black, white and a touch of ...

So far, so good! I'm on track.

This is my black, white and a touch of ... alphabet.

Another layered work, using the ruling pen alphabet I did in 2010 in my first little book. I think it makes a good balance for the geometric shapes.

The bottom layer is a block of black lower case 'a's, 'b's, 'c's, etc in Courier font, printed by inkjet on Canson paper.

In between this and the ruling pen letter (scanned and printed as a tint of black on tracing paper) there is a geometric shape resembling a A, B C etc. This is my touch of colour - a rich brown.

I like the way the ruling pen letters look like shadows, and the freedom of the ruling pen letters offsets the formality of the typeset letters.

These are glued together flat, and will be put in a small box when finished.

Looking forward to seeing all the work again this year. It is such fun opening the blog every few days to new work!
Keep it up everyone,
Meg

Lau's letters, a, b, c, i

First of all, I want to tell you... how splendid are your letters!
I am just a little bit shameful to post mines, just after the magnificent Julie's florishes....
My letters are simpler.
Black & white and a touch of... découpage!

Cut in white paper, I will probably put it all together in a black concertina :

Jo's A B C D

Wow!... how do I follow all these amazing creations. My letters are VERY different to those of the very clever calligraphers. One could call them 'unsophisticated' perhaps. It's great fun, and a challenge. Thought I'd start with the coloured alphabet first, then work up to the black and white.

I began by cutting matboard into 7 x 7cm squares and was surprised by how tiny they seemed.  However, small is good.

Next step was to cut suitable letters from glossy mags (a bit wabisabi Noela?) and glue them. At last, I could pick up a brush.  Painting is my favourite obsession.  A little colour here, a little attached something there, and hey presto!

I keep altering my mini-collages. I suspect this might continue ad infinitum, at least until I get to the end.  Co-ordinating such diverse images into a single collage might just be too difficult a feat.  It will certainly test my design skills. Perhaps they'll lend themselves to a box instead.  We'll see.

Julie's ABCD

I am such a newbie at Blogging, so bear with me!
Since most of you so far are going with the black and white letters, I'll start with the other alphabet and do the black and white last. I love doing paper sculpture, so that is my theme for the two alphabets I will do.
This first alphabet is made from BFK Rives paper on various pastepapers and marbled paper backgrounds. The red circle is gouache, and will be consistant for all the letters. This alphabet is based on a double stroke alphabet by Martin Jackson of Vancouver, Canada. I have added flourishes.

I am so enjoying everybody's alphabets! Beautiful work!!

black and white and a touch of...

... pattern and light!

Digitally designed and generated, printed on watercolor Epson, perforated from the back.

First of all I want to say how happy I am for participating in ALAW 2011! Thank you Fiona for making it possible, and for welcoming me to such wonderful group.

I have been following the postings during the 2010 "season" and deeply admired everyone's artistic skills and expertise in calligraphy. I am humbly presenting my first few letters' attempt, created in photoshop and eventually presented upon completion in a fashion that will put to action my bookbinding/paper structuring skills.

Until next time I wish you all happy letter making and wonderful next four weeks!

Metal letters for January

ALaW 2011 is a bit a a challenge for a metal worker. How to do the black and white thing with a bit of something was the challenge - what metal is white - none really. I thought aluminium might be the go but was informed that it is actually silver or dull grey.

So I have spray painted my galvanised tin matt white. I have used metal from rusted black metal strapping (used for binding timber together for delivery); pop rivets hold the letters in place; and small pieces of green and copper anodised aluminium add the 'little something'.

Noela's letters for January

I am continuing with my love for teabags and for recycled materials. 

This alphabet is all about teabags, copper wire, gold wax highlighting, lots of glue, and the mysterious and intriguing Mayan alphabet. The copper wire is sandwiched between 2 layers of teabag tissue.

If you look closely, you will see the Roman alphabet equivalent in the bottom right corner. I don't mind the lack of clarity as the assembled piece will be hanging in a window and the letters will be in order.

a,b,c,d, photographed with flash,

a,b,c,d, photographed with no flash, and light behind.

