Thursday, May 30, 2013

May barbed wire letter flags

These are my letters for May...weeks 18-22


These are flags for the top 26 countries on the World Watch List -
making people aware of human rights violations against those with Christian beliefs.
Seeking peace for all in these countries.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Calligraphytique Letter's #Week 22

The "V". / Voici pour cette semaine le "V".


Another late starter


No, I hadn't completely disappeared ... but I have been woefully slow.

Back in January I posted enthusiastically about my plans for my first ALAW alphabet.  Well, the best laid plans.... but at last I have made progress.  I had a session with the laser cutting studio at college last week, which resulted in two complete alphabets, upper and lower case cut from 2mm black/white card.   I used the hand-written font which I created using yourfonts.com who ran a free offer on National Handwriting Day on 23rd January (who knew?).

I had planned to use these cut-out letters in various ways including relief and collagraph printing.  But I realised this might make the completed alphabet seem rather muddled, and - on the basis that simplicity is often the best solution - I decided to blind emboss instead.

I played around with several different approaches and made four complete alphabet sets, just using the lower case letters so far.   I tried both embossing and de-bossing (i.e. where the letter shape is depressed into the paper rather than raised from it) and using different papers.  They are all interesting, but for the purposes of ALAW 2013 I've settled on the set which are embossed into Somerset Smooth 300gm in a slightly creamy white.

Embossing was quick and easy - no inky fingers!  I rather like the results, including the slightly darkened edges of the letter shapes and their individual surrounds.  This comes from the smoky residue from the laser-cutting process, which will wear off after several pressings.  I also like the irregular and wobbly edges of the letters - the result of enlarging my wobbly hand-drawn original script.  This shows especially well on a few - e.g. the lower case b, whose tall upright is wrinkly, like a slipping-down sock.  Or the wonky interior outline  of the letter o, where my pen has overlapped itself at the top.  In normal writing you don't see these imperfections, but the enlarged scale, and the embossing, exaggerates the wobbles, in what we are so used to seeing as tidy, regular shapes.

ALAW means that you make and post one letter each week.  But as I'm now so terribly late (it's week 22 already...) I'm catching up with a bumper crop now, and will do the rest in orderly weekly posts from now on.

The second rule of ALAW is that one of your two alphabet relates to the theme of Peace.   Blind embossing seems to me to be about silent language, gentle text, whispered words.  Embossing also reminds me of tombstones and memorials, remembering the events of the past and those who have gone.

So these embossed and silent, gentle, tactile letters are my letters for peace.










Saturday, May 25, 2013

late starter, not latecomer!

Hello fellow 'letter a weekers' ......  Please forgive me for posting my entire alphabet today, and not coming along each week to post and comment.  I have just had a delightful long look through all the posts in this blog and am very glad I looked once I had completed my very loose and free interpretation of the 'peace' alphabet and not beforehand otherwise I would have felt the need to make a far more beautiful alphabet.  

Here it is though, and I hope once I have worked out the binding, it will look more interesting .... or will I bind it.  I haven't yet decided.


A, B, C and D
E, F, G and H


I, J, K and L

M, N, O and P

Q, R, S and T


U, V, W, X, Y and Z






















Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Calligraphytique Letter's #Week 21

U letter. / Cette semaine, le "U".


Thoughts about Peace

I’ve finished q-t
Together



And overlaid




I’ve also been thinking about the peace alphabet.
I’m working on the idea of intervals of peace/silence interspersed between all the noise and chatter of daily life. I’ve an idea for the structure and how to represent the noise.





 I’m not sure yet about the letters yet although I’m thinking white/translucent and quite delicate.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

May is here, and so are my next 4 letters. Looming on the horizon is the prospect of making a book, something I've never done before, I have seen many beautifully made books, inventive, skillful, and with a knowledge of the process, I think I step into the unknown.....with eyes wide shut!!!! 






What a funny looking 'S' didn't quite work. 


I will have to be more inventive...not allowed to use my own paintings again, when I begin thinking how to interpret the word 'PEACE'



Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Calligraphytique Letter's #Week 20

The end of the alphabet... The "T"! / Plus que quelques lettres avant de voir le résultat! Cette semaine, le "T".


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

lettres pour la paix...suite

J'ai enfin trouvé et pris le temps de continuer ma petite production...
Cela paraît répétitif il faudra donc trouver une façon dynamique de relier le tout! J'ai une petite idée mais il faut la peaufiner.



















pour info le "koto" est un instrument de musique extrême  oriental.
Ne dit-on pas que la musique adoucit les moeurs?? la paix en aurait bien besoin...

La deuxième salve de grilles et lettres

















et les mots qu'ils m'ont inspiré avec leurs petites colombes


















Je trouve certaines lettres de cette écriture très élégantes comme le P ou le K



























J'espère mettre moins de temps pour le prochain post!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Eithna all done............almost

Apologies for lagging behind, but at last I have all my letters done. I won't include them all here as the post will be too long so here are a random collection. Now of course the fun bit starts deciding on what book format I will show them in. I had thought I would like to attempt a Jacobs ladder but all my instruction books only show a 3 page example and I feel making it bigger will be very confusing for a first timer but we will see.








Friday, May 10, 2013

Hello,

Here are another 4 letters.

I'm starting to have trouble figuring out how to play on transparencies, gray and white for the alphabet started in January.

This is still the" m, n, o, p"
I present the four letters at the same time and "n" after because it seems better vertically.

See you soon

Annik



Hello,

Voilà encore 4 lettres.
Je commence à avoir des difficultés à trouver comment jouer sur les transparences, les gris et les blancs pour cet alphabet commencé en janvier.
Voilà quand même les m,n,o,p
Je présente les 4 lettres en même temps et le "n" à part car il apparait mieux verticalement.

A très bientôt

Annik

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

April and May Uncial letters

How on earth did I miss a month?  Ah well, here's a catching up post.

There must be a theme of missing things, because I appear to have missed the letter Q!  It will make an appearance at the end - fear not.






Some of the letters look odd repeated again and again (N and P for example) but I don't mind that - once they're stuck in their book it;s going to be pretty obvious what they are.

It's great to see all the alphabets developing - looking forward to seeing the switch over to alphabet 2 in a few weeks!

I am in awe of those of you who have clearly spent hours and hours on every entry - I know that personally if would have become too much of a stress to hit the deadlines so I'm glad I chose something simple.