Oxford Scribes

I recently volunteered to edit the Oxford Scribes Newsletter. 

It has taken me a few weeks and not much calligraphy done in the meantime, to get to grips with InDesign and I still have a lot to learn but my first edition of the Oxford Scribes Newsletter Spring 2012 should be dropping through letterboxes any day now. I was pleased to get this first one finished and printed for a little bit less than was paid for the old style edition but with a much higher quality for the images in particular.

here is the centre page spread as a taster

end of term

Term has finished for both my calligraphy classes. We worked on foundational hand this term, making a simple concertina book to show off what had been learned. I think it is so important to use calligraphy and not to just sit and practise the same letters or words over and over again. All my students have different amounts of time to spend on their calligraphy outside of the classes and naturally this is reflected in their progress but I was really pleased with their finished books that celebrate the stage they as individuals have reached and gives them something to look back on.

Kingfishers

 

I haven't seen the kingfisher on the river for a couple of months now - in fact, since the cold weather,   hope they have survived the winter - but I did finish my piece of work. This is the finished piece (but not the one I submitted for lay members day)

It has been through a few changes! I think this is the second time I washed all the lettering off!

I made a grid for the lettering so I wouldn't have the problem of erasing guide lines without removing the pastel I had applied to soften the background and I had the original layout just above my lettering while I worked on it

this is where I put my work to stop the cats and dog from walking or sitting on it - I spend a lot of time looking and thinking - I probably should have stopped at this stage!

This is the stage where I was having trouble getting the blue writing to show up so I tried a darker background - that was soon covered up...and all the red lettering was washed off too

Back to Reigate

Well I've taken the plunge and enrolled for another term studying Heraldry, Illumination and Calligraphy at East Surrey College with Gerald Mynott. I'm hoping to finish my piece on Oxford City which hasn't had any work since I was last there a year ago. It is only one day a week and at least in the summer term I shall not be driving home for 2 hours in the dark after a day of close work. I shall post my progress here.