Premières lettres - First letters - Callie

Bonjour,

Je vous prie de bien vouloir accepter mes excuses pour mon retard... Je suis désolée d'être en retard, j'ai eu de la difficulté à trouver des idées puisque mes premières idées n'allaient pas trop...
Enfin... j'ai trouvé un ou deux idées...

I'm sorry for being late. I beg you to please accept my apologies for my late ... I had trouble finding ideas since my first thoughts were not too ...
Finally ... I found a couple of ideas ...

Voici le premier alphabet :
Il s'agit d'un petit concentré de majuscule "Gothique Fraktur" et des graphismes, le tout en noir, la lettre est tracée avec la plume à affiche et de la gouache noire, les graphsimes sont tracés au feutre fin, la petite touche de "rouge" est apportée par une lettre en carton, laquelle lettre forme donc un relief.

This is the first alphabet:
This is a small concentration of capital "Gothic Fraktur" and graphics, all in black, the letter is drawn with the pen displays and black gouache, the graphsimes are traced with felt pen, the touch "red"is given in a letter box, letter which therefore forms a relief.

Et voici le second alphabet :

J'ai tracé le contour de la lettre au crayon gris, on peut donc dire que c'est une lettre dessinée... mais elle est aussi calligraphiée ;) J'en ai par la suite tracé les contours avec une plume très fine et de la gouache noire. J'ai colorée l'intérieur avec des aquarelles brillantes et j'ai attendu... Je trouvais que la brillance ressortait trop peu donc j'ai peint l'extérieur de la lettre à la gouache et au pinceau fin.

This is the second alphabet:
I traced the outline of the letter in pencil, we can say that a letter is drawn ... but it is also calligraphy;) I eventually traced the outlines with a fine pen and black gouache. I colored inside with bright watercolors and waited ... I found that the apparent brightness too low so I painted the outside of the letter in gouache and brush end.

On dirait bien que c'est parti...
Looks like it's gone ...
Bonne soirée
Good evening

Julie's EFGH

Here are the next 4 letters!

e, f, g, h

Thinking about these letters and that there was the option of coloured letters or white letters, I decided I wanted to have both, as kind of negative and positive. I'm thinking for presentation I'll put base to base.

This alphabet started as very basic, geometric shapes and as I have started to move through the alphabet, having started with an "A" which was just a triangle (no "legs to the "A") the question was then what was the "E" going to look like? A rectangle or with the horizontal lines shown?? I still haven't quite decided which will be the final letter I use...same goes for the "F". When I started this alphabet I did not anticipate this. :-) Pondering how to follow through with creating an alphabet using very basic geometric shapes also lead me to thinking whether it is truly an alphabet if you can't create legible words but really just have marks. I haven't come to a decision about that. Is it an alphabet even if the symbols aren't meaningful to anyone other than the creator??

If the "E" is a rectangle, wouldn't it follow that the "H" was also a rectangle? This is where I got to wondering about just symbols vs meaningful or easily identifiable symbols. As a side note, I sprained my ankle and one of the exercises the physio suggested I do is to draw out the letters of the alphabet with my foot!

February Four

Hi all,

Here are my second four letters, R,B,E and H. I have again used the Celtic design using burnt orange as my "special" effect.

Kindest Ann

FEBRUARY from Mieke.

Here are my next lot of letters, as before printed on muslin with a background of some photo's I took from various pieces I like.

                     Background of a little display cabinet with mini pottery I made some time ago.

                                               Background of a piece of white-washed  timber.

                                         Some more clay,  just some curly-wurlies pieces on sticks I like doing.

                             A bit hard to see here, 1 teapot 1 lidded pot I did in a soda firing workshop.

I will post my previous letters in every post but 1 step closer to finished piece which will be a artist book hopefully.

             The background sheet I made by scanning several objects and then printing on 220gr paper.
                Here just corrugated cardboard with feathers from my chookies. I the printed some words        beginning with the corresponding letter. Then sewing the letter on top.

                                  Background scanning of textured wallpaper.

A Scarf scanned.

                                                        

White and tea-dyed muslin.

January letters 2011

I have chosen to return to my roots with this alphabet and created a monoline alphabet using embroidery thread couched with matching silk thread to sew the image onto a fine Onrushi paper.

Finished Alphabets 2010

Finally back on the air! The images above are glued onto ribbon and into a box of the same paper. Half the alphabet into the top of box and the second half into the bottom, making a neat package when closed.

This picture to the left shows windows cut into mount board and the images glued in place. Both boards are glued together with ribbon allowing them to be closed flat.

e,f,g,h

This is fun. I now know I need to do all the letters in one go if I am going to remember how I did it. This becomes quite a challenge if I don't make notes. Hmmm, note to self, make notes. Hmmm, note to self, find notes.

e, f, g, h, Liz Davidson

Jeanette's German Blackletters

Alphabet 1 for 2011 is on a background of text from the obituary of Johann Sebastian Bach. The script reflects the German blackletter. The letters are in watercolour, on smooth watercolour paper, the small letters with an automatic pen and the large letters with a broad brush. The first four letters are B-A-C-H, appropriately. But as I am late, I have also posted the next six letters.

