A Blessing...

 May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the 

secret love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those
who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement.

May you be present in what you do.

May you never become lost in the bland absences.

May the day never burden.

May the dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, 

possibilities and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.

May your soul calm, console and renew you.

John O'Donohue

Anam Cara ~ A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Whispers of inspiration...

Just came across a great blog honor yourself written by Terri of Bonesigh arts… actually I think I found her shop first, but no matter. Love her artwork, love her words, love her whole outlook…

it was when she first dared

to see her truth

that the winds howled.

after a time,

it strengthened her

and she spoke her truth

and the earth shook.

and when finally

 she believed her truth

the stars rejoiced,

the universe opened,

and even her bones

sang her song:

I matter!

~ Terri St. Cloud

Considering how much I love colour on black, I do precious little of it. I have a whole workshop worked out for playing with colour & lettering on black paper, but still i rarely play myself. 

A few from my sketch book… all brush letters… just playin' with colours….

Seeing Terri's site has also given another reminder that i need to get on & do more work with my own words… the image i 'borrowed' reminded of me of this i wrote at new year. 

She heard the faintest whispers between the old moon and the new

she felt the breath of winter graze her naked skin

and sometime in the night the old year became the new...

I promised myself then, to put together a series of works involving my moon photographs & words… to pull them together into something totally different to work I have done to date. I keep visiting the idea in my mind & turning it over. I haven't put pen to paper but the idea has evolved considerably as i think of different aspects. Perhaps it's time. There comes a point when thinking has to give way to doing…. 

And as I was turning this over earlier, Fiona shared this: 

"A lot of good things don't get made because of too much thinking" 

Agnes Martin

I had to smile… quite often, just resolving an idea in my mind is enough… but, all these little signs are pointing in the same direction! It is time… and maybe "the stars will rejoice" as Terri wrote!

2nd 'Cotton' Wedding Anniversary Canvas

As the second wedding anniversary is traditionally seen as 'cotton', a canvas is an appropriate present…. especially when it includes a reading from your wedding & takes inspiration from the bridal bouquet! It's not meant to be an exact representation… just something that captures the sense of it… the fresh greens, the feeling of spring in the air...

Before the 1930's, just the milestones were marked; only 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th & 70th had gift suggestions. But as in most areas of life, commercialisation led to a full list names for every year of marriage…. in 1939 the American National Jeweller Retail Association published a full list. The list has been revised over the years & different countries have slightly different versions, and of course some countries have long-standing traditions for certain anniversaries.

In the 'Holy Roman Empire' of the Middle Ages, husbands would crown their wives with a wreath of silver leaves on their 25th anniversary & with gold leaves on their 50th. The tradition of a silver & gold wreaths continued in many places, with the gradual addition of more land-mark anniversaries. Traditions have changed too… at one point the Diamond Wedding was the 75th, but since Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee after 60 years on the throne, diamonds became associated with the 60th wedding anniversary in the UK.

The list I have had for ages gives the 1st wedding anniversary as paper & the 2nd as cotton, which is great for me as a calligrapher… I can offer a gift made from both! But there are various versions…. the UK & US have many dates the same but a few differences, and a 'modern' version seems to have been developed alongside the 'traditional'. Take a look over here> Wedding Anniversary Gift Lists. (the 15th is crystal on all other versions i've found) I'm not sure about the modern one at all…. gold jewellery, cars, optical goods…. hmmm, the retailers are obviously still involved in compiling that…. a kiss on the cheek would be bonus from Mr Scribbles, lol.

The canvas was 'whiter' than the photo, more like the close-up above, but i can't seem to get rid of the yellowy tones. I didn't even attempt to portray different flowers, even if I had the skills I wouldn't want too many different details vying for attention… it's the words that matter here,

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,



Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;


Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;



Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Despite the formal style of wording, I wanted this to look fresh and modern, so quite informal, brush lettering spills down the canvas…. echoing the brighter green buds of the bouquet nestled amongst the mass of white flowers. It really makes a thoughtful & romantic anniversary gift doesn't it?

