Our group met here at Lake House, Takapuna on 24th June. The rain came down and the sun shone - a bit like the meeting. It was the place to remember this past year, our successes, the busy times, to air our grievances, to plan our program and  to improve for next year. 

We are considering participating with Lake House, who are planing a display of Victorian paraphernalia which they will hold towards the end of the year. After the meeting we gathered round the main table which was filled with ideas. We made thaumatropes, discussed vovelles, and how we could apply calligraphy to other everyday victorian items.  Finishing off with the legendary home baked afternoon tea.

Do you recognize these hands?

One of the small projects that our regular group was set for the end of April, was to consider the iconic images of New Zealand birds and to arrange and use letters within their shape. Other media examples were discussed and examined. Various templates were chosen if needed and the challenge started with pencil, brush and pen.

Some works in progress.

In Auckland the New Zealand Calligraphers attended the Art and Craft Show held in mid March of this year. A group of experienced, dedicated people manned the booth, meeting those interested in calligraphy, helping with queries about supplies and demonstrating various writing styles and tools.

Glenice and Jan in the booth

We had examples on the walls around our booth of envelope exchanges, small quotes suitable for framing, and weather grams etc. On the table we had our magazines for sale, the various raffles, and a small space in which to demonstrate.

Dale

This year we ran several raffles with grateful thanks to our faithful sponsors for their support with these. One of the happy winners posed with her prize.

Our happy winner

The overwhelming opinion was buoyant and positive as we felt it was good to be in front of the public, just letting them know we existed.

Margaret Beeches

Hi Everyone, wonderful news!  Margaret Beeches is planning to visit New Zealand on 17  December 2011. Hillary Barnes is going to host this day at her house, so I do hope you can make it. Margaret is from the UK and she is a Calligrapher and Book Artist located in York. If you are interested please email: newzealandcalligraphers@gmail.com or phone Hillary nearer the time.

Here is Margaret's website, take a look:      http://www.beeches13.freeserve.co.uk/

Vivacious Versals with Gemma Black

The students on the left and right hand side of the class for Gemma's Vivacious Versals.

I feel greatly privileged to have been able to attend Gemma Black’s workshop. Gemma is a skilled and generous teacher, who does not allow her international standing to become a barrier and relates to lesser calligraphers in a relaxed and encouraging way. The personal interest that she shows in each student is impressive. Every question is given serious consideration, without judgment on its value. And because Gemma is the person she is, her workshops are very enjoyable.

Learning about the historical background to versals, gave us the context we needed to develop an understanding of these letter forms. 

Before the workshop, I knew what versals looked like, but I would have been hard pressed to list their characteristics. I now know that versals are drawn letters, that they can vary in width (2, 3 or 4 strokes), they use the same weighting as Roman capitals, are generally 20 - 24 pen widths high, have a fine serif or a serif the same width as the letter and that they can be waisted, top heavy or bottom heavy.

In the workshop we learned how to draw versals using several exercises, including an inductive method in which we put together a versal alphabet based on one or two letters we had been shown. 

We were given many helpful of examples of versal forms used by a range of calligraphers. Once we were familiar with the basics, we moved on to Vivacious Versals, which were developed from the Gestural Capitals which were part of the first workshop. 

Treating ordinary pencils and coloured pencils as serious art media was something new for many of us.The huge plus of all this learning is that Versals are such a practical letter form. Through this workshop I have enjoyed meeting Gemma, greatly increased my knowledge and have gained a lettering style which will be very useful in my calligraphy work. 

Elaine Riddell

Examples of the workshop challenge from Peggy Robinson, Dale-Cormack Pearson, Tom Smith, and Jan Leonard.

Colour, Collage and Calligraphy Workshop

Students who attended the workshop with Gemma Black.
Dale, Marion, Roselda, Pam, Elaine, Lesley, Bevan, Jan, Barbara, Theresa, Gill, Glenice, Rose, Kirsten, Ann, & Gemma.

Dale-Cormack Pearson

What an inspirational workshop this has been, we have been shown different mediums and we have played around with them. We have been shown how to mix colors with washes for backgrounds. Then to apply calligraphy to them. Thank you Gemma for your hard work to bring this to us, we have enjoyed

it very much. The evening lecture was most interesting and I think we all learnt something. For me the most important aspect is to always write everything down. The date, medium, style, what worked, what didn't work. Always to make sure you name your piece, take photos of your work. Making your mark is the most important thing you can do for yourself and your calligraphy. Dale-Cormack Pearson

Barbara Ellis

This was a fun course! Gemma showed us how our back grounds for our calligraphy can come from a variety of possibilities, as far as our imagination can take us, by using different media, support and methods. We tried inks, water colors, gouache and acrylics with water on a variety of papers, they could just have easily been used on canvas, wood, fabric etc. We used paint brushes, spray and dropper bottles, salt, glad wrap and anything else we had with us. Each media, paper and method gave a different effect. We had a wonderful play and serendipity played a huge part. A large tray was used to keep the paint etc contained (and the mess). To finish off Gemma showed us a quick but very effective calligraphic style to use on our backgrounds which could be protected with an acrylic medium later on. Barbara Ellis.

Lesley McKeesick

Paint, gouache, inks, water, brushes, different papers and anything you could think of for collage. A new experience for me to be dripping/sloshing paint etc onto wet paper. But what fun!  It was interesting to see everyones different colors and styles. The Saturday afternoon was spent learning some new scripts and again it was fun. They had a casual look and were to be written at speed, though I found that I had to write more slowly to achieve that look. Sunday we designed and put different collage materials onto our now dry paper, (toilet paper seemed ideal for collage work) with three different types of paste. A session with Gemma to see how best to present our master pieces! She gave us many helpful tips and useful information for our calligraphy craft. Lesley McKeesick

Gill Carlsson

I was one of the fortunate members to attend the Colour, Collage and Calligraphy workshop with Gemma Black. She is the most delightful person and wonderful tutor. I had wondered whether I would be out of my depth attending with such an international teacher of calligraphy, but no, she accommodated all levels of knowledge and everyone really had a good time. Saturday was spent experimenting with colour effects onto a background we created with different mediums, ink, watercolor, and gouache. We made crinkled effect paper by blobbing randomly onto the paper then screwing the paper into a ball! Unravelling it revealed a wonderful effect. Then ironed it when dry. The drying was enhanced by the lovely sunny day, and we dried our papers outside. We had bought some images, hand made papers etc to do collage. When the paper was dry enough we all set to creating with our embellishments. What an amazing variety of designs started to appear around the room. We were all so absorbed in our work the classroom was quiet!! By the end of the day we had finished several decorative papers and were quite exhausted from the concentration and went home happy. That evening we had a sociable lecture from Gemma at Jan's house, called 'Making your Mark' signing your work or not? Sunday we learnt Akim cursive script originally developed by Hans-Joachim Burget. This hand is certainly different! First we had to practice free form skeleton Roman capitals using Gemma's variation - fun and not difficult to do, then we moved onto variation of Hans-Joachim. No angle of the pen to worry about and the letters flattened and sprawling were enjoyable to practice. The rest of the day was spent practicing and creating some phrases or poems of your choice. Some managed to actually write onto the prepared papers we had made and it looked stunning. The simplicity of the hand requires little writing to gain great affect! I must get on and do my practice! Gill Carlsson