Stop Press:
A message has just arrived from Ewan Clayton.
Gemma Black has recorded an interview which will go out on Radio New Zealand National this Saturday 14th at about 13.10 NZ time. The programme is called 'This way up' Slices of life for curious minds!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

What a Merry Christmas party we had, Jan had us on the go all night and we laughed and laughed. Firstly we had a “Christmas Card - Lucky Dip” (see photo below). The aroma of the festive food and a drink couldn't be denied, and we celebrated our Christmas table. Afterwards back into it with a challenge of writing out the words “Merry Christmas” (photo below) with our left hand. There were a few who took short cuts and wrote “Merry Xmas”. A design student won first prize and her name was Kate. We then had to put two puzzles together, Jan had bought them at the $2 shop - plain white (jigsaw cut out pattern) (see photos below) and she had written calligraphic words all over them, that was a lot of fun. We had some pictograms puzzles and the one that got us all was the “circles under the eyes”. Kate our bright spark won that also. On to a quiz where everyone had to bring a question and believe me that it was hard - I only got three right, Rose Browning got eight correct and won the prize. There were about 14 of us in total, regretfully Anne Briden left before we took the photos. Merry Christmas one and all.  
Report from Dale-Cormack Pearson - thank you very much Dale.

Left handed lettering and calligraphy jigsaw puzzle. 

Selection of hand made Christmas Cards.

This is an invitation to come along to our Christmas 'Do', looking forward to seeing you.

Are you interested? 

Margaret Schmidt is coming over from Australia, possibly May 2014 depending on your interest, and offers a workshop using some of the suggestions below. Gillian Carlsson in Warkworth will be organising it. We are wanting to gauge interest by your response as funding and organising will need to be in place soon.

BEAUTIFUL BACKGROUNDS: 2 or 3 days of creating gorgeous papers you'll be inspired to write on! Covers background washes, special effects, sponging, metallic leaf, lattice cutting, embossing & sculptured letters.

CREATIVE CALLIGRAPHIC CARDS: 1 or 2 days learning lettering with a quirky flavour, and combining different calligraphic styles with colour & simple decorations to create cards with character (2 days is not as rushed and can include techniques for the parallel pen).

TRICKY THINGS: 1 day sharing all my secrets for writing on candles, christmas balls, plates, rocks & other tricky surfaces.

TINY TREASURES: 1 day, any level - how to write small, in books, in boxes to create tiny treasures.

CONTEMPORARY POINTED PEN: 1 day for confident calligraphers, or 2 days for less experienced - pointed nibs are good for more than Copperplate! Learn several contemporary styles, based on Italic & Copperplate, to create lettering with an energetic, modern feel.

FREEFORM VERSALS: 1 day - this could follow on from contemporary pointed pen for more experienced calligraphers.

GOTHICIZED ITALIC: 1 day - an elegant lettering style to suit all student levels.

If you are interested or want to know more please contact  by email, carlssonb@orcon.net.nz

Click here for Margaret's company website.

Please let us know...

Some examples of Margaret's work.

Tuesday – 5 November – Evening Class at Windmill Road, Epsom.

Roselda

Erin and Glenice

 What a wild night we had! For a starter we were downstairs, I have never been there before and we were greeted with this lovely display of shoes as we opened the doors. When we went upstairs to put books and videos back in the library we were greeted with a wonderful display of Embroidery. Believe me it was a mix of beautiful pieces of work, we came back down stairs inspired. As the night progressed the rain set in and the wind was like a howling gale all around us but outside. We were nice and cosy inside with plenty of light to work with and comfortable chairs and of course the odd cup of tea and coffee. Jan inspired us all by bringing along a page of Christmas lettering which could end up as Christmas wrapping paper but like all good things we ran out of time. I spent the evening trying all my paints to get the right red for my Christmas flowers, sorry no work to show you. However, there are some photos of the start of Christmas wrapping paper and then some pieces by other members writing,  Roselda, Rose and Glenice and Erin playing around with designs. It was a good night after getting the depressing news that we will have to move again. So we will have to look for rooms elsewhere and also cupboard space to house the library. It is such a shame as I know we have enjoyed being able to use the space and see the Embroiderer's creative pieces. The next Class is on 3 December and that will be our break up Christmas party. Same place, same time. Please bring a plate to share and make sure you make a Christmas card and then we will have a lucky dip of Christmas Cards and you will be able to take one home - that is if you put one in. Dale-Cormack Pearson.

