Good Flourish Friday - Mark 10:45

original lettering done with Moon Palace sumi and Zebra G nib

Wishing you a Good Friday and the hope that resurrection Sunday brings!

Happy Easter, Friends!

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - IAMPETH

After seeing THIS POST I had done, Nan DeLuca asked me if I would do something similar for the 2012 IAMPETH Round Robin.  I miss Nan's presence. The online calligraphy community isn't quite the same without her.  I like to do this type of record keeping since I first learned it from Barb Close.  It helps me to remember things I've learned or seen that I would otherwise forget.  All the above elements were either learned at an IAMPETH class or seen in the archives. I like to make grids not only for flourishing elements but also for letters. It is amazing how many different variations you can have for a single letter.

Tomorrow, March 23, 2013 is registration day for IAMPETH members.  If you plan on going to Albuquerque for the convention this summer, then don't forget to register online!  It starts at 11am Mountain Time, which I believe is 1pm Eastern.

For 2013 IAMPETH Convention Information, CLICK HERE!

Even without the Boilers in it, I am having fun watching the NCAA Tournament.  I know some of you have already endured heartbreaking losses, and there have also been some big upsets.  My brackets are a mess!! haha.

Enjoy your weekend...Go forth and flourish!

Flourish Friday - The Calligraphy of Raphael Boguslav

I first became aware of the work of Raphael Boguslav while reading Calligraphic Flourishing - A New Approach to an Ancient Art by Bill Hildebrandt. I've shared before that this book is one of my favorites. (Unfortunately, it is out of print.)  In his Preface, Bill credits a 1982 workshop with Raphael as being one of the motivators for not only his Flourishing Alphabet but also for the book itself.  Within the pages of Bill's book are numerous examples of Raphael's lettering.  Each example is a work of art.  Sadly, Raphael Boguslav died in the summer of 2010 following an accident.

Now, we have the opportunity to help raise funds in order for The Fisher Press in Santa Fe to print a limited edition book of some of Raphael's hand lettered practice pages.  I love the title for this book, Practice Makes Perfect. The short video above explains the fundraising campaign underway at Kickstarter.  If you aren't familiar with Kickstarter, it is a "crowdfunding" website.  It is a fairly new vehicle whereby artists, musicians, filmmakers and other creatives may raise funds to kickstart their artistic dreams.  Kickstarter campaigns allow financial goals to be met through grassroots efforts - such as a bunch of calligraphy lovers joining together to see a book get made.  :)
Watch the short video above and consider becoming a backer for this project.  For as little as $1 you can help get this project funded.  Giving at Kickstarter is done via your regular Amazon account - although you can still give even if you don't have an Amazon account.  Everything is explained on the page of the video above, so be sure to click through. (Or see the link near the bottom of this post.)

This is a wonderful YouTube video of Raphael discussing his life as a graphic designer and calligrapher. You will need to click the link to watch it on YouTube.

Many of you are already familiar with Raphael's work.  In fact, all of you are; you just may not realize it. You can still visit Raphael's website to see what I mean.  View the pages of his logo work (under the "Work" dropdown menu), by CLICKING HERE.  You cannot help but be amazed.

Thanks to Stevieh Hazlitt of The Fisher Press for bringing this wonderful project to my attention.

Following are excerpts from the email Stevieh has sent out to help raise the necessary funds.  Stevieh's words are used with permission:

Dear Jane,

I work at a tiny digital fine art press in Santa Fe, NM  for Christopher Benson, the son and brother respectively of John and Nick Benson who run the John Stevens lettering shop in Newport RI. 

We are publishing a limited edition of a handmade book of facsimiles of some fantastic hand lettered practice sheets drawn by the great graphic designer and calligrapher Raphael Boguslav. Raphael was Christopher's father's best friend, and he died two years ago, at which point the Press made the first copies of this book as a tribute to him. 

We've just launched a kickstarter campaign to raise funds to print this edition and take it to the CODEX fair in Berkeley this winter, and we're trying very hard to get this link out to as many book and calligraphy people as we can.

