Finishing the Year with a Little Ink

 Dear Members and Followers,

Calligraphy Southscribes finishes the year with some inky fingers, enjoy and stay safe everyone.

Patricia Moody

Glenis Sheather

Penny Laver

Valerie Keevers

Flowers - Calligraphy Challenge

 Dear Members and Followers,

"Flowers are sunshine food, and medicine to the soul". So let us bring some sunshine to your soul with another bouquet of calligraphy pieces for you.

Penny Laver

Kay Pittman

Gloria Scott

Patricia Moody

Valerie Keevers

Spring Has Sprung - Calligraphy Challenge

 Dear Members and Followers,

In the southern hemisphere spring has sprung and in keeping with this month of colour, our calligraphy challenge is flowers and colour.

Enjoy!

Kay Pittman

Patricia Moody

Penny Laver

Valerie Keevers

Come Fly with Me - Travel Challenge

 Dear Members and Followers,

As Sydney's lockdown is extended another month, our members have taken up our calligraphy challenge and written (and in some cases even illustrated) the places they would like to visit when we can.

So this weekend, where ever you are, enjoy our trips around the world by some talented artists.

Nerida Costi

Patricia Moody

Penny Laver

Going Around in Circles

Dear Members and Followers,

I set the next challenge to send our members around and around in circles.

I guessed that we all had that spare toilet roll or similar sitting in the recycling so why not use it and being inspired by other great calligraphers I set our group the challenge of creating a piece of calligraphy using the roll, some paint and some suitably worded quotes.

The results were inspiring so please enjoy.

Copyrighted Patricia Moody

Copyrighted Patricia Moody

Copyrighted Penny Laver

Copyrighted Valerie Keevers

Calligraphy Southscribes and Alcohol Inks

 Dear Members and Followers,


I hope everyone is well and copying with the all the news each day.

For today, I am sharing some work and tips and tricks from Penny regarding Alcohol Inks. Thank you Penny for being so generous with your information and pics.

Hi Everyone,

There are a couple of tips I have picked up along the way, which you may have already seen but just in case..........

1. Make sure you get better than 90% isopropyl alcohol, I started with some from the chemist but it had various additives, antiseptics etc.  usually called rubbing alcohol and it doesn't work. I went to Bunnings and got some 100% which is  perfectic (this could be the brand name, my spell check is going crazy, so I'm unwilling to change - Cathy). The only down side is the smallest amount is 1 litre which would last 10 life times but it is worth it.

2. Don't be conned into buying the blending solution - you can make it yourself, it is just the alcohol with a few drops of glycerine. The reason you use it is to slow down the drying a bit and lets the colours bleed more. It is a bit trial and error how many drops to use, just fiddle around a bit. 

3. I notice the experts mostly use a Ronson hot air brush hairdryer as you need a low heat and low force. They are fairly expensive and so I just use a straw since I am only doing small bits for cards.

4. You do need the plasticised paper, it is called Yupo, but I did read somewhere you can use overhead projector sheets as they too are non-absorbent but I haven't tried that yet. 

As you say there is heaps of examples on You Tube and general info out there, it seems alcohol inks are all the rage in the US. 

The deal at Riot seems pretty good as they are generally round the $8 mark. 

Have fun and stay safe and well.

Cheers,

Penny 

Copyright Penny Laver

Copyright Penny Laver

Small Group - BIG Winners

Dear Members and Followers,

A big shout out to our members who did so well at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in the calligraphy section.
For such a small group we can be very proud of our big achievements.

Western Calligraphy Novice - 

3rd Prize - Vesna - Time
Highly Commended - Vesna - Zebra

Western Calligraphy Open - Traditional - 

3rd Prize - Felicity
Highly Commended - Gloria - Fairy Wings
Highly Commended - Valerie - My Dragon

Western Calligraphy  Open - Contemporary / Experimental

3rd Prize - Karina - Greek Meanderings

  Western Calligraphy Open - Off the Wall

3rd Prize - Penny - Catullus

Felicity's winning piece - All rights reserved - copyrighted

 

Calliarts - Word of the Month - Final Edition

Dear Members and Followers,

“Word of the Month” Book

On Saturday 12 Nov 2016 our Calliart was the assembly of our “Word of the Month” pieces into a booklet under the guidance of our tutor Penny Laver.  It was an afternoon of fun with wielding of hammers and awls and needle and thread in our foray once more into the art of basic bookbinding.  We even drew the interest of cricketers in the adjacent field who came to see what all the tapping was about. 

The finished products were diverse and interesting with some very imaginative covers and it was a satisfying completion to our yearlong project.  Penny as always was very patient with our efforts at mastering the crisscrossing of threads in the binding and we all completed our task with a nicely bound little book.  