4 Letters for...

...Valentine's Day!

Getting Started with 2011-Resisting all the way

Well, found a fabulous bed valance to recycle and do some resist on and finally get started. Black and White with a touch of brilliance.....well it will be black and white with a touch of antique brilliance I think this time round. I have started my film roll!!!!!

Thanks

First 4 letters

Well, here is the first try, I love calligraphy but as you will see, I am no calligrapher, but I love type in all it's forms and I especially love the shapes of letters. For the black and white letters I decided to use my own hand writing, scan it, and then layer it, hoping that just the shapes would carry the day. This is such a fun project and I really appreciate joining this group and look forward to getting to know you all and see your work.

Alphabet Conversations

As one of nine children growing up in Sydney we had to create our own fun of course, no such thing as computers, DS' etc. One of the winter activities was to create what we then called "conversations". They usually revolved around boy/girl themes and depending where the conversation stopped after counting and moving our fingers back and forth as the conversation moved, questions like "tell us who you boyfriend is?" would be asked. I am sure we all ended up running madly around the house driving our mother crazy.

Anyway, these are my "Alphabet Conversations" using the same folding method we used as children. Mind you I had never folded them so small until now. Try folding a 7cm square and then you'll know how small these are. Enjoy my Alphabet Conversations!

First 4 weeks - Lyndell

This is my first time posting anything on the web! Many thanks to Fiona for her great instructions.

I decided that I'd start with the black and white with a little touch of (in my case) marbling. I used some of the marbling paper I did last year.

I am in awe of what has already been posted and am looking forward to seeing the rest.

Alphabet Conversations ... are on their way

What wonderful work so far. It is a little bit of a late start to the year for me but at last, my Alphabet Conversations are underway ... stay tuned ... until later in the day.
Keep on creating!
Gemma

Between the Lines

We did a program at WCS (Westcoast Calligraphy Society) called Between the Lines Valentine in January and I was having so much fun with it I decided to use this technique for the first set of letters. The dull copper letter is actually iridescent but that does not translate well when scanning. I was going to do something "Zentangle" like for the second set but see that Wendy beat me to the punch so I'll keep thinking about that one for now and hopefully come up with something different.

I am amazed, in awe and so inspired by all the work already posted to the blog. WOW!
Violet Smythe, Richmond, BC Canada

Pat's first post for the year

Being involved in ALAW 2010 really got me thinking about alphabets and trying different ones and playing around with letters. This alphabet, in all its simplicity, came out of sitting in a meeting with 3 pieces of paper on my lap and a dark skirt or trousers and taking the corners of the papers and fanning (while I was listening well of course!) and seeing a "W" appear and liking the contrast of the white with the colour and the basic, clean shape.

This alphabet is quite different from other things I've done and I'm not sure how all the letters will go. I'm not particularly happy with the "C" but it looked like a "D" the first try and I didn't want that. I decided to go with a different colour for each letter as it just seemed to fit. One thing I hadn't thought about until I went to make the first letter for this, was whether the letter would be the white or the coloured part. I tried both and decided on the the latter, although the former might get made at some point, too, just as a counterpoint.

Metalfabet 1

I sculpt, there for I am

All the letters I will be creating for " letter a week'' will be formed and shaped out of steel into 3D objects. For my first encounter with the art that lives inside the written word I have decided to focus more on the letters as objects then on what colour I will employ to cover them up with. The letters will be made of raw metal, a bit rusty in some places, a bit shiny in others and very organic. They will be cut by hand out of thin steel sheets into 10 mm strips and then folded into letter shapes with some extra bits that will form connecting tabs. There will be no welding nor soldering done, no bolting and no gluing.

By connecting various letters which will spell words or sentences that express my thoughts I will form abstract shaped objects or....

"thoughts that stand up by themselves, for themselves"

Subscription now available!

Hi all - visitors and contributors alike.

There has been so much fabulous activity on alaw2011 these past few weeks I am still shaking my head at the magic of it all!  I just wanted to let you know that you can now subscribe to receive an email (once a day) whenever somebody has posted to the blog. That way you can keep up with the action and get a lovely dose of eye candy letters whenever they appear.

Just click on the "subscribe via email" link on the right hand side and follow the cues.

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Thanks for your support and amazing contributions so far

Fiona

My First Attempts

I enjoyed starting this project.  I decided to work with a limited palate and a ruling pen and number 5 wm nib.  I liked the first two enough to keep going!

The P was less successful than the others and suffered a small accident - I ran out of time but might have to re-do it later.  Is that cheating??  The T is not as interesting, but at least it isn't smudged!