The little video on the site is quite short at only 4 minutes, so not too onerous a chore to take a look :)

Here's the Kickstarter link:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2021609381/practice-makes-perfect-the-calligraphy-of-raphael 

Any help you might give us in spreading this around would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you so much for your time!

All the best, Stevieh

Stevieh Hazlitt

Assistant  Director at

THE FISHER PRESS

Gallery, Fine Books and Prints

307 Camino Alire

Santa Fe, NM, 87501

505 984-9919

http://thefisherpress.com/

fisherpress@comcast.net

===

If you have any questions about the campaign, please contact The Fisher Press at the links above.
Help spread the word.
Join me in backing and supporting this project honoring one of the best flourishers of our time.
...and go forth and flourish.

Thank you for visiting, and have a great weekend!

200th Flourish Friday and Embossing Tutorial

This is A Place to Flourish's 200th blogpost! That's a wholelotta Fridays, and I appreciate your visits and support these past few years.  To celebrate, I am going to give away the "Put On Love" piece pictured above. As promised, here is a step-by-step of how I did the embossing for this piece originally posted HERE.

The Calligraphy Guild of Indiana hosted Sharon Hanse in 2009 for her Dimensional Calligraphy workshop, which is where I learned this process.  First, you start with a piece of Bristol board.  Pictured above is the brand and style I use.

Sharon had us do our layout on tracing paper, but because I am lazy, I rough out my designs directly onto the Bristol board.  I use a standard #2 pencil.  I didn't happen to take any pictures of the "Love" design when I did these steps, so this morning I did the word "Peace" as an example for this tutorial. As I design, I keep in mind that my stylus will need to fit into the letterforms.  Thins cannot be too thin.

Once I am happy with the design, I use a technical pen and trace over the lines that I will be cutting.  I write "save" or "s" in the areas that will drop out of the design, because I don't want to accidentally throw them away.  I clean up some of the pencil marks with an eraser.

Next, I use an Exacto knife and  cut along the black lines.  I put the "saved" pieces aside for later. (If you think of the word "Peace" written in black ink, it's the black ink that I will NOT be saving. I am saving the white space of the design.) I don't have the time this morning to do all the cutting on this piece, so I am going to switch back to the "Love" design to show you the next steps.

Next, I run glue over the FRONT SIDE (important!) of the stencil/design and then turn the design UPSIDE DOWN onto a piece of fairly transparent layout paper.  I believe I used Canson Pro-Marker layout paper.   I press the Bristol board onto the layout paper, making sure the lettering keeps a nice form.  Then I repeat this same step with the "saved" drop-out pieces.  Once the design is how I want it, I put it under some heavy books until dry.

Once the stencil is firmly adhered to the layout paper, I'm ready to emboss.  I like using Arches Text Wove, Rives BFK, and Canson Mi-Teintes papers when embossing.  If there will be other lettering on the piece, then I may do it first. (or I may not!) :)

IMPORTANT: Turn your paper upside down before you begin embossing.

The embossing will be easier if you put a piece of waxed paper between your good paper and your stylus.  I use these glassine envelopes from the USPS.

Then using the large end of the stylus, I trace along the inside edge of the stencil a few times with medium pressure. If you use too much pressure, especially on the first pass, you  may tear your good paper.  Once I have gone over the stencil a few times with the large end of the stylus, I will switch to the smaller end and repeat.

Finished!

I hope I have clearly explained the process.  If not, and you have questions, just let me know.

To celebrate my 200th post here at A Place To Flourish, I am giving away this "Put On Love" piece. It is a piece based on Colossians 3: 12-14.  

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment in the comments section of this "200th Flourish Friday and Embossing Tutorial" post. (No emails, please. Those of you that subscribe via email will need to go to the actual post at Blogger.)  Be sure to include your first name and at least your last initial in your comment. You have until Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 5pm Eastern Time to enter.  I will use Random.org to choose a winner and announce the winner's name in next Friday's post.

**Update: The "Put On Love" giveaway is now closed. Thank you!**

Thank you for helping me celebrate this milestone!!

