Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Field Trip

Don't you just love the look and feel of letterpress? This past Saturday -- along with fellow calligrapher, Kathy LaPorte, and stationer, Ghega Scolari -- I took a two-stop field trip to Franklin, Indiana.  It was a beautiful day, and our first stop was the Event Crashers open house.

Jay Williamson is the owner of Event Crashers Letterpress.  Above, Jay explains the process of printing on his original Heidelberg press.

I've worked on many wedding jobs that incorporated Jay's letterpressed pieces in their invitation suites.  He takes great pride in his craft and does excellent work.  

Although Jay has been in the offset printing business for many years, he didn't realize until a few years ago what a big demand there was in the wedding industry for letterpress. (Above left to right) Kathy, Ghega, and Nikki Pulfer discuss letterpress printing.  Nikki is a talented graphic designer and the one responsible for convincing Jay to blow the dust off his family's 120 year old Chandler & Price press. 

Jay demonstrates the letterpress process by printing some sample notecards on the Heidelberg.

Pretty!

Jay explains this press has been in his family for generations and is over 120 years old.  It was originally steam powered. 

It is a Chandler & Price and was converted to electric power in the 1920s.

Last year I hired Jay to print these notecards for me.  He letterpressed them on his Chandler & Price. I love, Love, LOVE them. 

A new generation begins.  Jay's son, David, prepares to print notecards for their open house guests. 

My name in type. Upside and backwards. (Somedays that is exactly how I feel!) :)

I love that the Williamsons take such pride in their family's craft and have passed it down from generation to generation.  In the photo above, David measures to be certain the type is properly centered prior to printing on their handpress.

Gifts are my Love Language!! Thank you Jay and David for the lovely notecards.

Event Crashers also does foil stamping.

Elegant!

Sample table featuring Event Crashers Letterpress products, many of which were designed by Nikki Pulfer.  

The second stop on our field trip was at Dolphin Papers.  I had not been to Dolphin Papers since they moved from the Fountain Square area of Indianapolis, and it was wonderful to see all their beautiful papers in person again.

Ed Funk of Dolphin Papers relieves Kathy and Ghega of their money. :)

So many beautiful papers all organized by color.

Most of Dolphin Papers' business comes from their webstore.  They sell a variety of paper for artists: decorative, watercolor, digital, and printmaking papers are their specialty.

Ghega, Ed and me in Ed's studio space.  He was working on some amazing, large canvases. Thanks to Ed for making us feel so welcome and giving us an inside look at Dolphin Papers.  

I've always loved field trips!

To learn more about letterpress and Event Crashers, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about Dolphin Papers, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about designer Nikki Pulfer, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about stationer Ghega Scolari, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about calligrapher Kathy LaPorte, ask me, because she doesn't have a website. :)

Go forth and flourish!

xo

Jane

Artiscape - Calligraphy Flourish Friday

This evening my daughter, Rachel, and I will leave to attend Artiscape. I can't wait! We went two years ago and had an absolutely wonderful experience.  Artiscape is the creative retreat organized by the lovely and talented Lisa Ohmer of European Papers located in Columbus, Ohio.

The above lettering was done with sumi and a Spencerian No. 1 nib, then scanned and hacked at in Photoshop Elements. :)

I was first introduced to Lisa Ohmer back when I was really into ATCs (Artist Trading Cards).  Teri Martin had started a monthly ATC exchange on Cyberscribes which I really enjoyed. Then I joined some Yahoo! ATC groups which promoted Lisa Ohmer's House of Cards exhibit.  Lisa requested and received hundreds of ATCs for the traveling exhibit. One of my ATCs was chosen for the poster. (3rd row, 4th from left) Then a year later she put together the House of Cards II exhibit, and I was lucky enough to have a card featured on that show poster too. (Very bottom, right)

In 2008, Lisa organized "Playing with a Full Deck." Lisa created and provided the base playing cards and then asked artists to take it from there.  She chose 54 cards for the exhibit posters, and two of mine are on the poster on the right. (Bottom row, center and bottom row, far right)

This is my "passport" necklace for the weekend.  There were so many, great classes offered that it was difficult to choose.  I am taking a class with encaustic artist Trish Baldwin Seggebruch.  I've been wanting to learn how to incorporate encaustic with my calligraphy.   I have Trish's book and DVD, and I'm really looking forward to her class.  Rachel is taking a bookmaking class with lettering artist Carol Kimball. We are both taking two classes with lettering artist Jacqueline Sullivan - a watercolor background class and a mini book class.