Left: Jan's exemplar     Right: Rose

Please notice that the November date should be the 5th. 

A somewhat dodgy calendar was used for the handwritten notice for this meeting. 

Christopher Haanes Workshop

A demonstration, for all to watch every move of the pen, body, slope, pressure, relationship, shape, it's a very fulfilling way to learn. Nothing quite beats it. 

Left. Christopher showing Barbara exactly how he does it. Centre. Some of Christopher's work was available for sale. Seeing marks actually on the paper is a good way to analyse  how they were made. Right. Total concentration

Left. Christopher working with a ruling pen. Right. The group. (click on photo to enlarge) minus Bevan and Tom, who had to leave early. There will be a much fuller account with more photos in our next magazine, something to look forward to. I was unfortunately unable to attend this workshop so thanks go to Gill and Dale for the photographs.

Dale explains a little more.  I went along to the last hour of Christopher Haanes workshop to take some photos. When I arrived I was surprise that I could not hear any voices. I was very pleased when I got to the top of the stairs to find everyone hard at work. They had a tea break which gave me the opportunity to go around and take some photos for the next newsletter and to see everyone’s work. Most people said that is was a back to basics for them as they had got into bad habits, and were not looking at their spacing. It seemed that they enjoyed themselves but had to work very hard. Christopher was charming, very tall, handsome and young. He had not quite got his voice back yet and I was very lucky to watch him working on a piece of his work. He had written a piece using a ruling pen which had lots of fine lines to it. I watched and he built up on each letter retouching here and there, it was a fascinating process to watch. It looked a very interesting workshop and I am sure that everyone learnt a lot from him.  More to come in the next newsletter. Dale.

Tuesday Night in Epsom.

Roving reporter Rose Browning

Hilary Lewis gave an excellent 20 minute power point presentation about Calligrams, the definition, historical context and numerous examples which were extremely varied and interesting. We then each drew from a hat two pieces of paper, each one had a different word written on it. It was then our turn to try and interpret that word using letters only. The photos show some of our attempts. It was a fun evening and we left feeling like we'd like to explore the idea further.

Some snapshots from the Gilding Workshop in Warkworth last weekend.

Calligrams

Our monthly meeting in Epsom on tuesday will be about calligrams, and if you want to know more more here is a definition, noun, a word or piece of text in which the design and layout of the letters creates a visual image related to the meaning of the words themselves.

Hilary Lewis who is teaching the class has found some images on the web that may be helpful, at least a jumping off place. You will need your usual calligraphy gear remember your parallel pens or the pens you usually like to work with and a practice pad like Zeta.

Christopher Haanes

Time to sign up for this workshop with

Christopher Haanes.

Christopher is a very highly regarded calligrapher and teacher and we are so lucky that he is able to visit us briefly before heading off to Australia where he will conduct several workshops before heading back home to Norway.

Italic might be the hand that is the most varied of all the scripts. One may ask if there really is a neutral italic. There is much variation even amongst Renaissance scribes, and there is a multitude of modern adaptations, stretching from formal, almost typographic styles to highly individual possibilities.

Advanced techniques like pressure variation, pen angle, manipulation, building-up, and retouching will be explored, as long as the student is ready to embrace them. The workshop will include lectures and demonstrations concerning the history of letters, the relationship between the printed and the written word, and technical solutions.

Skill level: Intermediate (students who can write an italic hand)  -  Advanced students.

A video showing Christopher writing latin letters. Here is his website if you wish more information click here.

A deposit of $120 is to be paid by the end of August with the final payment of a further $120 to be made by the 20th September. Direct payments can be made to:  010288-0137566-00  (NZ Calligraphers ANZ Newmarket). Please include your name and C Haanes in the appropriate  columns.

Date:- 5th and 6th October. Time 9.30am - 4pm. Venue is upstairs at 48 Windmill Road, Epsom. Please bring your lunch. Tea, coffee and juice will be provided.

Workshop participants practise sheets, thank you for sharing.

