Calliarts June 11 - Miniature Books with Valerie Keevers.

Dear Members and Followers,

The afternoon calliarts for this month is Miniature Books with Valerie Keevers.

This little circle hinged book is great for notes, little presents, collated photos of things that interest, quick sketching etc.  It has a great advantage in that it is easy to add and remove pages, works well in this square format and as a rectangular book for long pages that fold out.  Simple and quick to make it is handy to have in your armoury of small books.

Materials for Hinged Books.

• Covers.  2 pieces of card 12cm X 12cm heavy enough to protect inner pages.

• Card covering.  Any paper suitable eg. Marbled, Japanese, paste etc. 2 pieces 15 cm X 15 cm.

• Pages.  Minimum of 8 pages 11cm X 11 cm.  Reflex or lined paper 80gsm, Canson  paper, Watercolour 110 gsm or any paper, any colour you have, depends on what use the book will have. Eg. Notebook, art book, photos. 
  

• End papers.  Can be same as cover paper, pages or contrasting colour.

• Hinges 2 will be supplied at $1.00 cost.

• Usual stuff.

Pencil, ruler, shiny paper for glueing, glue brush and PVA if you have.

Bone folder, Leather Punch (can use mine, don't buy one) steel ruler,

Sharp craft knife and small cutting mat unless you prepare book pages etc. at home.

Scissors and some grease proof paper.

If paper and card prepared at home you will have time to make several books of any size, so bring more papers, card etc.  I have four sizes for you to see, 22x16cm, 18x12cm, 11.5x10.5cm and 6.5x5.5cm.  The largest book requires 3 hinges as will any book larger than this.

May Calliarts - Suminagashi Marbling - 14 May 2016

Dear Members and Followers,

After the meeting on Saturday we have our monthly Calliarts afternoon and this month it is Sumingashi Marbling with Patricia Moody.

SUMINAGASHI (MARBLING) (Ink that floats on water )

Dating from 12th c. Japan, Suminagashi is said to emulate the flowing motion of windblown, white cloth or the patterns seen in slowly running streams.

Patterns are formed by dropping ink, traditionally, black, blue or red, onto the surface of a water bath in successive rings. These rings of colour are then manipulated into wavy patterns that resemble taffeta or moving water. No two pieces will ever be alike, but all will be beautiful.

Suminagashi, lends itself very well to being the background for a calligraphic piece.

This form of marbling is very easy to do, and requires a minimum of equipment apart from a few easy to acquire basics. A full equipment list will be posted shortly.

Equipment list (There will be a small charge of approx. $4.00 on the day to cover cost of good ink & Photo-Flo).                                                            

·         2 Kitty Litter trays, - or similar - (needs to take larger than A4 but less than A3) & be at least 5 / 6 cm deep.

·         1 to 1.5 litre plastic jug.

·         2 cheap plastic buckets (or share with a mate.)

·         Newspaper , plus extra sheets cut into 10cm wide strips (used for skimming the water)

·         Large plastic bag to take wet newspaper home in.

·         Bottled Chinese ink of your choice. BLACK ONLY. Plus any others you might want to experiment with. Yasutomo ink works really well for Suminagashi. If you have this, please bring it.

·         2 x small, but deep containers ,-lidded if possible,- but if not, don’t worry. Plastic communion cups, film containers , or small jars would be ideal.
·         Another 2 small lidded jars for ink and Photo-Flo to take home.
·         Kodak Photo-Flo 200 (but only if you have some)

·         2 smallish (but not too small) Chinese paint brushes – Eckersley’s may have these, if not China town will) OR 2 x #3 cheap, ROUND nylon brushes, eg Francheville, Royal Crafters Choice, available at Spotlight, Lincraft , Eckersley’s .

·         Plastic eye dropper or pipette.

·         Fine stylus, toothpicks, satay stick, for ‘drawing ‘designs.

·         Old towel or plastic sheet to cover your table.

·         Another old towel or a roll of kitchen paper to blot wet marbled sheets  (ink will not transfer onto towel)

·         Paper: have fun & experiment, however 110gsm cartridge works very well, as does Lana, (there will be some for sale on the day.This will be $2 a sheet and will cut down into 4 pieces) Whatever you want to work with, it will need to have a certain amount of ‘wet strength ‘ so best not to use tissue paper unless it is Japanese and of a very high quality.

·         The ability to relax, play and experiment.

Calliarts - A Modern Uncial

Dear Members and Followers,

Calliarts - Modern Uncial  with tutor Cathy Sayer

Modern Uncial is a great script for a novice or the seasoned Calligrapher.

The effect one can achieve is never disappointing, whether it is a word is written on a piece of scrap Saundersor Waterford paper, or a longer text. The beauty of this script is being able to use a monoline pen - it is an efficient, yet stylised scriptwhich always ‘looks good’ !

In this workshop, our tutor provided some of her inspiring samples and there wasample time to share our work and look at all the variation we could use

for the script - from varying the ‘x’ height size , the ‘down’ stroke ,to using

a myriad of colours and an occasional, unstated flourish or two.

Thank you RG.

Fraktur Workshop with Patricia Moody

Dear Members and Followers,

We have now introduced the two day lettering course, as a substitute for 6 week lettering courses.

On 23 April and 21 May Patricia Moody will conduct a course in Fraktur.
 

Fraktur is a beautiful, but much less frequently used Gothic script than Textura.

Originating in 14^th C Germany, it didn’t last too long as a handwritten form, but was widely used as a printing font by the early 16^th C.

Although as densely packed on the line as Textura, and still a ‘broken ‘letter, Fraktur has slightly more curves, and is probably easier to read.