a letter a week 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

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.

For those with blogs - you can also add a link to alaw2011 on your blog so visitors to you might also pop across and have a look at the magic appearing here!

Thanks for your support and amazing contributions so far

Fiona

Thursday, February 3, 2011

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!

Wendy's First Four Letters

Hi everybody,

My first alphabet is "Black and White and a touch of ...RED". I did a short class with Bev Allen several months ago on various types of versals. The ones I have chosen to do are related to Zentangles in that they are essentially filled with repetitive doodles. The is essentially "living room art"--pencil, eraser, black and red monoline pens.. I didn't put a border on my first letter, but felt the "B" needed one and then used one on the others. I will have to see whether I want to redo "A" with a border, or use a mix of borders and no borders.

Wendy in Burnaby, B .C., Canada

Gabby's first letters...

Fellow Calligraphers! I was inspired to join the group when I saw some lovely creative work being prsented. I thought I would like to add my name and work to the list. here are the first 5 of the letters. I thought I would just doodle as I sat waatching TV . I used black paper and a white hybrid gel pen. I have added a ladybird to the letters as I was in the garden and found a lot of them on my flowers . They are so cute in real life. you might like to search for them on the letters as I plan to hide them in the doodles. Gabby

Elaine's beginnings

I am really looking forward to this exciting challenge again, thanks Fiona. I can hardly believe the first month is over already!

For my ‘black and white and a touch of….’ alphabet I wanted the 7cm squares to be transparent. I first worked on tracing paper, but it didn’t give me the transparency that I wanted, so I then tried ‘Mylar’ (a strong polyester film) which was perfect. For the freely written capitals I used one of my favourite tools, a double ruling pen, and FW non-clogging waterproof drawing ink. I was quite surprised to see that Mylar is mentioned as one of the surfaces that the ink can be used on. I don’t have the control I would have on paper because of the slippery surface, but I am enjoying the challenge. I have made the white dots with a fine round-tipped ‘Uni POSCA’ pen which is also waterproof and does not rub off the film..

For the ‘touch of..’ I am tying a coloured thread to one corner, gradating the colours as the alphabet progresses. I plan to put all the squares on a spike, reminiscent of the way we used to save receipts, etc . The hole for the spike will be on the opposite corner from the thread and I will put a bead or something similar on the spike between each square, providing a space between each one so that the letters are not obscured by each other. I imagine the letters spiralling around the spike and hopefully this will work out.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Judith's first letters...

The past -
the present -
the future -

The Sanskrit letters and words represent the past, the large letters in the centre are the present and the future? perhaps the abbreviated electronic texting.

Judith Kilburn

Heather's Art Deco Fantasy

This time I'm being clever and assembling as I go. Art Deco Letters which will ultimately be a bound star book. The letters are cut through the white paper and stuck onto the black "pages" of the book with "hot mama red" ink for a touch of........(glamour a la Hollywood perhaps). I'm having fun with these letters and looking forward to the exhibition of everyone's work...it should be stunning.
Heather.

Helen's first few

Am trying to relax my style from being so precise, so these are basically doodles. Have only a vague idea of my finished piece at present as I am hoping it will take on a life of its own and grow.

Till next time
Helen Irving

Sooo.....

Hi All,

I'm new to this and have gotten myself into a bit of a pickle.

I'm in love with all the letters posted so far! Which makes it even harder to admit this...

I don't have my letters done.

Here's the story - I was super excited to try a new technique for the "Black, white and a touch of something" alphabet - specifically- suminagashi. It seemed perfect, something I've been wanting to try for ages, it was 'supposed to be simple' (famous last words) and I have seen some beautiful black and white sheets with the occassional band of red...

So a month, four books on marbling, and four suminagashi sessions in and I have yet to figure out how to get a sheet that is much more than a few grey swirls. I've tried different inks, different surfactants, different temperatures of water...no joy.

The picture above shows one of my sessions, with test sheets laid out drying and the other pic is one of the best sheets I've pulled so far.

So, while I actually like the grey swirls they really aren't what I had envisioned, and I don't think really qualify as "black". Several days ago I decided I needed to move onto some other approach but am struggling to decide on a direction. I had thought my second alphabet would be a series of illuminated capitols but I may have to scramble/research and start those now.

I will catch up!

Lee