The thing I like most about Artiscape is that the instructors provide most of the supplies needed for their class.  Students just bring a Basic Took Kit, which includes items most artists already have in their studios.  It's so nice not to have to haul a ton of stuff.  (Although I'm sure the instructors have to rent U-Hauls.)  If you are going to be attending Artiscape 2010, please let me know - I'd love to meet you!

To learn more about Lisa Ohmer and Artiscape, click here.

To learn more about ATCs, click here.

To learn more about encaustic and Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch, click here.

To learn more about Jacqueline Sullivan, click here.

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes for Matt's 18th birthday. He had a great one!

Go forth and flourish!

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Jan. 29th

This Friday's flourish is one I tried to duplicate from page 157 of The Universal Penman by George Bickham.   It was a tough one for me.  I should speed up to reduce the wiggles, but when I speed up my pen starts doing things and going places I don't want!

IAMPETH has mailed the 2010 convention information to all members.  If you like pointed pen work, I encourage you to join IAMPETH. You can visit the IAMPETH site here.  The convention looks as though it will be another good one.  Non-members will be able to view and register for the convention on February 19th.

Although we have not yet received official word on Madiana and her family specifically,  today we have learned that her child development center was moderately affected by the Haiti earthquake.  This means her center was located outside a zone officially reported as severe and the center has not reported any deaths.  The center has reported damage to homes and center facilities, but this is reason to believe that Madiana is alive and well.  Thank you so much for your prayers, and I will post when we hear specific word about Madiana.   I understand that specific news may take a very long time to reach us.

I see A Place to Fourish will be celebrating its 1st anniversary next week!  I think it's time for me to have my first giveaway.  hmmmm.... I will have to think of something flourishy to create.  Thank you all for taking the time to visit, read, comment and email me.  Blogging has been a wonderful experience.  I have met so many warm and wonderful people. Check back next week for the Anniversary Giveaway.

Go forth and flourish!

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Hodgepodge

This is a journal entry I did a few months back. It's a nod to www.snopes.com. A site I've used over the years to determine if something on the internet is legitimate or not. The site staged its own little hoax about the children's nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence. You can read about it here. I find it extremely difficult and frustrating to verify and make proper attributions for quotes on the internet.

This is a new entry in my Moleskine journal. I have been trying to get my studio organized. I have different jobs and projects going on, and I feel as though my studio is the inside of a pinball machine. (and I'm the ball!)

A menu card I did this week.

This week's flourish was inspired by this post at The Calligraphy Pen Blog. I love A. Lucas and Wolfgangcat's tutorials. After creating a border following the wonderful step-by-step instructions, I wanted to try a variation with a pointed pen. I hope you like it.

Go Forth and Flourish! :)

Flourish Friday - Immanuel

May the week ahead be filled with celebration!

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" —which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23

Put a little flourish in your Friday. My best to each of you!

Flourish Friday - Calligraphy Christmas Tree

For today's Flourish Friday, I wanted to do something festive!

I saw this beautiful, calligraphic Christmas tree on page 105 of Bill Hildebrandt's book Calligraphic Flourishing: A New Approach to an Ancient Art. Isn't it a beautiful design? I used my graph paper transparency to assist in the layout. I then put my layout rough onto my light table, placed my good paper over the rough and did the flourishing.

I added some touches of color to give it a more festive feel.

After 25 years, I got hair cut short! I didn't realize how long my hair had grown until my stylist said, "I think you have enough for Locks of Love." Actually, at 9" it was an inch short for LOL, but my stylist knew of a place in Mississippi that takes any ponytails over 6". So, I pray my hair is being used by Pink Heart Funds to brighten some one's life. To learn more about Pink Heart Funds, or how to "Share Your Hair" click here.

Put some Flourish in your Friday - have a great weekend everyone!

Calligraphy and Zentangles

This is from one of my handouts for the Zentangle program I did for my calligraphy guild last month. Zentangles are wonderful images created by repetitive patterns. Each pattern is called a "tangle" and is achieved by following a certain set of instructions. As pictured above, I think Zentangles work well with Neuland, Lombardic Versals, and Contemporary Caps.

