Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Envelope Drying Racks

 Happy Friday, Friends. This week I was asked about the drying racks I use.  I use a few different kinds.

I really like the Print Gocco drying racks by RISO.  They come packaged two to a box. Each rack holds 20 pieces.  I bought mine locally and also from Northwoods Studio, but you can find them on Etsy, too.

The Gocco racks are nice because they hold most standard size envelopes...

...as well as small pieces.  These racks work great for escort cards, place cards, name badges, tags, etc. They also stack on top of each other when not in use, so they can be stored easily.

 Some pieces do not work in the Gocco racks. For abnormally thick envelopes, boxes, very large envelopes, etc. I use a wire Compact Disk holder.  

I bought this one from Paper & Ink Arts, but I didn't see it in their catalog or on their website.  (No one buys CDs anymore, so they probably quit making holders for them.)

  

 You can find wire CD holders online or at Goodwill.  I like holders that accommodate big pieces like these mat and foam core boards. Not all wire CD holders would work for these pieces, but it looks as though Rolodex makes a 30 count holder that would work. 

 My wire CD holder does not work for small pieces.

These racks were given to me. They had been used as phone message holders in an office and were going to be thrown away.

This drying rack was given to me by my sister. It's the kind that is used in pre-schools for drying artwork.  I use it for drying pieces from my Print Gocco, Gelli Printing Plate, or for large, thin pieces such as these wraps for wedding invitation boxes.

This rack was given to me, and although I use it for other things, it doesn't work for drying envelopes or place cards.  It's too narrow and it also causes the pieces to fall against the wire. (Not such a good thing when the ink is wet...) Some have suggested stretching one of those hard, plastic Slinky type toys and fixing it on either end.  I haven't tried that, but if it worked, it would be an inexpensive drying rack.  

For Print Gocco drying racks from Northwood Studios, CLICK HERE and then click on "Accessories." You can also find them at Etsy by searching for: RISO Print Gocco drying rack.

I hope this information helps!   If you have found another drying system that works, then please leave a comment so others can learn about it.  Thank you.

Enjoy your holiday weekend.

Go forth and flourish!

xo

Jane

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Real Wedding: Donald + Mallory

It's bridal season! There's not much going on in my studio except wedding work. Here is a peek at a wedding from earlier this year for which I enjoyed doing the calligraphy. 

The colors are a bit distorted in my photos. The lettering was done in a light, creamy yellow.

Photographer, Jessica Strickland, was kind enough to give me permission to post some of her wonderful images.  You can view more images from the wedding at Jessica's blog: HERE.

The beautiful wedding was planned by expert Darcie Kornmeyer of Circle City Planners. 

The talented Jill Sowder of Westwood Paper designed the couple's monogram and handled all the stationery for the big event.  You can view the invitations on my wedding calligraphy blog: HERE.

It was a pleasure working with Jill and Darcie and of course the gorgeous bride, Mallory, and her handsome groom, Donald.  The following film was created for Donald and Mallory by Jet Kaiser of Jet Kaiser Films. I think it's beautiful and touching. 

Mallory + Donald {a wedding short} from Jet Kaiser Films on Vimeo.

May I just say that wedding videos have come a looooong way since Tom and I were married?!!! :) Congratulations to Donald and Mallory; best wishes to a lovely couple.

Back to my October weddings...

Go forth and flourish!

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Put on Love

Here's a peek at a piece on which I've been working.  

It is based on Colossians 3: 12-14.  

Put on Love. 

Wishing everyone a terrific and reflective Memorial Day weekend.

((Hugs))

Jane

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Capital E

This job proves that exercises such as the one I posted this past Friday come in handy.

The bride and groom had three capital E's between them.  They wanted each "E" on their wedding invitation to be unique.

I love making E's, and "Elizabeth" is an especially great name to letter.

Happy Flourish Friday!!

Calligraphy Flourish Friday - Song of Solomon

Summer is zipping by, isn't it?!

I did this piece several months back, but in honor of wedding season, I thought I'd post it today.

"My beloved in mine, and I am his." Song of Solomon 2:16 (King James Version)

The piece was done with walnut ink on handmade watercolor paper.  I love working with walnut ink.  I buy the crystals from Paper and Ink Arts and then add water. 

A close up.

I hope this past week was a good one for you and wish you a wonderful weekend!

Calligraphy Flourish Friday

Sorry for such a quick post for today's Flourish Friday.  I have had my nose to the wedding work grindstone.  I haven't been able to get around and read my favorite blogs, plus it's hard to be in the studio when it is so beautiful outside!  But that's how it is. Not too many couples choose to get married in January or March around here, and I don't blame them! :)

This flourish was done with a Gillott Principality nib, Moon Palace sumi, watercolor and Pearlescent acrylic.

Have a great, flourishy weekend everyone!

