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I grew up in Raleigh at a time when the nuns taught at Our Lady Of Lourdes. They lived out back of the school and wore those imposing yet Holy Habits that commanded your adoration, attention, and, quite frankly, your fear. So, when they asked you to "sit up straight" with your "feet flat on the floor" and compose your letters properly according to the Palmer Method of Handwriting, you did just that! I believe it was at that impressionable age that I became infatuated with the formation of letters. When I was introduced to calligraphy in 1978, it was no wonder I fell in love with this beautiful art form. My first taste of the calligraphic world lasted no longer than one hour. The instructor turned a piece of chalk on its edge to form calligraphic works of art from A to Z on the chalkboard. That was that! But it was all I needed to fire the embers that had been sparked in elementary school. Watching the slow, rhythmical shaping of those letters was like listening to classical music. It was not until 1997 that I enrolled in my first formal calligraphy class. Boy, were my eyes opened! I knew I had a lifelong road of learning ahead of me. It's been 38 years since that white piece of chalk was laid on its side. I am still learning. Come learn with me!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Black Letter Variations



It's been quite a while since I last posted to the blog. Seems like life has been really busy this summer.

I wanted to show you what I did in a calligraphy conference I attended a few weeks ago. I decided I could finally take a week off and attend Legacies II, a week-long calligraphy conference that was held in Richardson, Texas.

I took two, 3-day, classes. One from Rachel Yallop called "Beyond the Literal Letter," and one from Julian Waters called "Black Letter Variations."

The piece above was done while in class with Julian Waters. I endeavored to practice the different variations while also making it into a layout. I used a large gridded pad for this which made it much simpler to keep my letters vertically straight while keeping them on the horizontal line as well. My notes are in the right margin.

The names in the middle of the "exemplar" are those of my 5 grandchildren.
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