Here I am trying to explain what a Zentangle is. A traditional Zentangle is done on a 3.5" x 3.5" tile. You can learn more about Zentangles at the website of founders Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts by clicking here. Once there, you can sign up for a free, monthly newsletter. Most issues of the newsletter feature a new "tangle" to learn. You can find all the old tangles in the newsletter archives.

Members from the Calligraphy Guild of Indiana giving Zentangles a try.

CGI has a great guild. There were over 30 people in attendance.

This is our guild's secretary, Karen Paradiso, working on her Zentangle. I seem to only be allowed 5 photos per post. If you would like to see more, including the Zentangley Christmas card I made for 2008, please visit my Zentangle album over at Flickr here. My thanks to the wonderful Wendy Dougherty for sharing her photos with me! You can also check out the very, talented Erica McPhee's blog to see what she learned at a "Zenspiration" workshop with Joanne Fink here.

Flourish Friday - November 20th

After 4 straight days of cold, rainy and just plain GLOOMY weather, I am already dreamy of Spring, sunshine and butterflies! This little guy was fun to do. This was done on Canson Pro White Layout paper, but I think I'd like to do another on watercolor paper and then jazz it up with some color.

I did this flourish to go on the flap of an envelope, but turned on its side like this, it makes for a nice corner flourish.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

You cannot tell very well from this image, but "CREATE" is embossed. I used sumi for the outline and a Sakura Micron Pigma pen for the background design. I am doing a program on Zentangles for my calligraphy guild tomorrow. I want to show everyone there are many ways they can incorporate Zentangles with their calligraphy.

Do something to put a little Flourish into your Friday. Have a great weekend everyone!

Flourish Friday - Ornamental Fraktur Calligraphy

For this week's Flourish Friday, I tried my hand at Ornamental Fraktur. Believe it or not, this is the letter A.

I used some blue ink that was packaged with the pen my husband bought me in Venice. (You can see that glass pen in an earlier post here.)

I used my 6mm Pilot Parallel Pen. I filled a spent cartridge with a Monojet syringe. I like the Parallel Pen for practice. It is easier for me to get consistent thins from this tool than it is from a broad edge dip pen.

My reference was chapter 6 from Bill Hildebrandt's wonderful book "Calligraphic Flourishing." Some Flourish Friday I'll have to show you the Whopperplate I bought from Bill! :-)

I hope you're all Flourishing out there! Have a great weekend!!

Flourish Friday - Christmas Card Panic

This is the front of our family Christmas card I made for 2007. It dawned on me yesterday that I haven't even thought of a design for this year's card - yikes! - I better get on that pronto.

I want to thank the wonderful and talented Lisa Holtzman for this "Best Blog" award. I love Lisa's art work including, but not limited to, her calligraphy. Check out her blogs - she has two - and be inspired. For Lisa's main blog click here. For Lisa's calligraphy only blog click here. Thanks Lisa!! It's humbling to know someone with Lisa's talent is inspired by my blog. It makes my heart sing!!

I hope everyone will find a way to add a little flourish to their Friday!

Flourish Friday with Bill Lilly

I have been doing wedding work all week and haven't played with any new flourishes. Instead of my work, today's Flourish Friday features the amazing work of Master Penman William Lilly. How about this gorgeous envie he sent me this week?! His Old English and Engrosser's Script are stunning. These next three photos show you why Bill is famous for his Engrosser's Script.

My family had the pleasure of visiting Bill and his wife, Sandy, at their home this past summer. We had a great time. Bill treated us to demonstrations of his script writing as well as his paper cutting. He can cut the most intricate and amazing shapes out of paper - all freeform, no guide lines. Tom, Rachel, Matt and I were amazed. The walls of Bill's studio are filled with examples of his work as well as the work of others from around the world. Bill has inspired and instructed many people over the years.

This is a peek at a copy of Bill's Flourished Capitals Exemplar. This photo doesn't do it justice. It is full of beautiful and elaborate details. Bill is selling color copies of this exemplar on his blog. Order yours today by clicking here. To visit the main page of Bill Lilly's blog, click here.

Here I am with the incredible Mr. Lilly. In good weather he bikes up to 25 miles per day. He also loves to rollerblade. He's a woodworker and makes beautiful oblique pens. I really look up to Bill. He's a great encourager and friend. Wishing you all a Flourished Friday!