Meril

Calligraphy Southscribes, Inc. is kindly supported by Sutherland Shire Council 

November Calliarts

Dear Members and Followers,

November is our last Calliarts for 2016 and we are finally putting our word a month project together as a Japanese Stab Binding book.

Even if you aren't participating in the word a month project is a great book binding method to learn.

JAPANESE STAB BINDING.

This is a traditional binding which dates to the early 1600’s and can have a variety of uses such as a photo album, diary or notebook. 

The photo below is a very basic version but there are lots of things you can do to decorate the cover such as using coloured thread, adding beads, gluing on decorative paper. It only stops with your imagination. 

MATERIALS LIST FOR JAPANESE STAB BINDING

We will first do a “mock up” so you can get used to the stitching pattern and then a second book with better paper if you wish. The book will be a landscape format

TEXT BLOCK

·         20 x A5 sheets, A4 photocopy paper is ideal for your mock up, cut in half as the grain direction is then correct. I have said 20 pages but you can make it as thick or thin as you like, if you go thicker just bear in mind your awl has to go through the whole thickness and the covers.

·         For your second book you can use any paper you like but make sure your grain direction is correct for a landscape binding

COVERS

·         For each book – 2 x A5 light card – 140 – 160 gsm is good, Canson Mei- teintes works well. Whatever colour you would like. Again be mindful of your grain direction.

OTHER EQUIPMENT

·         Sewing thread – this can be embroidery thread or similar to contrast with your covers. You can use a thicker thread if you wish but be sure that the eye of your needle is big enough for it to go through.

·         A needle.

·         A punch or heavy duty awl – you will need something strong enough to go through the text block and both covers together. If you don’t have anything suitable I will bring some punches.

·         A small hammer – if you have one – again I will bring one if you don’t have one.

·         Scissors

·         Cutting mat – if you have an old one bring that as when you punch the holes a mark may be left on the cutting mat. Alternately if you have a few small pieces of very thick cardboard bring that to protect the cutting mat or even an old plastic kitchen cutting board.

·         Ruler

One Day Workshop - Japanese Stab Binding

Dear Members and Followers,

June is looking like a great month for being booked (sorry could not help myself). As our one day workshop for June is another day of books:

JAPANESE STAB BINDING.

This is a traditional binding which dates to the early 1600’s and can have a variety of uses such as a photo album, diary or notebook. 

The photo below is a very basic version but there are lots of things you can do to decorate the cover such as using coloured thread, adding beads, gluing on decorative paper. It only stops with your imagination.

In its simplest form, which we shall be doing it is not too difficult. If you are intending to use this binding for your “Word of the Month” I strongly recommend that you try to attend this workshop as it is the best method to bind all our words and it will be difficult to do it from scratch in an afternoon Caliart in October.

All rights - Penny Laver

MATERIALS LIST FOR JAPANESE STAB BINDING

We will first do a “mock up” so you can get used to the stitching pattern and then a second book with better paper if you wish. The book will be a landscape format

TEXT BLOCK

·         20 x A5 sheets, A4 photocopy paper is ideal for your mock up, cut in half as the grain direction is then correct. I have said 20 pages but you can make it as thick or thin as you like, if you go thicker just bear in mind your awl has to go through the whole thickness and the covers.

·         For your second book you can use any paper you like but make sure your grain direction is correct for a landscape binding

COVERS

·         For each book – 2 x A5 light card – 140 – 160 gsm is good, Canson Mei- teintes works well. Whatever colour you would like. Again be mindful of your grain direction.

OTHER EQUIPMENT

·         Sewing thread – this can be embroidery thread or similar to contrast with your covers. You can use a thicker thread if you wish but be sure that the eye of your needle is big enough for it to go through.

·         A needle.

·         A punch or heavy duty awl – you will need something strong enough to go through the text block and both covers together. If you don’t have anything suitable I will bring some punches.

·         A small hammer – if you have one – again I will bring one if you don’t have one.

·         Scissors

·         Cutting mat – if you have an old one bring that as when you punch the holes a mark may be left on the cutting mat. Alternately if you have a few small pieces of very thick cardboard bring that to protect the cutting mat or even an old plastic kitchen cutting board.

·         Ruler

·         Pencil

·         Bone folder

·         Small clamps if you have them and/or some strong bulldog clips. The covers and text block need to be held very firmly as you punch the holes through.

·         If you want to add some decoration to your covers you can bring some small pieces of decorative paper, small beads or ribbon etc.

·         A glue stick if you are going to add some decorative paper.