Tuesday-7:15am-Calligraphy class

Pink and blue cloudy morning sky yesterday. We did see sunlight come and go.

The wind was so boisterously gusty that I had to weigh everything down on the table and Karma was too spooked to sit at her spy post at the window. She disappeared a couple of times. Eventually I will notice that I haven't seen her for hours (which is unusual). I mean, come on! This is a small one-bedroom apartment. There are only so many places she can hide--LOL! I think she likes me to go looking for her--will not let out a peep as I call for her--and she is always sitting there calmly observing me when I do find her.

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The first time she was lounging inside her stroller where it was parked in the bedroom.

The next time I moved the chair and found her where she had been sleeping under my desk.

It's not like these places are unusual or anything--just that I haven't seen her in her stroller when it's in the bedroom for maybe a year or two. Same thing with lounging under my desk. I guess she likes variety like her owner and eventually rotates her activity choices around given enough time. ROFL!

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Speaking of...I did get out all my old calligraphy stuff. My classroom binder...

...stack of instructional books...

...and my one year's worth of Tabellac Ansatae magazine for calligraphers and bookbinders. Been a few years ago and I discovered that the name of the magazine has even changed. It was put out by John Neal Booksellers and is now called Bound & Lettered.

I have purchased bookbinding supplies from Volcano Arts. A tricky site to navigate, but worth the time. And Paper & Ink Arts carries calligraphy & bookbinding supplies plus all kinds of delightful goodies to drool over.

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I thought maybe you'd get a kick out of some of the class info. Our teacher's name was Mrs. (Jean) Heidenreich and she had been a professional calligrapher for all her adult life. She did the usual--wedding invitations, certificates, wall art--and had worked for a greeting card company for decades. I never thought about greeting cards sayings having been originally hand written. Computers had pushed her out of a job (this was close to 20 years ago) and into early retirement (she defiantly announced, grey curls bouncing, that she wasn't yet 65). But you can see why. Here's a sheet she handed out about common faults.

As you can see by her alphabet sentence on the bottom of the page, her italic calligraphy is so nearly perfect that you wouldn't know it wasn't done by a computer. She was, shall we say, a strict perfectionist. We started out with about ten people and ended up with four of us because the others had dropped out by the third class. One man packed up and walked right out the first night as soon as he discovered she did not allow the use of calligraphy pens and we were required to use dip pens, nibs, and bottled ink. (Quite arrogant for a grade school principal!)

The "alphabet" sentences--so cool! Everyone has probably heard of "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"--well, she had this whole sheet of crazy ones! I loved practicing these and had forgotten all about them until I dug out my class binder--hehe! My favorite one is "He jokingly removed the porcupine quills from the zebra's back with wax".

Remember I mentioned that she insisted we write using an easel? We met in a drafting classroom so that each table had a built in easel. She actually encouraged us to have the easel at a higher angle than shows in this handout. Took some getting used to, but I couldn't believe how it helped with proportions.

Mrs. Heidenreich had a personal table easel that she brought with her each time. Soooo cool! It had a wooden frame with a clear acrylic base. I asked her about it after class. Hers had been handmade to her specifications by a friend and she actually contacted him for her easel-enamored student. He was older and retired, but he did agree to make me one and that is how I purchased my very own personal, handmade, awesome table easel! I guess I should take pictures of that to show you, too, eh? ;) I have used it for a lot more than just calligraphy since then.

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Anyways, here's an example of an assignment I did. Mrs. Heidenreich would make her corrections in pencil so you could clearly see your black ink mistakes. I had a terrible, terrible time with consistency. (Always been a personal failure of mine in numerous areas of my life.)

Our final assignmnets she went over individually with us and didn't mark with pencil so that we could keep our best work pristine. We all worked on these same two projects.

Centering was difficult, too! It's pretty obvious that even after six weeks and a lot of practice my work most definitely would never be mistaken for a computer font--ROFL!!

The class was challenging, informative, frustrating, exciting, and fun! After several weeks Mrs. Heidenreich told me I could call her Jean outside of class (had a difficult time with that). And after the final class (I was always first to arrive and last to leave), she informed me that I "had potential". I was thrilled with such high praise coming from such a tough lady. :)

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I am dreadfully out of practice--but now I have rediscovered the silly alphabet sentences--aha! Fun! I confess that I have cheated since our class all those years ago and have mostly used calligraphy pens since then. Mrs. Heidenreich would be so disappointed in me.

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I'll get pictures of my beloved easel for you. I promise!

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Hope you are having a good week. :):)

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"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead."

Aldous Huxley