Flourish Friday - October 2

This past week I've been working on a wedding envelope job. You can't really tell in this photo, but the envelopes are translucent. This is a special, keepsake envelope I did for the bride and groom.

This image gives you a better idea. I believe the couple's guests are going to love finding these in their mailboxes. Happy Flourish Friday!

Flourish Friday - Wedding Calligraphy

Now that all my niece's wedding invitations have been mailed, I can show you! I apologize for the glare on some of these photos, but that's what gold does best - sparkle and shine.

I used my B6 Print Gocco. As you can see, wedding calligraphy can quickly overtake my studio. I love it!

I ran out of drying racks, but had to keep printing while the ink was wet. I had to arrange the envelopes so they could dry but not smear.

This is the finished invitation suite.

This is our invitation after we received it in the mail. The ribbon my niece found matches perfectly. Her fiancee found a post office (finally!) that would let him hand cancel all the invitations. They used vintage postage stamps. Do you see that our envelope has "Letters Mingle Souls" as one of the stamps? I love those little, extra, custom details!

Now, my only question is....where did the time go? I know she's 23, but when I look at her, this is what I see! Love you Taylor!!

Happy Flourish Friday everyone - enjoy your weekend. (Holiday weekend in the States!)

Flourish Friday - August 14

While at a bookstore last year, I stumbled onto a wedding issue of Somerset Studio magazine. As I was flipping through it, I saw beautiful illustrations done with a pointed pen by Linda Schneider. I couldn't get to the checkout fast enough! I was so eager to read the instructions and give it a try. Linda is extremely talented. You can visit her website here. She does work for Papyrus and you can see some of her designs for them here. I love doing these pointed pen brides. Everyone loved these bridal shower invitations. When I saw Linda was going to be one of the instructors at IAMPETH, I couldn't believe my luck. I'll have to save what I learned in her class at IAMPETH for another post, but it was pure joy!

Happy Flourish Friday everyone!

Wedding Present Traditions

I just finished this piece for a client today. It will be a wedding present. These signs are a tradition in her family. God Bless This Home in three languages. After the line in English, there is a line representing the groom's heritage and then a line representing the bride's heritage. In this case Spanish and Polish heritages.

Then the couples names and wedding date are lettered in Holbein gold at the bottom.

My client's mother-in-law started the tradition years ago because she had a friend that was a calligrapher. Sadly, the calligrapher died within the past few years and my client was in search of a calligrapher to carry on the tradition. I fell in love with the project, as I had never seen lettering done this way.

I love the rough look of the brush letters and the blending and layering of the colors.

Here is the first sign I did. My client wanted to give one to her in-laws for Christmas last year. Her mother-in-law had always had them made for other family members, but she had never had one lettered for herself. I heard she was overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of her son and daughter-in-law's gift.

Do you have a traditional family wedding present? We always give the happy couple a nativity set. We received one as a wedding present from our college friends. I thought it was a great gift then and every year since!

Flourish Friday June 19

For today's Flourish Friday, I thought I'd show you a piece from the invitation suite I've been working on for my niece's wedding. She fell in love with an invitation she saw in an issue of Martha Stewart Wedding magazine. You can see it here. My niece has very good taste! The beautiful script was done by Master Penman John DeCollibus. You can see more of his beautiful work on his website here. Above is the original work I did with sumi and pointed pen on Canson Pro Marker layout paper.

I scanned and reduced my original work. I knew I was going to use my B6 Print Gocco to print the invitations. I learned on one of my Gocco groups that certain HP Vivera printer inks contain enough carbon to burn masters on the Print Gocco. I checked my HP printer, and sure enough, my printer used a carbon based ink. I was thrilled! No more begging my brother to lug over his old, carbon based photocopier to my house! The above is just a test sample I printed on black paper. My niece's colors will be gold and seafoam. I was very happy with the results of the HP-Gocco combination, especially that the hairlines were not lost.

Happy Flourish Friday everyone - I hope you 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.

Flourish Friday

This week's flourish is for my niece.  I created it to house her wedding website URL.  We will print little cards to enclose with her invitations. The color combination she chose is beautiful. The flourish and URL will be printed in gold ink onto aqua paper.   Very pretty!!

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!

Hee Haw

I was in charge of table decorations for a country and western themed event held this past weekend.  Here's a peek at what I dreamed up. The calligraphy was done with a brush marker. There was plenty of square dancing (and line dancing) - I can barely walk today!  Sad, it's true.  I think everyone had a great time, even though I'm pretty sure most of us hadn't been square dancing since junior high P.E. class.

I added a gingham ribbon and bow to a food can with the label stripped off for the vases.  I special ordered the daisy style mums from Costco for cheap.  The hats and bandannas are from local Kipp Brothers, but they ship anywhere.  Giddy up!