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!!

The Book of Jane

I have finished binding my three books for the Cyberscribes' calligraphy book exchange! The calligraphy on the covers was inspired by the terrific lettering of Mark Brooks.

If you would like to see more photos, you can see them in my "The Book of Jane" set at Flickr. Poor Sheba.  I ran out of room and time, but she knows she's the treasured baby of the family.  Here's a little peak at my makeshift book cradle!

Calligraphy Book Exchange

The deadline for the calligraphy book exchange I'm participating in is fast approaching. Yikes! Here are a few of my pages.  This page is a comment on growing up as a Hoosier. (Although I am definitely NOT an I.U. fan!)  Our Japanese exchange student was most impressed by all the basketball goals he saw.  It's true.  Basketball is a big part of Indiana culture.  Evidently, Titivillus was sitting on my shoulder, because I see I accidentally lettered "and" twice in one spot....oops!

Our books are to be autobiographical, so these next few pages are about my family.  I toyed around with Claudine Hellmuth's Poppet style, which is great fun.

I usually have mad love for Arches Text Wove, but this sheet has been a beast.  Maybe it's because I added walnut ink and crumpled it up first, but the calligraphy has been a battle.  My nibs have been picking up fibers with every stroke....grrr!...but, my daughter Rach sure is cute!

I like the style of lettering I did on Matt's page.  I just made it up.  I like the Legende typeface for its long ascenders and descenders, and I had that in mind as I was working.

Hmmm....maybe I should do a page for our sweet, little dog, Sheba!

Calligraphy and Bookmaking - Patience Required

I took a bookbinding workshop with Bonnie Stahlecker a few weeks ago.  We made four different structures in less than 8 hours.  I love it when I leave a workshop with finished pieces. Of course it helped considerably that Bonnie had done most of the measuring and cutting before class. I'd love to have a studio elf whose sole purpose was to get all my supplies ready for me. Unfortunately, I do not have a studio elf.  I had hoped to start and finish 3 books this past week for a calligraphy book exchange in which I'm participating, but I didn't even get close to finished.  You can see what will eventually be my covers and text block.  It is frustrating for me, because I really want to jump ahead and bind the book.  I'm restraining myself, because I need to do all the lettering first.  More patience please!!