Peter Gilderdale was our leader for this workshop. A quiet but intense weekend that demanded concentration and the need for us to revisit our analysis skills. We were given several (12th-15th century) excerpts  of cursive every day hands (in latin) to decipher, then we were to develop them into useful useful, readable  hands we could use today.

We just started to find some sort of familiarity when the next alphabet was handed out. Peter was very willing to demonstrate, and was constantly circulating the room to assist with deciphering, and offering helpful suggestions for each one of our problems. 

The calligraphers from Warkworth joined us for the first day of the workshop, our other two travellers were in Auckland for the weekend. Bevan had travelled from Whangarei and Peggy had flown up from Wellington, it was good to see them all again.

Peter showed us how to write one of his favourite letters - 'e'. He covered ground on the basics:- pen grasp, tools, writing positions, hand, arm, shoulder movements and I was reminded how easy it was to let lazy habits take hold.

The last assignment was wicked and playful to arrive in the very last half hour of the weekend, we stared at an extremely intricate document full of cadells, fine decorative pen work and letters made up of oblique squares with the edge of the pen. 

Peter then asked us to select the 3 hands we liked best, all went round and listened to the discussion that followed and the reasons for our choices. Evidence that some of us were still standing. An excellent workshop.

More workshop practise sheets.

August Meeting

For more information please  look through side panel for contacts, times, dates, bookings and whereabouts.

Brief reports from our travellers who have returned from SSiW

Gill provided a few photos from her experiences at Summer School in Winter 2013.

Left to right: Rose, Hillary and Glenice in Melbourne, Olive Bull demonstrating Cnut Charter hand, Cnut practice and example sheet, Maggie and Rose at the Cnut Workshop. I couldn't find a website for Olive but here is the report from Melbourne, click this

Jake Weidmann's photocopied examples

Glenice has provided a few images to post here to show some examples of the tutor's work and what she achieved during the workshop.

Glenice Martin's examples

The above class was led by Jake Weidmann and if you want to see more of his work click here. There will be a fuller report later in our magazine.

Glenice Martin's work.

J.Weidmann's work

Glenice took another class with Heidi Willis, a botanical artist, and to visit her site click here 

There are many reports coming out about the whole event, for an overview 

of the tutors try this link 

Card Workshop

Jan Leonard continued her well planned series developing the use of her earlier calligraphy lessons even further.  As usual her notes for the card making were comprehensive and well thought out. Step by step plans for even the most challenged of us. Personally made cards are more valuable than any you can buy in a shop and the receiver knows that extra skills and time have been spent on them and that you value the family, friendship etc. The photo of Dale's piece shows an explosion or map fold, the card on the left is marked with fold and cutting lines.

Card Making

Come along and join us on the 2nd of July, 6.30 to 9pm

Modernised Gothics

This course will look at how gothic lettering can be adapted into more contemporary scripts, along the lines of the process used for developing the Marisco wine labels. We will start by looking at some more formal and informal gothic scripts and then merge them with elements of non-medieval alphabets in order to come up with new types of script. This process will initially be experimental, but the intention is that you will all be able to develop and apply your own alphabet by the end of the course. Here is the link to Peter's work at the Marisco web site click here

Tutor: Peter Gilderdale

When: August 3rd and 4th, 9am to 4.30pm Saturday, 9am to 4pm  Sunday

Where: upstairs at 48 Windmill Road, Epsom.

Cost: $140 total for the two days. Cheque or direct credit - $40 to enrol (non refundable fee).

Materials: Bring your usual calligraphy gear and if anything special is required we will post it here.

One member's view of the AGM: 

What a pleasant surprise to walk into a full room of people poised for the start of the AGM meeting, way ahead of time (no, I wasn't late), all the tables were set up and the chairs down. More than a baker's dozen which was a great improvement on last year, well done members. A healthy contingency from Warkworth had made the trip down in the dark and the rain, we really appreciated their effort. There was food covering the table down the back and with a few hot drinks we settled into the business. These are not the minutes by the way! All business on the agenda was discussed, new officers elected with more volunteers for the committee. Ideas and solutions were bought forward. After the meeting there was a social chat over a hot drink and the food. Good to see everyone willing and eager. The gilding video started running and I had to leave, with confidence that there was an interesting year planned. Hillary Barnes

The back row

Annual General Meeting

NEW ZEALAND CALLIGRAPHERS
To be held on Tuesday 4 June 2013 6pm at 48 Windmill Road Mt Eden.

