NO8DO

Before visiting my son in Spain last month I had read about the city of Sevilla's cryptic official symbol, which dates to the 13th century.  I was delighted on my first morning there to come across the lovely calligraphic (and I think, letterpress) rendition above.  And as promised in the guidebooks, it was everywhere.  

On Christopher Columbus' tomb in the cathedral:

At the Plaza de España:

On the sidewalks:

On the utility trucks:

And just about everywhere you look, in some delightful rendition.

So what does it mean?  The symbol's history involves Alfonso the Wise (the "Scholar King") and Sevilla's singular loyalty to him in the face of his son Sancho's attempted overthrow. What seems to be an "8" is a representation of a skein of wool, or madeja.  The play on words is a contraction of "No me ha dejado", or "She [Seville] has not abandoned me." When spoken, the "me ha" typically is run together, making "NO-m[eh]adeja-DO".  A little confusing, but charming nonetheless!  For the full story, click here and scroll down to "Motto".

Christmas Comes Early

I don't know about you, but for me the word "clipart" has the connotation of fairly simple, cartoonish images that really are not of much use in the calligraphic world.  But today I am positively swooning over the discovery of University of South Florida's Center for Instructional Technology's Clipart ETC collection! 

At first glance their logo, an ampersand superimposed over a map of Florida, is a good sign--but does not even compare with the riches to come.  There are 60,000 pieces of free, mostly antique black-and-white clipart, and more are being added every week.  Categories include Decorative Letters (just begging to be illuminated!),  Complete Alphabets, Art (including Celtic and other ornaments), Borders (corner, edge, and full page) plus vines, doodads and tailpieces.   Each is offered in three JPEG or GIF sizes and a downloadable 240 dpi TIFF for printing. The database is easily searchable and will yield many treasures!

And best of all, you can use up to fifty of them in a single project without special permission if it is non-commercial or educational (and "not obscene or scandalous"---so tone it down, you wild and crazy scribes). It's a goldmine!

All clipart courtesy FCIT

Grace Under Pressure

"Grace", original size approximately  8" X 18"

What is it about a looming deadline that brings clarity to our thinking?  This is a piece I had been mulling over for at least a year, occasionally pulling out the quotation and fooling around with it.  Then Linnea Lundquist & Ward Dunham announced they would be closing their wonderful studio, Atelier Gargoyle, on December 4th with an all-day party and show of their students' work.  This was the incentive I needed, and I knew it had to get done and delivered this week since I would be out of town most of the two weeks before the celebration.

It truly has been a gift to have access to Ward & Linnea's wisdom and expertise these last four-and-a-half years at their monthly Saturday "Black Sabbath" classes in San Francisco where we explored Textura, Batarde, Uncial, Johnstonian Italic (aka Pointed Gothic)--in short, all things Blackletter.  Very early on, after Ward made some jokingly snide remarks about Pointed Pen People, I sent them a New Years card I had designed in Spencerian, knowing that I was "outing" myself as a PPP.  They both responded with one of their famous postcards, enthusiastically encouraging me to work with the two styles "for ultimate contrast", and encouraging me to "look to your Bickham".  "Be the one," wrote Linnea, "to combine the two with panache."  I've never forgotten that, and have always been grateful.

At every Black Sabbath class we painstakingly ground our black Chinese stick ink, and occasionally used Chinese vermillion for electric red accents.  With this piece I wanted to stay faithful to that.  I had originally planned to illuminate the "G" but in looking at my roughs, Linnea encouraged me to keep it simpler.  The diamonds on the G and B are gilded.

When Sheila Waters was in town earlier in the year, she had shown us her latest work on Pergamanata paper, singing its praises and vellum-like qualities, in particular the easy correctability.  I decided then and there it must be the paper for me, and although it took some getting used to, I am now a devoted fan.  It is not at all as mottled looking as in the scan above, and it seemed able to take endless scraping and erasures without complaint.

As I said, there was a deadline involved and with understanding friends and a supportive spouse, I holed up in the studio for days, finally coming through with a piece I could live with, then cutting mats for it and popping it into a frame for the show.  I'm looking forward to seeing my classmates' work and getting together one last time;  we've all come a long way in 4+ years and there is some amazing and varied talent in the group.  It's been a great run and I'm very sad it's over.