Fiona's first letters

I have made a beginning and have decided to make my first alphabet the one that has 'black and white and a touch of...' for me, gold.

I am choosing to write italic letters in a nib size that should work for all letters (ascenders and descenders included) on the 7cm a 7cm paper; and then doing multiple overwriting in different nibs sizes and styles to create some texture.

Building on a trick I learned in my very first alphabet (from Noela) I am adding a square of gold foil to each page. I am then attaching the page to a larger black page and folding it and then joining each page together. You can see the process here.

I am not sure what I will do next with the joined pages - just how they will finish up is still a bit of a mystery to me!

January Letters-JGR

I hope you're all having a great year so far. I'm very excited to be involved with this wonderful challenge for the second time. My letters for 2010 were very informal, this time I'm going with a more controlled approach. My first alphabet is 'Black and White with a touch of blue texture'.

There is some randomness in my technique but overall I'm attempting a more cohesive look.

My technique is a combination of hand drawing, watercolor paint, dye and collage. Thanks for visiting, happy weekend!

Kim Schoenberger - ABCD

Well here we go for another year! My first alphabet 2011 - I'm starting with the allocated task first; 'Black & White with a touch of....' And the touch of is - a touch of 'me'

With touch of... me - extends to anything that is close to my heart; my concerns, interests, memories; past, current etc... with a focus on plastic. Set on Rough 300gsm paper. You'll note in the group photo the stitching in left intentionally long and random, this is for my final result which I will reveal in the presentation at the end of the alphabet. (click on the image if wishing to enlarge) Oh yer, my use of the colour Red refers to the blood that pumps through our hearts the very life force that sustains us, just as dear mother earth sustains us.

My apologies if this comes across as 'heavy' - in my world, my 'little bubble' I am amazed with my use and disposal of plastic each week, it concerns me extremely and especially the plastic rims used on jars as a seal. Even though we are conscious to recycle in today's society, many of it still becomes landfill, the rims end up around birds necks, strangling them, I've even seen documentaries dedicated to studies on plastic showing so much plastic inside the birds stomach, and it eventually kills them. So, I have decided to set myself a challenge within the ALaW challenge by using recycled plastic within each letter just to remind myself and increase my awareness each week to reduce my 'plastic' consumption.

A -With a touch of.... letter 'A' and background pattern make by potato print using black and red printing ink, black and red stitching (sewn on a treadle sewing machine), two size plastic rims - black and white.

B - With a touch of... letter 'B' and background - woodblock prints using printing inks. Two separate woodcuts; first, print is the black the second the red, sewn boarders with the ole' treadle. It is not noticable but the top white half of 'B' is collage with white plastic (from a recycled ice cream containter lid), white plastic rim.

C - With a touch of... 'C' is made with plastic melted in the oven, like the plastic stained glass I did as a kid. Plastic was layed on tinfoil shaped into a C and melted, two holes drilled at points to attach with linen thread. Black spots created from a Lino cut print using black printing ink. Treadle sewn boarder and three lines at top R&L, hand sewn french knots within the plastic rim.

D - With a touch of... letter 'D' the idea comes from my school days of the overhead projector film - drawn onto with a Artline waterproof permanent pen using laminated plastic discards, treadle sewn onto 300gsm paper with red cotton, collage raised with double sided tape. Background treadle sewn black boarder and lines with red ink print - taken from a previous printing session when cleaning off the plate the random streaks gave an interesting pattern. Plastic stickers of babies (an insight - from my billings method days!). Handsewn attached recycled plastic rim.

My 1st blog for 2011

Happy New Year to all,

I have tried a few ideas for the Black 'n White theme and this I am happy with.
I have used Lana 300gsm using the, not the right side but the smooth side and this was my preference. Black ink with Gouache, always a favourite medium.
The letters are Celtic and have filled the letter spaces with knots to give an overall interesting effect. Ann S

How to join a letter a week 2011

If you'd like to join in our little challenge and participate in posting your letters to this blog, please contact me, Fiona, via my blog Paperponderings. Send me an email and I will set you up!