Have a great weekend.

Go forth and flourish.

xo

Jane

  

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Sleep in Peace

Happy Flourish Friday!

This is a recent commission for a nursery and is from Psalm 4:8 (NIV).

I hope you enjoy your weekend.

xo

Jane

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. WWW.ZONDERVAN.COM
The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Offices by Biblica, Inc. ™

Flourish Friday - Riding the Storm Out

I was going to blog about something else, but it is going to have to wait until next week. Instead, here are a couple of photos of a recent commission.  (I'm trying to get this post done before the next tornado warning; we've already had two!)

  

I generally letter a piece several times before the final draft.

(I'm still searching for that elusive, golden pen that yields perfection on the first draft.)

hmmmm... 

that ending flourish reminds me of a twister.

Wishing you a safe weekend.

Be prepared.

Here is a link to some tornado safety tips: CLICK HERE

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Ecclesiastes 9:11

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

This is a little snippet from a recent commission. 

Walnut ink and a Zebra G on Stonehenge.

 

Rachel is finished with finals, and Matthew will finish up this evening. I am looking forward to enjoying time with my family and preparing for Christmas. 

Wishing you a happy Friday and a great weekend!

xo

Jane

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. WWW.ZONDERVAN.COMThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Offices by Biblica, Inc. ™

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Poem for Anniversary

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 Two years ago I did a piece similar to this as an anniversary gift for my husband. (You can see it by clicking here.)  A client recently commissioned me to do one for her husband, and as most of you know, I love working white on black!

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

In the past, I have used a soapstone pencil to line black stock, but I used this Fons & Porter Mechanical Fabric Pencil to line this piece. I purchased the pencil from Paper & Ink Arts while at the IAMPETH convention.  The last day of the convention, Paper & Ink reduced the prices on everything in the store.....

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 ....so I also purchased this rolling ruler (Parallel Glider) that I had seen Jake Weidmann use during the IAMPETH round robin.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

It made lining the paper a breeze.  The tip of the fabric pencil fits into the holes of the rolling ruler and made marking the vertical, side margins easy as well.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

All lined and ready to go!

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I used Dr. Martin's Pen White and a Zebra G nib.  Once finished and dry, the pencils lines were erased with a Factis Black eraser.  The client loved the piece and so did her husband! :)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

On another note-

Buffy, with Kuretake UK, conducted an interview with me for the Kuretake ZIG blog. If you're interested, I'd be delighted if you read it by clicking here.

Thank you for your visit to A Place to Flourish!

I appreciate your support.  Have a great weekend!!

xo

Jane

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Bible Verse Commission

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Just a few photos from a commission I did this week. The client is giving it as a birthday gift to her mother.  It's a passage of scripture from Philippians 2.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I did the lettering with Moon Palace Sumi and a Zebra G nib.  This is a pointed pen variation that I created, and I call it "Whimsical."

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I hope you are having a good week. The weather is cool and crisp here in central Indiana.  I love this time of year.  Go put a little flourish in your Friday!

xo

Jane

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. WWW.ZONDERVAN.COMThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Offices by Biblica, Inc. ™

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Santa Croce Design

Happy Flourish Friday everyone!

After viewing Jan Hurst's lovely photos of her vacation to France here,  I remembered that I had taken some photos in the Santa Croce church in Florence.  While all the other tourists were taking photos of the incredible paintings in the church, I was patiently waiting for people to move their feet in order to take photos of the floor. :)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 I made a tracing of one of my photos, put it under my layout paper, and used my light table. I used a Zebra G nib and Moon Palace sumi. (Only because that is what I already had out on my table.)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Just as I passed the halfway point, it dawned on me that Harvest Crittenden had taught us how to copy and flip designs in her Photoshop for Calligraphers online course.

So I did that.  I wish I had thought of doing that before I crossed the halfway point. As you can see, I needed to go in and erase the areas that overlapped and were misaligned.