Agenda

1. Choosing of Officers for 2013

2. Keeping out of town members in the loop. We would like a discussion about how out of town members could keep in touch better. In the past the liaison person would receive an agenda and minutes of committee meetings. The agenda would allow us to make comment on items coming up and the minutes kept us in touch with decisions made, and up coming events. Today the committee seems to be working more informally as there don’t seem to be agendas or minutes. From the Waikato Group

3. The blog is a great help to us, but not always sufficient. For example Deidre’s visit seemed to have been organised at short notice and we became aware of it on the blogsite only the night before the workshop took place. None of us was able to make the trip to Auckland at such short notice. We had expressed interest in be involved when Deidre came and were disappointed not to be there. While we wouldn’t want to travel to Auckland for an evening regularly, it is not impossible and members have done it in the past. We think it would help if someone on the committee was responsible for keeping in more direct contact with the liaison people. Or do you have any other ideas about how the links could be made stronger for NZCalligrapher members who are not in Auckland. From the Waikato Group

4. Review of Posting News Letters

5.

6.

7.

8. General Business

Please contact us by email if you wish to add any items to the agenda.

The Committee are looking forward to seeing you there.

Breaking News:

Something wonderful is in the planning stages for August, Peter Gilderdale has said yes to teaching us 'Modernising Gothics'. The actual dates are still to be confirmed. If you would like to see an excellent web site that features Peter's labels for the Marisco Wine Company (and I recommend this site) please try this link. Get a taste of these. Make sure you have your sound on as well. 

Update 5.6.13
Keep these dates free, August the 3rd & 4th. The cost for the two days is $140, you will need to provide your own materials and the list will be posted when it has been announced.

Modernised Gothic with Peter Gilderdale.
If you are interested in attending this workshop please contact us.
Subject matter line to be Modernised Gothic, in the email please include your name and phone number. A non refundable deposit of $40 is required, please pay to the New Zealand Calligraphers in the form of a cheque or by direct credit. The account details are in the magazine or in the side bar of this blog, remember to mark with your name. Please let the treasurer know in the email how you are paying to avoid confusion.

Watch this space as information will be relayed as it comes to hand.

The minutes from last years meeting have been posted here to give members planing to attend this year an opportunity to read them before the meeting on the 4.6.13. There are no attachments.

NEW ZEALAND CALLIGRAPHERS 
Annual General Meeting – Changed to a Committee Meeting as not enough for a quorum

Held on Saturday 24 June 2012. 2.25p.m. 

The Tindell Room, Lake House, Takapuna, Auckland.

Presidents welcome and report. Dale-Cormack Pearson

Present: Glenice Martin, Gill Carlsson, Mary Starr, Jan Leonard, Hillary Barnes

Apologies: Ann Cooper, Roselda Stevens, Tom Smith, Theresa Cashmore, Pam Fricker, Merryl Houghton, Margaret Smith, Hilary Lewis, Bevan Holmes.

Confirmation of the minutes of the previous AGM held on 18 June 2011. Typing error made to the constitution in regard to quorum. Not able to hold an AGM at this time until clarification made, need to contact Tom Smith, Dale to do. 
*Added to minutes after clarification with Tom Smith : 5/8^th of the committee members need to present to make a quorum, this is to be added to the constitution before being printed and sent to all current members.
Moved Gill Carlsson seconded Glenice Martin

Presidents Report: 
Read by Dale Cormack-Pearson, copy attached.
Moved: Gill Carlsson 
Seconded: Jan Leonard

Treasure’s Report:
Presented and read by Glenice Martin, copy attached.
Moved: Jan Leonard
Seconded:  Gill Carlsson

Editor Report:  
Moved: Gill Carlsson
Seconded: Jan Leonard

Librarian Report: 
Moved: Glenice Martin
Seconded: Hillary Barnes

Far North Liaison Officer: No report available. To be looked into for future.

Northland Liaison Officer:  No report available. To be looked into for future.

