Valerie Keevers introduced us to the
Spencerian Script in July, firstly with an Introduction at our Calliarts
afternoon followed by a full day workshop a week later. Valerie gave us a brief history of
Spencerian, which is the American version of Copperplate, developed by Platt
Rogers Spencer in 1840. It became the
preferred hand for business and schools in America until 1925 and a simplified
version is still used in American schools.
The main difference between
Copperplate and Spencerian is that Spencerian is lighter in weight, with
minimal heavy down strokes. Valerie
provided us with guidelines and suggested we start practicing our letters with
pencil, which for those of us used to writing Copperplate was very sound advice
because it made us write the letters with a light touch. Once we felt confident writing with pencil,
we moved on to pen and ink, using either an elbow nib in a straight pen holder
or a straight pointed nib in an oblique pen holder.
The capital letters proved a
challenge but we persevered. Valerie
then gave us an exemplar of hand drawn leaf letters which had been adapted to
suit Spencerian. A beautiful versal for
the start of a name or piece of work.
Valerie then gave us each a small bundle
of cards that she suggested we use for sampling various tools and materials we
can use for Spencerian: pencil, various
brands of pointed nib, different inks, gouache and even monoline pens such as
gel pens. The idea was then to put the
strips of card together to make a reference book. Because we had to rule lines on the card
Valerie provided us with a triangular piece of card with the hypotenuse cut to
the correct slope of 52o.
This is a great little aid, making the ruling of slope lines so
easy. I must remember to make one for
Copperplate.
Thank you, Valerie, for introducing
us to such a beautifully elegant script.
Glenis
