Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Wet Paint

Happy Friday friends!  This is going to be a quick post. It's actually Thursday night as I type this.  We are having our house painted. They weren't suppose to start until next week, but we're happy they are ahead of schedule.  But...so much for having Saturday and Sunday afternoons to prepare my studio for having the windows open!  It's been a mad dash today getting the house ready and moving the essentials of my studio down to the basement.  So...here's an "in progress" peek at a client piece--a wedding certificate--I did a few weeks ago.

Enjoy your weekend.
Wishing all the dads, including my own and my children's, a very Happy Father's Day!

Go forth and flourish!

xo

Jane

Calligraphy for New York Wedding Certificate - Flourish Friday

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

For your Flourish Friday, here is a peek at a recently commissioned wedding certificate I created.  In an effort to keep her cost down, the bride had me do it all in black. I think the all black gives the certificate a very classic and elegant look.

©Jane Farr Calligraphy & Design LLC

I used gouache, technical pens, a vintage Gillott Principality, Zebra G, brushes, and a ruling pen.

I wish you all a bit of tranquility during this crazy time of year.

Happy weekend!

Fraktur Quaker Wedding Certificate

I created this Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur - Quaker style wedding certificate for sweet, bride Margaret. You can read more about it and see more photos of the certificate on my wedding blog by clicking here.

Hobby Lobby just opened a new and BIGGER store within walking distance of me.

(My poor husband, Tom, has every reason to worry!)  I tried to behave, but they had these great, flourishy mugs for 50% off!

I thought $5 was reasonable for all this flourishy goodness!

Happy Flourish Friday.

I hope it is cooler where you are than it is in Indiana!

Enjoy your weekend. :)

Finished Quaker Wedding Certificate

I'm happy to report my client loved both the calligraphy and the illustrations for her Quaker style wedding certificate.  yay!  She wanted the certificate to have a Pennsylvania Dutch feel to it. I enjoyed creating it.  For me, there's always that hold-my-breath moment as I wait for a client's reaction to a commissioned piece.  It felt wonderful when she said, "Can I give you a hug?"  I love doing what I do!! You can see more photos of this certificate here.

My Work Table Overfloweth

Years ago I learned a handy tip from my first calligraphy teacher, Ellen Simon.  She told me whenever working on a piece of paper that extends beyond my working surface, to slit a large wrapping paper roll and put it over the edge of my work table.  This technique prevents the paper from getting creased as I lean over the paper while working.  It gives the paper a nice curve to wrap around.

I am working on a Quaker style wedding certificate.  The bride and groom have designed a special mark, or seal, with their initials and a cross.  They wanted their seal incorporated into the piece.  I've masked off the rest of the certificate hoping to protect it.  (Otherwise this will become another "finished rough" draft!)

They wanted the seal to have a 3-dimensional look.  The bride provided a grayscale image of the seal, which helped immensely in determining how to accomplish a 3-D look.

The bride is of German descent, so I did the calligraphy for their names to reflect her heritage. The rest of the lettering is done in a modified copperplate.

I still have the border and illustrations to do.  The groom is from Texas, so there will be a few stars of Texas worked in for him.

I hope you'll check back Friday for this week's flourish!

Flourish Friday

Here are 3 flourishes for your viewing pleasure. Each one is a detail shot taken from my Quaker Wedding Certificate shown in yesterday's post.  I learned to make the top and bottom flourishes--or cartouches really--from Pat Blair.  Pat is the head calligrapher at the White House, and she is an incredible calligrapher and a very, nice lady. 

I based the flourish below on one I saw in The Universal Penman.  I love that book!  It is chock-full of beautiful, pointed pen examples.

The mica watercolors really sparkle and shine.  I had to continually mix the color, but it flowed well from the pen and yielded good thicks and thins.

Check back next Friday for another flourish!

Quaker Wedding Certificate

I have been working on wedding envelopes for clients all week, so I haven't had time to experiment with other projects.  Here is a sample calligraphy project I finished a few weeks ago.  It is a Quaker Wedding Certificate, or at least it's loosely based on the Quaker tradition.

I really liked working with the mica watercolors.  They are sparkly!  I got the "Vintage" set from Brenda at Paper and Ink.  You can find the set here.  The Copperplate majuscule O has always been rather boring to me, so I am always looking to expand my O repertoire.  I like the O I used on this certificate.

I used my own wedding information for the sample.  I made our names a little larger, in a different color, and in a more formal style - but I still don't think there is enough contrast.  Next time, I would do the names larger and in a different color - maybe rust instead of the gold.

I have a couple of larger, commemorative wedding pieces to do for clients in the coming weeks, and this was good practice.  I hope you're able to click on the photos to make them larger.  I am still struggling with adding images to my posts.  Hopefully you can click on the title of this post, and it will take you to more photos of this sample Quaker wedding certificate over at Flickr.

Check back tomorrow for a closer look at the flourishes!

Drafting and Calligraphy in Full Circle

My dad gifted me his old drafting set. (Let's just say he can take a hint...)

He used it during his undergrad days at Purdue University and then as a Professional Engineer. I've played with one of the ruling pens before just to try some expressive calligraphy, but this week I've been using the compasses for some wedding calligraphy pieces.  As I was working, I remembered that in elementary school I could never remember which was the compass and which was the protractor. 

Here is a peek at one of the calligraphy pieces on which I'm working.  I say it's wedding work, but I think the text would be applicable to many relationships not just marriage.  I have put the "love is" verses of 1 Corinthians 13 in my own words and am lettering the text on a round of watercolor paper.  I'm going in circles, but enjoying every minute of it.

Here is a peek at another piece on which I am working.  Lately, I have received many requests regarding Quaker style marriage certificates.  For this type of certificate, the guests at the wedding sign the certificate as witnesses and supporters to the union.  I think it's a beautiful tradition. I decided I needed to have a sample on hand, so I am using my husband's and my wedding information for the text.  I am going to do the border with off-hand flourishing.

It was wonderful to use my dad's compass for the border line and then to letter his name on the certificate.  It was a coming "full circle" kind of moment for me!