I'd love to hear about your most romantic gift… or the least, lol! I can't think that I've received anything outstanding either way... sigh...

The reality of your being is within you.

You just need a silent mind...
it will be reflected....
you will know who you are.
~Osho

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe,
deserve your love and affection
~Buddha

A couple more I sneaked in on a random date, to give me (& you of course) a surprise & some inspiration!

Some Quotes from Einstein...

I was just flicking through some quotations & came across these from Albert Einstein. They've just gone on my "to do" list!

'Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world. 

All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it'.

‘To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull facilities can comprehend only in the most primitive forms, this knowledge, this ‘Feeling’, is at the centre of true religiousness in this sense and in this sense only I belong to the ranks of the devoutly religious men’ 

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift 

and the rational mind is a faithful servant. 

We have created a society that honors the servant 

and has forgotten the gift." 

~Albert Einstein~

The Handmade Wedding Catalogue

I am lucky to have been included in The Handmade Wedding Catalogue, curated by Shana Mattheis.

It is huge... Shana has scoured Etsy to produce 138 pages full of photographs showcasing more than 200 shops & includes plenty of resources to assist with wedding planning.

 A couple of my book pages feature early on in "The Proposal" section. I've never got as far as listing calligraphy services for invitations & place cards etc on etsy yet, but it is something I offer & I have a steady stream of people buying both original work & prints as wedding or anniversary gifts.

On my browser the instruction 'click to view' appears twice & the 2nd time it goes to the 

full screen view...  it's so worth viewing at full size! 

Each photograph is linked directly to it's etsy listing, as well a link being given from the page index, so no one has any excuse not to find out any details of anything they like the look of!

Ideas are grouped by theme & by colour....

...  & I defy any bride not to find some inspiration amongst these pages.

It's impossible to pick favourites at first glance, but I am taken by the 'Earth Friendly' ideas.

There are also pages of resources interspersed throughout the catalogue... ideas about what to do when & comprehensive guides to planning offer reassurance to anyone not so sure & confirmation to those more confident in their organisation.

CLICK HERE to view the online edition of The Handmade Wedding Catalogue 

and thankyou so much to Shana for pulling the whole thing together!

Shana blogs at This Amazing Life
Shana's Etsy Shop

Shana was aided by Candice at Silk Florals by Candice, so a big thanks to her too!

Human Elephant Foundation

Thanks to Ruthie for pointing me in the direction of the Human Elephant Foundation. The home page images of elephant sculptures in situ are amazing. Andries Botha creates life-sized sculptures made from recycled materials, which are situated in various locations worldwide.

The elephant is a metaphor that awakens the yearning for forgotten conversations between humans, the Earth and all living things.

~Andries Botha

The foundation aims...

... to encourage every person to do something meaningful with his or her life. It can be something small at home. Or a major global solution. Something personal or something collaborative. Whatever it is, it should be life affirming, and it should be a worthy legacy to leave the next generation.

It is well worth a visit http://www.humanelephant.org  

Brush Textures

There's something satisfying about just playing 

with textures & layout without using words...

white on black always looks dramatic.... 

a little silver powder is dropped into wet paint on the top one...

 a single chinese or japanese calligraphy brush gives a variety 

of stroke widths depending how you use it..

as well as being visually pleasing, they also serve as inspiration 

for layouts to use with words at some future date...

I'm working on...

I have some words....

—From an Old Irish text, Audacht  Morainn which consists of advice from Morainn to a young king.... 


Comath fírinni, cotnofathar.Ocbath trócairi, cotnocéba.  

Let the father preserve justice, for it will preserve him.  

Toléci dorche do ṡorchi. 
Toléci brón do ḟáilti. 
Toléci borb do ecnu.  
Toléci dóer do ṡóer. 
Toléci dochell do chlothaib.   
Toléci anflaith do ḟírḟlaith. 
Toléci debuith do chóri. 
Toléci gó do ḟír.  

