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

Versal Workshop - Pretoria

It is always a privilege to be invited to present a workshop. I was invited to Margo's guild in Pretoria where we 'initiated' her delightful new studio. With lots of light and space, we all fitted in and enjoyed the wonderful facilities. We talked about Roman Skeleton Letters and how important they are as a basis for creating beautiful letters.

 A-M demonstrating a Versal Letter.

 Some of the work created by students

And then you have to stretch!

Another piece

Colour work

And then we have the pencil!

Thank you Margo and ladies for a wonderful afternoon.

Africa - Letters & Words

The Penfriends Envelopes have left South Africa and are on their way to France, Begium and other parts of the world. Here are the 'girls' proudly holding up one of their creations.

Our new project is far more intense and involved. 

Have you ever wondered how the alphabet developed? Well think no further [for fun and literature] than Rudyard Kipling. He wrote a delightful tale 'How the Alphabet was Made' from Just So Stories written in 1902.  About a little girl and her dad, this story takes us from A-Z in descriptive and intriguing 'old fashioned' terms.

We have been working on Letter Shape and Form using the skeleton Roman hand, moving into Foundational, as we develop an 'African Alphabet' from which to choose letters and then to create a book.

Project details: 

Paper: Use 'toothed' Water Colour paper at least 250gsm.

Tear: 28 sheets of paper 12x12 cms in size.

Research: the meaning of letters

Research: Quirky Questions

Prepare the paper leaving a small pencil hand drawn border around the page.

Watch this space for details and illustrations through the next few weeks.