This month we posted excerpts from a 1983 article full of useful tips for calligraphers: how to create a raised triangle, fill a ruling pen, correct mistakes. Enjoy!
A new board was elected on May 27; we hope you will come meet them at the next general meeting in September!
On Thursday, May 27, don’t miss the last general meeting before summer vacations. There’s quite a lot on the agenda: election of the new board members, annual reports, and the closing of our 30th anniversary celebrations. As usual, there are also books for sale. Come and meet other Montreal calligraphers!
In the meantime, we suggest you check out two series of video podcasts that will help you practice and learn Copperplate calligraphy: Calligraphy Cast and Copperplate Calligraphy.
In January 2010,we once again invited our members to create calligraphy cards for the New Year. After a long season of activities, we have finally uploaded the gallery with our members’ beautiful works.
This week an article in a Turkish newspaper talks about the place of calligraphy in the modern world, mentioning several traditions. In Oriental societies, calligraphy has long been considered a key component of any educated person’s baggage; in the West, this art was practices by a handful of apprentices. And yet, despite what we think is a widespread practice of calligraphy in the East, the article decries that the chain of apprenticeship is now fragile, and that only a few persons propelled by their individual passions receive a complete training. Makes us think about our own place as calligraphers….
Gottfried Pott nicknamed them the troublesome lines (“lästige Linieren”) - is there no escaping the tedious job of ruling paper before pulling out pen and ink?
One tool that accelerates the task is the rolling ruler. Another is the Ames Lettering Guide, and we found a video that shows how to use that strange contraption.
If you prefer ready-made guidelines, there are several options online : guidelines for 6 alphabets on Margaret Shepherd’s website, the Scribbler’s Guideline Generator (you control the horizontal spacing), and the Anomaly Calligraphy guideline generator (you control the horizontal spacing, plus slanted guidelines).