I cleaned up the overlapping areas in Photoshop. I didn't draw the oval. I added it in Photoshop which was a process Harvest also taught in her course.  I then filled in my flourishing with the same black color as the oval.  However, I think I like the look of the original penwork better, so I think I will go back and change the color of the oval to match the penwork.

I think one of the most important things one can do to foster creativity is to observe your surroundings.

Look around.

Take notice.

Find a way to incorporate your observations into your artwork.

Enjoy your weekend!

xo

Jane

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - IAMPETH Reflections

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

The IAMPETH convention was terrific.  Jenny Muffler picked a fabulous hotel, and she and her crew worked tirelessly for over a year to ensure that all the attendees had an enjoyable experience. Of the 200 or so that attended, about 90 were first timers.  I think that's great. The folks at IAMPETH really go out of their way to welcome newbies - whether they're seasoned lettering artists or pen-rookies.
I hope you'll seriously consider attending the 2012 IAMPETH Convention in Milwaukee (August 6-11).

My first session of the week was "The Artful Flourish" with Heather Victoria Held.  I love dessert, and starting the week with Heather's class was like getting to eat a fabulous dessert at the beginning of a seven course meal.  I've admired Heather's work ever since I received one of her bird flourishes in the first Cyberscribes ATC exchange in April of 2005. Over the years I've continued to be amazed by her beautiful work and light touch. It was a privilege to finally meet Heather, be in her class, and observe her as she worked. I did the piece above in Heather's class. Such fun!!!

To visit Heather's blog, click here.
To visit Jenny Muffler's website, click here.
To visit the IAMPETH website, click here.
To visit the welcome page of Cyberscribes, click here.

My heartfelt thanks to those of you who introduced yourselves to me in Phoenix.  I always enjoy meeting other lettering lovers!
Have a flourishy good weekend everyone!!

Flourish Friday - Gone F(lour)ishing

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Gone Flourishing.

Be back soon.

Have a great weekend...go forth and flourish!

Flourish Friday - IAMPETH Envelope Exchange

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I participated in the annual IAMPETH envelope exchange and have received some incredible envelopes.  One I received did not have a return address, so I am unable to thank the person directly. It was a stiff board lettered in Weaver style lettering - beautiful! Thank you Anonymous!

Above are the envelopes I sent. 

(I removed parts of the address to protect the victims...)

Happy Flourish Father's Day to all the dads out there!

xo

Calligraphy Flourish Friday and Lisa Hopkins

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 Happy Flourish Friday! Here is a little flourish for you. I used Dr. Martin's Pen White and a Zebra G nib.

Recently I had the great pleasure of meeting Lisa Hopkins of Lisa Hopkins Design.  I was first acquainted with Lisa back in 2005 when we both participated in the Cyberscribes' monthly ATC (Artist Trading Card) exchanges.  I learned Lisa had just moved to Indiana, and she had joined the Calligraphy Guild of Indiana.  Over the years I kept bumping into Lisa and admiring her work through Cyberscribes and CGI exchanges.  Lisa launched her own business several years ago making unique and custom designed jewelry - much of which incorporates her beautiful lettering. 

Lisa Hopkins

 When I learned Lisa would have a booth at the Indiana Artisan Marketplace in Indianapolis, I was eager to meet her and see her work first hand. This is Lisa! She is as sweet as she looks. I was so happy to finally meet Lisa after all these years! 

Necklace and Earrings by Lisa Hopkins Design

I am now a happy Lisa Hopkins Design customer! This is the necklace and earrings I purchased from Lisa. I love this quote - an adaptation from Thoreau's "Walden." It would also make an excellent gift for a young woman's graduation; don't you think? It's such a unique design, and I love wearing it.  It makes my head hurt just thinking about how Lisa gets her lettering to look so fine on such small pieces.  

To see more of Lisa's fabulous work, visit her website by clicking here.

This year Lisa is designing a new ring each week which you can check out on her blog by clicking here.

You can purchase Lisa's designs at her Etsy shop by clicking here.

Have a great weekend!
So glad this post did not get lost amidst all the Blogger problems!

