Hymns That Last - Page 5

Hello! I hope this finds you well.  After a month of reruns/reposts, this is new material.  Pictured is the fifth page in my Hymns That Last journal:  Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken by John Newton (1779) 

5 down, 22 to go!

To see the first page, CLICK HERE.

To see the second page, CLICK HERE.

To see the third page, CLICK HERE.

To see the fourth page, CLICK HERE.

The full list can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Don't forget you are welcome to follow me on Instagram.  I have been regularly posting images of my calligraphy there.  My username is: carmelscribe

I'm so use to saying, "Enjoy your weekend!" but it's only Wednesday :) .....still.....

Go forth and flourish!

xo

Jane

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 - Bookbinding

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

This is a little book structure I made recently under the patient instruction of Sharon Turrini.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

The spine was a thin piece of wood which I painted brown.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

It's a great structure for incorporating a cool, vintage button.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I haven't decided yet whether to fill the pages with writing or not.

I have been out of the studio. 

If you have tried to contact me, I appreciate your patience. 

I will be back in the swing of things very soon.

Have a great weekend!!

Flourish Friday - Calligraphy from Around the World

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I hope all of you in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  I am happy all four of us are home together (oops, five - sorry, Sheba!) for the first time since August.  Now, if I can just escape the laundry room and kitchen long enough to enjoy the kids before they head back to university...

This past week I was informed that A Place to Flourish was chosen as one of "40 Fantastic Calligraphy Blogs" by Web Design Schools Guide - what an honor!  You can read the article and see the other 39 sites on the list by clicking here.  Explore their blog to see and read other interesting articles, such as "50 Best Blogs for Watercolor Artists."

Another great site for exploring the World Wide Web for calligraphy is the link page of Lettergekletter.  Thanks to Lejla Kollar for bringing this site to my attention several months ago.  You can browse calligraphy sites by country.  Although the list is not exhaustive, it is pretty comprehensive.  Go to Calligraphy From Around the World by clicking here.

Go Forth and Flourish!!

Ornamental Fraktur - Flourish Friday

While waiting for some client work to dry, I decided to give Ornamental Fraktur another go.  Two and a half hours later the client's piece was ready for the next stage, but I was still playing! 

iFriend Deborah asked me if Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White works in a parallel pen.  I hadn't tried it before, but I didn't see why it wouldn't work.  So today's Flourish Friday shows ProWhite (which is similar to Dr. Martin's) loaded into the barrel of a 1.5mm Pilot Parallel Pen (PPP).  I bought a jar of ProWhite after hearing several calligraphers say they like it better than Dr. Martin's. I tried it, but just couldn't get the consistency right. I much prefer Dr. Martin's.  I hate to waste anything, so I'm happy that the ProWhite works well in the PPP.  I did keep a little jar of water nearby to dip the tip of the PPP in every once in awhile to keep the ProWhite flowing.

To read my post about loading the barrel of a PPP, click here.

To see more Ornamental Fraktur play click here and here.

Calligraphy Flourish Friday and Paste Paper Book

This is a page from my paste paper book I started at the Greater Cincinnati Calligraphy Guild's workshop with Marianne Burke.  Marianne's work is gorgeous. (Sorry, couldn't find a blog or website for Marianne.) She brought many of her books for inspiration and guidance. Marianne, and all the ladies from GCCG, were so warm and welcoming as were the folks from Tiger Lily Press, where the workshop was held.  There was also a group from the Cincinnati  Book Arts there.  I love how calligraphy crosses over into other art forms. There's so much to learn!

My daughter, Rachel, is  taking a peek at my book.  Thanks to Jo Diamantes for sending me this photo. Rachel and I brought paper we had made at a workshop a few years ago.  Of course we ended up falling in love with some of the paper GCCG had for sale and had to buy a few sheets.  Rachel made 3 books at the workshop. I didn't even get one finished. I think I spent too much time drooling over Marianne's work!

Another page.  Marianne taught us how to include windows, embossing, debossing and other interesting elements in our books.  She said, "Never throw anything away."  Ahhhh, a kindred, art pack rat!!

Happy Flourish Friday! Even though it's March 5th, I'd still like to say...

March Fourth and Flourish!

Flourish Friday - Giveaway!

A Place to Flourish celebrated its 1st Anniversary yesterday! Big hugs and sincere thanks to everyone who has shared this blogging experience with me.   I've so enjoyed making new friends who share a love for calligraphy, and I've been encouraged by all your comments.  To celebrate and share my appreciation, I am having my first giveaway. Yay!  Above is a little piece I did yesterday to include in the giveaway. I hope the winner will put it somewhere special to remind them that no matter where they are it can be A Place to Flourish.

These are the other bits of happiness in the giveaway. I tried to collect things that have been featured in various Flourish Friday posts this past year.  Moving clockwise, in addition to the "Flourish" piece will be a 2009 embossed Farr family Christmas card, flourished square border, page of photocopied Christmas mandalas, Psalm 16:11,  nib container, watchmaker's tin, wisdom stone, page of flourished ladies, flourished birthday cake, flourished Christmas tree, a copy of the Zentangle handouts I created for my local calligraphy guild, a mandala, a flourished butterfly card and envelope, and a "Jane Farr Calligraphy" folder to hold everything together.  

Here's how to enter:

Simply post a comment on this post below and include at least your first name.  If there was a particular post you enjoyed this past year, I'd love to know about it.  The deadline to enter is Thursday, February 11th at 3pm Eastern Time.  I will then randomly draw a winner using random.org.  One comment per person please. Anyone can enter!  International entries welcome!

......on to other important things....I do love Drew Brees. He's a Purdue guy afterall and took us to the Rose Bowl.  I am happy for him and the city of New Orleans, but Superbowl Sunday I'll be rooting for my Colts and my city....Go Colts!!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway by posting a comment.

Good luck and go forth and Flourish!!

Jane