Wellington Liaison Officer:  Maggie Salter to continue in this role. All present agreed.- report read out 

Waikato and Area Liaison Officer:  Pam Fricker to continue in this role. All present agreed  - 
report read out

Warkworth Liaison Officer  Gill Carlsson
All present agreed - report read out

Election of Officers to the committee of the Society;    These members have been co-opted in to these roles. Mary Starr, Hilary Barnes, Jan Leonard, Tom Smith, Roselda Stevens.
Hillary Barnes has been co-opted to be blog editor.
Jan Leonard, Glenice Martin and Dale-Cormack Pearson will assist with workshop arrangements for the time being. Future workshops to be looked into  Dominic Hurly – Spenserian, Deirdre Hassed ?
General Business
Rooms still needed for classes and group meetings in the evenings during the week  Dale to check out Embroiderer's Gild in Mt Eden.
Request from Gill for use of the library for her group up in Warkworth so some of the available books will be moved there for the time being.

Archivist: Barbara Ellis
All agreed

As unable to run an AGM all roles have remained the same for the time being.

Meeting closed at 3.40pm.

Afternoon tea and discussion about making Victorian items for Lake House Exhibition later in the year.

NOTICE OF THE NEW ZEALAND CALLIGRAPHERS 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Our Annual General Meeting will be held at 6.30pm. on the 4th June 2013 at 48 Windmill Road, Mt Eden. We look forward to catching up with all our members, and we value your input and ideas. This is your group and we want you to participate. After the meeting we plan to show a gilding Video. (Viewing should take under an hour). Tea and coffee will be served, please bring a plate to share. There is no charge for this evening. 

Tom Smith is running our class in May, 6.30pm on the 7th May at Windmill Street. Bring yourself, your usual kit and a pointed brush, ideally a #3 or a #4 sable. Paper slightly heavier than zeta may be more suitable as it will handle the ink/paint better - cartridge is OK. 

Report added 30th May. 

Brush Bash

What a great lesson with Tom Smith, learning about brush lettering, even for those of us who had done this before, it was a good refresher. There was a small group of us but that meant quality for us as students - as Tom was able to give us one to one attention. He made it fun for those who had never written with a brush before and so easy to achieve. Starting with the basic strokes and trying to get us all to be regular and even with our strokes. Then we moved onto joining the strokes up to make a basic one-stroke letter. We looked at making our strokes light and then heavy, he even got us to try dry brush lettering. The whole evening was made very interesting by Tom’s wonderful personality, he made us all feel comfortable with brush lettering. Thank you Tom for a great lesson and let’s hope that you will teach us again soon.  Dale- Cormack Pearson.

Margaret Woollett's piece is on the left and Roselda Stevens with her practise piece is on the right.

Paper Rusting

A small experience as an aside from the usual practise of calligraphy, the Easter break found some of us trying paper rusting. This process is almost uncontrollable, after dipping our paper in various chemicals, they were left to dry. The chemicals interacted with each other creating organic patterns.

These are some of the chemicals used. We now have piles of paper to look at and use over the winter. Dale is hanging out her sheets and checking the ones that are dry.

Thank you to Diane Johnson who was there with her camera, now we have a record of the day.

Italics: 

Our April workshop with Jan Leonard is approaching, if you have missed the previous two do not worry, bring along a quotation you like and discover how to arrange it, view the various options and choose the one that you prefer. Start time 6.30pm on April 2nd at Windmill Road, Epsom.

Coming up next month is Brush Bash with Tom Smith, keep the 7th May free. Watch this space for more details.

Members

Our A.G.M. is being held on the 4th June, at Windmill Road. Keep this time free please and do come and make sure your society is run in the best way for all members. We need your input, you count.

First Day Back:  A surprising number of us were ready to get back to calligraphy. Jan Leonard started us really easily by sprinkling some shapes on the floor, I wonder what came next? Then there was a run through the basics and some practise moving letters around with a quote or two. We have homework too and it looks interesting. Jan gave us all a small folded shape and we are to write on a 5cm square with appropriate lettering and bring back to the next meeting, 6.30pm March the 5th at Windmill Road. They will then be exchanged. There is a small charge for this evening, cost for members is $10.

Then we will be under Jan's instruction for the next installment, this one is flourishing, see the earlier post on February 6th for more information.

Barbara with her pen and paper on the first meeting of the year.