Darkness yields to light, 
Sorrow yields to joy. 
Ignorance yields to wisdom, 
Slavery yields to freedom. 
Selfishness yields to generosity,   
Anarchy yields to order, 
Conflict yields to peace, 
What is false yields to truth.  
Air ní soí soithcedach sechtair. 

Let him exalt mercy, for it will truly exalt him. 

Is tre ḟir flathemon rosaig cech dán mochtide mind suíthi.  

It is through the justice of the father that each great man of art attains the summit of his knowledge.  

A prosperous man does not need to turn to the outside.   


and i have more than enough inspiration...

Images from the Book of Kells...

and from The Secret of Kells....

and work by Denis Brown...

It's the 'Secret of Kells' film that really tickles my taste buds.... i wrote about it before over here where there are more images to see. I'm actually trying very hard not to look too much... i don't want to be over influenced or try to copy.  Luckily i lent my copy of the dvd out & haven't asked for it back yet so I can't get too absorbed in it (did i say how much i love this animation??!!) Another excellent review is here

The text was written around 700AD & The Book of Kells is dated around 800 or a little earlier, but I am writing now, so I'm using my updated version of an uncial script & the illustrations won't be too traditional. This is for another 'memory canvas' which is why the translation here talks about 'the father', rather than king, as in the original. I'm playing with layout & fitting together ideas at the moment, so I'll show you more as I go along...

Voici mon secret...

today i received an email from someone i hold dear which included these words...

"....speaking to me (but not in words as such) about seeing without eyes..."

so i shall share these now instead of waiting until i have time, lol

i was experimenting last week.... writing on the pages of an old english-french dictionary... this is the first one i wrote.... synchronicity, eh?!

Just quick scans... i'm planning on mounting them on a natural paper, ready for framing, before adding to the shop. I'd like to frame them, as i have a specific idea of how thy could look, but posting abroad with glass in a frame is awkward & expensive, and that is where most of my sales come from.

We'll see... if the picture framer i just found hadn't made assumptions I would have gone ahead & got them done anyway... i asked about getting mounts cut, that i could then cover with paper to match some calligraphy and never got as far as talking about frames... he started getting uppity about not being "that sort of framer".... i didn't get what he meant, cos i wanted several frames aswell...  it never dawned on me that he wouldn't cut mounts to fit standard sized frames and he assumed that's what i wanted ( i hadn't got as far as asking, but i do get standard sizes for my photographs!)

Anyway after telling me he couldn't say when, cos if he had larger orders they would take priority, and there was no way they would be ready for this week he then thought it would be better if i took my business elsewhere! Ah, well... some mis-communication i think, but this 2nd page i did is sort of appropriate!! I felt like a child trying to explain what i needed & not getting anywhere...

ingredients: old dictionary pages & walnut ink

Now... back to packing the last few bits n pieces i need for tomorrow & putting aside the thoughts of... "ooh, i should've.... i could just do a few..."

Out of Chaos...

So, there i was, in the midst of chaos.... printing photographs for my up-coming craft fair.... 

with only stepping-stone-like spaces on the floor to allow myself to negotiate wherever i needed to be... 

when the post arrived.

 Printing abandoned. 

Because of this... 

and inside....  

oooh, look a little closer... touch if you like.

I can't tell you what it's for yet.... 

but i can tell you this gorgeousness came from mudhound studio... 

and this.... 

is part of the most gorgeous textile art made by lisa at mudhound... 

i've written about it <here> with more photos...

or just go to lisas mudhound studio blog and see what she says!

The Story Of The Pencil

I came across an inspirational short story taken from Paulo Coelho’s book on short stories and reflections ‘Like the Flowing River’

I love working with pencil; 

even without words, or perhaps, especially without words...

The Story of The Pencil....

A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point, he asked:

“Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?”

His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:

“I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.”

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.

“But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!”

no... there's nothing 'normal' about the pencil as 

textures & patterns emerge... flowing from it's tip...

“That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on to them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

"First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.

“Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

a different challenge on black paper,

but see what depths can be reached... 

“Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.

“Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

"Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: It always leaves a mark. In just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action.”

and what results can be achieved...

if you keep sharp 

& pay attention to the spaces as well as what is already there

& allow the marks you make to unfold...

Just Playin'....

My stash of arty 'stuff' has been pared to a minimum for a long time now.... caravan life means limited storage & being aware of the weight we carry. This way of life certainly teaches the lesson of non-attachment to material things. But jewel like colours caught my eye & I just 'had to have' a pack of fine liner pens that jumped off the shelf into my hand.... and then i just 'had' to test them before i put the rest of my shopping away, well, i did stick the milk in the fridge but that was about all :-)

And so this playful alphabet emerged... it's not a style of my invention, but the variations are endless. There's no right or wrong with these, but some of my letters do look better than others... as i doodled an  idea to use them started to grow, so a little refinement is needed if i carry it out. Not so much that they appear over worked, but straight away i could see lines that don't quite work for me and others that i love.

So... new pens, a morning scribbling and ideas a-forming....suzi's happy!!

Crafty Individuals Blog

Yaaay... Jean at Crafty Individuals has started a blog

http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.com/

I'm long overdue to get some more calligraphy to her for rubber stamp designs, but it has been on my mind to get started. We've moved with work several times since autumn & I just haven't done any calligraphy or arty stuff at all. I always tend to work best when I have something on the go rather than starting from scratch and my gear was packed away for moving.... and stayed there. Honestly, it doesn't take long to unpack, but it's been a case of out of sight out of mind. Tut-tut suz.

She's not the only one a-waiting either... i started preparing calligraphy reversed ready to use for transfer techniques, and was really enthused til we started moving about... think the time has come to get re-motivated. I know once I start I won't want to stop.... mmmm, the time has come to stop thinking & start doing!

Inspired by pine trees...

Yvonne, of 'The Organic Writer' is hosting July's Festival of the Trees and asked for art submissions.... well, i did have a plan to do something new, but havn't put pen or brush to paper all month! This piece was done some years ago, but it remains one of my favourites, both for the words & aesthetically

 20 x 10 inches

NFS

I know a pine tree that leans over near a sea. At midday it bestows upon the tired body a shade measured like our life, and in the evening the wind blowing through its needles begins a curious song as though of the souls that made an end of death, just at the moment when they begin to become skin & lips again. One night I stayed awake all night under this tree. At dawn I was brand new as though I had been freshly quarried.
George Seferis - Greek poet, essayist & diplomat, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1963

Both the background & the lettering is done in watercolour on Saunders Waterford Not, 190gsm. I used Brause nibs for this... not my favourites, but they were new & I had to give them a go! Brause nibs are less flexible than Mitchell's, which is useful if you prefer to press quite firmly as you write, or on paper that is too textured for the Mitchell nibs.

The various shades were used randomly in the lettering, to echo the varying colours seen in nature.

I had tested brush strokes on a separate piece of paper before doing the 'pine' & I couldn't let the resulting texture go to waste! So... thinking of a pine wood & imagining the feeling, I wrote random words & phrases across the strip of brush-marks to make a work-shop sampler. In the past I have taught workshops aimed at trying out an array of papers that aren't necessarily deemed 'suitable' for calligraphy.

I therefore used a range of pens & pencils in a variety of styles to show how they worked with this paper, at the same time trying to keep the whole thing harmonious & feeling of pine forests. Notes about what I used are jotted along the bottom. 

 This process of using gestural marks to evoke a feeling or a sense of nature, then generating the words to suit, is one that I frequently use. A few folds later and some handmade paper, gives a little booklet that serves as a record... much more likely to be kept & looked at than 'another' scrap of paper on the pile (ok, make that several piles) that I can't bear to throw away!

This simple paper scrap also led on to workshops encouraging creativity for calligraphers, but using nature as inspiration can work for everyone. I don't teach the 'try out papers' workshops anymore... I sold my paper stock to Tina of paperinc.co.uk & I think she does, if any uk calligraphy groups are interested (plus, she has some lovely papers suitable for calligraphy for sale!)