400th Anniversary of the King James Bible and the Folger Shakespeare Library - Calligraphy Flourish Friday

I was contacted by Swim Design Consultants seeking permission to use the above flourish. Swim Design was hired by the Folger Shakespeare Library to create a website celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.  The website has officially launched, and I'm very honored to have my little flourish be part of such a wonderful project!

The designers at Swim Design did an outstanding job creating and launching the site: 

 http://www.manifoldgreatness.org/

Any lover of calligraphy, the King James Bible, printing, history, or the lettering arts in general will enjoy visiting the site and exploring the pages and pages of interesting facts, informative "how to" videos, and slideshows of early bible manuscripts. The Folger Library also has a very nice blog which you can access from the Manifold Greatness website. I found it all very fascinating, and the "Kids" section is awesome. I love the video of the kids learning how to cut a quill.

Learn more about Swim Design Consultants by clicking here.

(You can view my flourish on the Crossword interactive page in the kids' section, which can be accessed by clicking here.)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Here is a flourish I did this past week for a client job. It's a pretty large flourish (for me at least) at about 6 inches in length. 

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I designed the second, companion flourish to be a little smaller - about 4 inches.
These flourishes were fun to do.  I'm happy with how the piece turned out and, thankfully, so is the client!  

Just a note to let you know I am praying for those of you that have had an extremely difficult week.

xo Jane

Merry Christmas!!

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 Merry Christmas!!!

This is the design I came up with for our Christmas cards this year.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I first tried (and failed) to letter "Merry Christmas" straight off with pen and ink.  The descending and ascending strokes were not playing nicely together, and the result looked like a tangled strand of Christmas lights.  So I pulled out my trusty pencil and some tracing paper to try and work out the problem areas.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 Then holding my breath, I went back to the pen and ink. (Actually, I do better if I slowly exhale...) I used Moon Palace Sumi and a vintage Gillott Principality nib. The script is not of any particular style, although I did try to include some of things I learned from Bill Lilly in the capital M and C.  I wanted to incorporate little, holly leaves in the M and a little jewel like ornament in the C.  I then scanned and reduced my lettering on the computer and printed a smaller version using my HP printer and its carbon based, Vivera ink (black #92).

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 Next, I burned a master on my B6 Print Gocco and applied the ink. (Gocco ink for paper; color: silver)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Unfortunately, the fine detail of the holly leaves and jewel ornament were lost on the Gocco. They look more like blobs. :)  The flourish on the far left didn't burn completely.  If you scroll back up to the first photo, you can see where I've tried to camouflage the blobs and skipping line.

I had ordered what I thought would be beautiful, blue paper for the silver ink. Unfortunately, the blue was not a good match.  The silver was too difficult to see on the blue.  I like silver on black, so I did a bunch of prints on black paper.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Of course I had to try printing on many, different papers and envelopes.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

  I quickly ran out of drying racks and soon had every available surface in my studio covered! :)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 Some of you may remember the front design from a post I did last year.

(To see that post, click here.)

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!! 

May 2011 bring happiness, good health and beautiful flourishes!

XOXO

Jane

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Trinket Bird

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I am saddened of the recent and sudden passing of Mike Meador of Coffee Break Designs.  The news made me long to dig into my stash of Coffee Break quirkiness.  Mike always carried the most unique items. My daughter and I loved going to the annual Coffee Break Designs warehouse sale. He and his family were always so warm and welcoming. I made the piece above using an ATC sized piece of acrylic I bought from Mike.  I've always liked this saying.

Here is another Coffee Break treasure.

I painted the spacers and covered the bird and its base with some of my flourishing which I had scanned and printed.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

 I added a little, red heart salvaged from an old earring. The earring was in a giant bag of old jewelry my daughter bought at a vintage clothing shop in Broad Ripple.  I think Mike would have liked that.  

I know for certain he is enjoying his eternal reward.

Today would have been my mom's 79th birthday. She too is enjoying the party of all parties.

Don't just enjoy your weekend dear friends; enjoy your life.

(((Big Hugs)))

Jane