very little anything much else - but a start anyway

To show intent: My pens, pencils and some water-coloured paper at the ready.

 

Suggested work plan:

1 One signature to be completed every 2 weeks

2 ANY media maybe used: acrylic, craypas, pencil crayons, fineliners, collage

  watercolours, ink and so on.

3 A-MM will scan/photograph and send examples which may be ‘cribbed, altered and improved’ in any way.

4 It is suggested that if the one folio begins in say watercolours and pencils the whole 4/6 pages remain the same. In other words, change materials when starting a new signature to keep a theme going.

5 Any hand or font may be used. Maybe together

6. Theme of journal to be decided upon individually – open, creative minds seem like a good thing to have.

7 A-MM will post the work pace onto the Penfriendspatter blog.

 

Hopefully some of the signatures can travel with Maxine in October and the book stitched together in a frenzy of creativity!

Manuscripts and Churches

As a calligrapher I have always been enthralled by handwritten and illuminated books. When in Europe, I seek out the traditional tomes in the usual places of church, museum and gallery. When we visited Ethiopia, I was thrilled to view ancient books in churches, open for all to see and still in daily use. We might think these books should be protected, they are in use and seen by the priests and congregation as part of their daily worship.

As a woman and layperson, I was not able to handle the manuscripts, I was given permission to photograph many and able to view the fine calligraphy written using a reed pen. The pages are made from goat skin and have been cured in the same age-old way. The remarkable thing to note is that although the books are centuries old, they are still used for teaching and reading in church on almost a daily basis. With wide margins and exquisite hand drawn borders, the colours still glow on the pages.

Borders are interwoven and simply coloured in blacks and red with occasional blue or green filling. The illustrations are 'Orthodox' in style with traditional colours used for the people depicted. Blue for the Virgin Mary, red and blue for Jesus, ochres and red for angels.

At no time could I see lines for writing, either drawn or scored. But the pages are soft and worn with centuries of handling. Rather like a beautiful pair of favourite leather gloves. Cherished and enjoyed.



A holy book in a cave church in Lalibela


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Location:Johannesburg

Penfriends Patter Project for September

I always like to prepare projects for when I am away. It keeps everyone focussed on 'something to do' during the times we normally have classes.

The next project will be A3 size. Watercolour paper. Subject: A Map or Plan of a place familiar to you or even a fantasy area.

Preparation: Choose a theme. Research colour, design and lettering.
Explore colour on a similar sheet of paper to the one you will use for the good piece.
Prepare a 'good' rough on a sheet of A3 layout paper.

Next lesson: Bring finished rough. Colour test sheet. Gouache, paint brushes. Pencil crayons. Nibs.

Board larger than the A3 paper for stretching paper. Looking forward to seeing some great ideas.

 Spring Day - Cake, flowers & friends

Doors open, in the Garden - A show of Spring!

Workshops

Have returned from Cape Town where I attended workshops with calligrapher Yves Laterme from Bruges.

Yves, a past student of Brody Neuenschwander and great admirer of his work is now a teacher a great calligrapher in his own right. His flair for creative gestural letter forms is something to aim for and yet, with him as a teacher we hardly all want to be a pale copy of his work.

We worked on creative layouts using gesso, paint and ink. We created beautiful built up capital letterform and tried to make beautiful marks on the paper.

The Cape Town group was willing and did their utmost to create exciting pieces. We all had fun and will continue to use some of the techniques he shared with us.

 Yves's finishing touches

 A-MM - Circles of my Mind

 A-MM - Wonderment

Studio Notes

Homework is set to enhance the student's creativity or is it simply that the teacher sets homework in the hope that something will ultimately get finished?

The small books that we have been doing are limping along. Mine is complete, most others are not. It seems that if you are working with an end goal in sight - grandchildren's use for example, one has a tendency to finish. I also find that deadlines are good as well as holidays - I mean who wants to return to several unfinished projects?

We have moved on - with half completed books as a challenge. Now we are working with double pencils - two HB pencils taped together - creating beautiful Roman caps which will be coloured, decorated and used as first letters for a Foundational piece of text. We write on washed backgrounds [gouache lightly painted onto water colour paper] with gouache in toning [analogous] colours.

Should be exciting.......until we return to the books which lie limply on the desks waiting to be completed!

African Alphabets

I often wonder what the students do while I am away. I like to set a project and see the results. We have been exploring letter form with an African theme. One of the tales from Rudyard Kipling's Just So stories was the inspiration: How the Alphabet was Made. Reading the story was great fun as was creating the letters.

 Ghita's A

 Jeannette's Cheetah

 Lyn's Taxi

Jill's Albatross

We have been working on an African Alphabet and making concertina books.Mostly geared for children the images and themes are African.

 Lyn, Ghita, Jill and Jeannette