Haiku book

This is a 3-D card/booklet containing Japanese haiku by Basho.  The calligraphy and backgrounds were all done with watercolours on watercolour paper.

Flag books

Here are a couple of flag books I've made containing some calligraphy.  The first one (above) is tiny, measuring 75mm x 42mm when closed. The Country Proverbs book is much larger - around A5 size - and has been decorated with inking and stamping. I used gouache and a metal nib for the writing on both books.

Calligraphy Christmas Card

This is another project we worked on during the week the Knuston. It actually looks a lot more difficult to produce than it was! You only have to make one wedge shaped section which is then photocopied six times, cut out and glued together to make the star shape. This can then be photocopied and reduced as many times as you like for your cards... all you have to do is add a little colour to each one as I have here.

Calligraphy

I'm just back from a wonderful week of calligraphy at Knuston Hall residential centre in Northamptonshire. We had a real international group this time with students from Belgium, Netherlands, USA and Japan... as well as one or two from England. I think I was the 'local' as I only live about 40 miles away! Here are a couple of pieces of work I did during the week:

The first one was written in gouache, the large letters in the background (As You Like It) were written using very watery black paint using a piece of wood, and then the quote written on top using a steel nib.

The second piece was written in watercolour, with colour painted inside some of the counters of the letters (I used Derwent Inktense Blocks for this). The fish was traced with pencil and I used a narrow nib and gold size to draw in the outline, then covered with transfer gold. I've added a few spots of gold to the text as well. The 'sea' at the bottom was made using tracing paper which I painted with acrylic paints, tore and then glued to the watercolour paper.

Calligraphy

Here is a piece of calligraphy I have recently done - you will probably recognize the quote... and the mask I've used in the background! So it's a big thank you to WS and TH - two geniuses born 500 years apart.

Wedding card

I've just been away for a lovely week at Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire on a calligraphy course. Here is a wedding card I made while I was there, including some of my calligraphy!

Some calligraphy

I've been away for a lovely week of calligraphy at Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire again. I had a wonderfully relaxing week and managed to complete several projects. This time we were doing the calligraphy hand called 'Legende' which is quite unusual. Most of my work is too big to scan, but here is one small piece I did. The quote is written in watercolour and I sponged watercolours on the left hand side and then added some gold leaf.

Yellow Easter

Here is my entry for the Make a Moo or Two challenge. For the background I've used some paper which I made using the 'shaving foam marbling' technique, and then written the word, adding some gold leaf to the centre of the 'T' cross, and the final touch - a little yellow chick.

Anything Goes challenge: butterflies

As I mentioned, I've just been away for a week at a lovely place called Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire. It is a residential college which offers lots of short courses in a whole range of subjects, and I went for a week of calligraphy. While I was there, I did this piece for the Anything Goes Challenge on Craft Swap Forum on the theme of butterflies. I also made a new header for my blog too!

A bit of calligraphy

I have to admit that my calligraphy has rather taken a back seat recently - other things like cards, ATCs and Inchies seem to have taken me over!! Also, I really struggle to produce good small lettering so my pieces tend to be quite large and too big to scan. However, this is a short (and therefore small) piece I wrote recently. I really loved this quote. It was written in watercolours with William Mitchell steel nibs.