Getting ready for the Guild’s 30th Anniversary Exhibit

The Greater Cincinnati Calligrapher’s Guild is celebrating 30 years in existence this year. In Nov. we had a wonderful dinner party to celebrate, and to cap this off, the guild will be having an exhibit of wonderful calligraphic artwork at the downtown Cincinnati Library starting Feb. 1 through March 10.

By the way, I designed the logo we’ve been using for all the anniversary events.

I had a deadline to deliver my pieces of artwork in mid Dec. One of these pieces was started in May, and was shown as an example at several guild meetings as a ‘work in progress.’ So, it was finally time to finish it.

The piece was started in Jacqueline Sullivan’s Wet and Wild workshop. I was workshop chairperson and coordinated putting this workshop together. It was touch and go with this workshop between getting enough people to attend, to having to change the venue the week before the workshop. But, that’s whole other blog story for a later date.

The background of the piece was made by pouring watercolors onto the wet watercolor paper. While the paper was still wet we could do some other things to it to move the color around, but really, there was no control of how the paper would look in the end. It was very freeing to just keep creating papers and experimenting with different techniques to see what happened.

This particular piece has the effects of sprayed on rubbing alcohol, as seen in some of the whiter areas. Also used was a sprinkling of dry Rit dye that shows up as dark spots on the bottom.

Once the paper was dry we went about layering different coordinating pieces to build up the piece and plan where lettering could go. Now, I had taken this workshop before, so I knew some of the tricks and techniques already. Using foam core to raise the layers off the background, remembering to use the ‘odds’ rule to make a piece more interesting.

I’m not sure what my thoughts were regarding choosing the quote for this piece. I had done that quote before, so maybe thinking about leaves and the green color of the piece, may have contributed to my decision. I recall that I did a couple different styles of lettering before deciding on the all caps variation of Italic. I used navy blue Ziller ink for the lettering and the word ‘Life’ is done with Pan Pastels, which I love using.

To finish it off, the piece is framed in an oak shadowbox frame. I had contemplated spray painting the frame a gold/brass color to match the gold in the piece, but ran out of time. I still might do that at a later date. Maybe I should have everyone vote.


Although I posted the end result in my Fresh Art album on Facebook. I wanted to share some behind the scenes insight into this piece of artwork.


Lastly, if you are in downtown Cincinnati, stop by the library during their business hours to see the exhibit. I have another fun piece in the exhibit entitled 'Now I Know My ABC's' Can you guess my inspiration for that piece? This exhibit will definitely show that calligraphy is more than just beautiful handwriting, it is an art form in itself.


In the studio:

I’ve been busy working on paper products for Evie’s 2nd birthday party which is this Sun. Can’t believe my baby is turning 2. Invitations, cupcake picks, and a banner for the window. I’ll show them off in another posting soon. 

Evie antics:

Her Dad downloaded a new app for her iPad. It’s a Dora Coloring Adventure. You choose the picture, add stickers and color it in by touching a crayon color and touching the screen. She got the hang of it really fast. She likes making everything a monotone and lots of stickers.

Until next time, meanwhile ... Go Steelers! Stairway to Seven....

Jen

Happy New Year!

My latest musings...

I started the year off right, got my butt in gear and started and finished my first wedding job of the year. I’ve had it sitting in my studio since early Dec., and had promised the completed job by the first week of Jan., taking into consideration the holidays. It was a small job, only 51 address, so I completed it in about 2 days, with some babysitting help from the hubby. Or as our friend, Melissa, calls it, “parenting,” when it’s your own child. The lovely bride and her family are from just up the road in Springboro, Ohio. This was a reject envelope since the zip code was incorrect. A great resource for checking zip codes is www.usps.com I've used that site many times when a zip code is in doubt, incomplete or omitted from a wedding list.

It was nice to do some mindless practicing of a font that I know very well. The Bickham font. I even worked on perfecting some of the letters that I’ve formerly had issues with. The paper was nice and I started the job with a new nib, a Hunt 56, and my usual black Sumi ink. This is a print sample of the font.

As for resolutions for the New Year, well, can’t say I’ve verbalized any, but have a few things in my head that I’d like to get accomplished. Lose about 20 lbs. to start. But, as always, try to have more time to be creative. That could take many forms, calligraphy, jewelry making, playing with Evie or even writing this blog. I already have a few more article ideas brewing for upcoming posts.

Evie Antics: I thought I’d share this photo of Evie playing with one of her presents from Santa, an Aquadoodle. I’m trying to get her started on her creativity too. Oh, and she's using her right hand, which is rare, since she usually colors with her left hand, so I can't decide which it's going to be.

Until next time....Jen