Flourish Friday - IAMPETH Reflections: Free Your Hand with Pointed Pen with Barbara Calzolari

 My second day at IAMPETH was spent in Barbara Calzolari's "Free Your Hand with Pointed Pen" class.  It was another great day, as we once again filled pages and pages of practice lettering.

Beautiful Barbara teaching and sharing with the class. I think she is saying something cheeky about American fashion here. :)

 Barbara's work on screen. She is explaining how she releases the tines of the pen at the bottom of a stroke.  Barbara credits the amazing work of Mike Kecseg for inspiring her love of pointed pen variations.

Barbara's delicious work on screen.

Barbara sneaking in some pointed brush and explaining that much of what we are learning can also be accomplished with a pointed brush.

This magnificent "M" of Barbara's is right up my alley. I've enjoyed double stroking letters ever since - years ago - someone shared in a post on Cyberscribes about Martin Jackson's Six Techniques for Calligraphers. Double stroking a letter was one of the six techniques. (I just tried to find that post on Cyberscribes.  It was by Harvest Crittenden in 2005!!)

 Barbara told us a good exercise is to practice letters from very small to very large on lined paper. (Unfortunately, I brought the wrong paper to class, but it was still a good exercise on plain paper.)

 Above, I practiced "Freeing my Hand."

For "Love" I combined some of the double stroking on the "L" 

More in class practice - change of direction on the "G" descender.

I worked on a project this past week where the client had pretty much given me free reign on the design. (Love it when that happens!)  

I enjoyed including some of the things I learned in Barbara's class on the words: something's, about,  to, and take.  

 I also used the opportunity to practice on this past week's "thank you" notes to clients.

 I really enjoyed Barbara's class. We worked through the entire lower case alphabet before lunch and the entire upper case after lunch.  Barbara shared plenty of variations with her students.  Thank you, Barbara! I want to give a special shout-out of thanks to Kathryn Sanchez and Irene Martinez, for going to the office supply store and making copies of Barbara's in-class demonstration pages for their fellow classmates.

The best part of Barbara's class? Sitting next to the pretty, and pretty talented Jody Meese! Miss you, Jody!! (Sorry,  I probably didn't get this posted in time for your morning coffee. haha)

Thank you, all, for visiting.

Go forth and flourish!

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!!