Once Upon an Island

The work in progress...

It was an impulsive and fortuitous decision, clearly meant-to-be:  just a week ahead of time, I put in motion a plan to attend a workshop at the St Michael Institute of Sacred Art entitled "The Decorated Page", taught by the incomparable Harvest Crittenden, herself rather decorated as a Master Penman and Master Engrosser.  I had blocked out a week's vacation--the same week I had gone to the Spencerian Saga the last two years, but I had done a third West Coast Saga in April this year in Berkeley--and had not been able to come up with something that appealed to me to do.  Then I woke up one morning and the plan seemed to have fully formed itself in the night:  Enders Island, Mystic, Connecticut.

A few emails and phone calls were made, and before I knew it I was on a plane bound for Providence, armed with my left-handed nibs and some delicious anticipation.  Any picture I had in my mind was pale compared to the real thing:

Enders Island, Mystic CT

It was sheer magic from the moment we arrived.

This was the view from my room, the first morning at sunrise:

Autumn was in its full glory and I gratefully got my "fix" of fall color.  This was taken on a walk in a nearby neighborhood.

Add to this some fantastic meals and a whole island of friendly people, and the stage was set for an incomparable experience.

The first two days were spent studying the work of local hero Angelo Rassu, (a mid-20th century engrosser whose amazing collection is housed on Enders and curated by Harvest--stay tuned for her forthcoming publication on him!); practicing Engrosser's Text (new to me, not to be confused with Engrosser's Script!) with a broad nib;  laying out our text designs; and finally, putting the lettering onto the page Harvest had prepared for us with the outline of the border design.

Next we learned to apply gold and palladium leaf.  This included a field trip to a nearby marsh to collect reeds to cut into tubes with which to moisten the dried Instacoll for receiving the leaf.

With the gilding beautifully in place, we then were extensively schooled in color theory--specifically Harvest's fabulous CMYK primary palette--and set about creating our colors, hues and shades.  I was drawn to the seasonal decorations in front of the main building (where our scriptorium was housed) which included this ornamental kale...

...and became, with much tutelage from Harvest, this palette of gouache.

Thus began the Painting of the Acanthus Leaves, a relaxing and pleasurable activity accompanied by Gregorian chant from the workshop upstairs, and/or conversation  (oh, and some SF Giants radio baseball, too, couldn't help myself!)  among the most simpatico group of women I have had the pleasure to be in a class with.

Some of us worked into the wee hours and all enjoyed every minute.  Here are some of the "raw" painted leaves:

...later shaded and outlined to make them "pop", along with some tooling on the gold.  The illuminated G includes a traditional white vine design.

It is difficult to express how enlightening and restorative those few short days were for me. The place, the people, the art.  In some ways it felt so personal and inward that it is daunting to attempt to put it into words.  I can't say enough about Harvest's teaching: she is thorough, original, imaginative, attentive and flexible---and it goes without saying that her artistry is magnificent inspiration.

I don't know if I'll ever finish this piece, or whether it would even be possible to know when it was finished.  But maybe that's the way to keep the essence of the experience alive for myself.  It's a wonderful reminder that in this era of instant gratification and 24/7 access, one can delve deeply into something for an entire week and know that it has only just begun.

Variation on a Theme

My talented friend and neighbor Wendy is off on a big adventure, driving cross-country with Maia the wonder-dog.   Last sighted in Winnemucca.   Happy trails!

Birthday Central

As long as I have a supply of this pretty green ink, and friends/relatives/colleagues with birthdays, I guess I'll just stay in a flourishing groove and see where it takes me!  This one is embellished with Spectralite nickel.

And this one with Twinkling H20s copper.

Having just finished a wedding envelope job with a lovely forest green ink, and envious of those who were able to attend some of the wonderful flourishing classes offered over the summer, I decided to try my hand and move into Autumn with a greeting for a fine colleague.  The ink is Bill Lilly's recipe of Pelikan 4001 with the addition of powdered gum arabic, brilliant green with a few drops of black.  Also some Spectralite nickel, Twinkling H2O copper, and pastel pencils.  So nice to be back in the studio!