OK...so I got this project see...

A dear friend and fellow dog lover asked me to do something for a relative's 50th wedding anniversary.  So after cogitating and talking with her, we came up with a plan.  I found this quote on a website for anniversaries and thought it was lovely--not too sappy, not favoring one party over the other, but really spoke of what a marriage is--a partnership that gives something to both the man and woman.  I decided to use hot press watercolor paper and that wonderful Finetec gold I love so much for the lettering.  
I did a trial run using the dimensions she wished it kept to (4.5 x 6.5) and decided on spacing. 
Here's my layout done in the lightest pencil I could muster.

Then, still using the lightbox I went over my penciled writing with the gold.   I think I'll stop for the night and just let this one sit.  I won't get to work on it tomorrow as I'm going to do my master gardenering at Epcot all day (yay!!) but it's good to let things rest if you can I think.   Helps to see things you don't like and make any changes.   My plan right now is to fill the edges with the tiniest quilled flowers I can make.  I'll need to do the flowers and lightly brush some Mod Podge over to give them stability.   So far, so good I think. 

Totally unrelated to paper crafts but...

Got this idea from a book, Mini somethingorother, and thought it would be a great idea to wear them while I help at the Master Gardener booth at Epcot.  Their flower festival is on right now and it's wonderful.  If you can make it, do!!!!

Trillium earrings

I've been really thinking about spring, symbols of spring really, and one I remember from growing up in NC was this early flower that is often found in the woods--the trillium.  It is one of the first things to pop out of the ground and bloom, staying low to the ground and having this single bloom.  It only stays around for a short while then just seems to blend with the forest vegetation that pops up afterward.  It has three leaves and three petals, in colors ranging from white to a burgundy red.  A very unique flower.   I made these quilled earrings as a happy memory of springtime in NC.   Hope you like them too.

A must-do project

First an apology.   I've been away because I'm finally job hunting.   I wanted to take some time and completely focus on updating my resume and really thinking about what it was I wanted to do with the second half of my life.   Besides...I gotta have money to suppor my hobbies!  Onward and up.

While having a wonderful crafting day and lunch with a good friend and fellow guild member, we were discussing potential things to do for after our guild meetings.   She remembered a blog belonging to Jane Farr where she made magnetic buttons with embroidered letters.   They were so clever and one of those things you could do as gifts for friends.   See more here.  Why don't I ever think of things like this?

Got some practice in...yippee

I have a project going that demands a dark ink.  I 'thought' I only had some McCaffery's black.   Don't get me wrong, I like that stuff--gives great hairlines BUT the black is more gray and when you want black...you want BLACK.
Contrary to hubby's opinion I have been trying to declutter and wouldn't ya know it I found a small bottle of black ink, a sumi, in a drawer.  Last night I got the chance to practice some straight up copperplate and found time to try out some vintage nibs as well. 
Here's what I figured on those Eagle 830s.  They're a big nib.   And they hold a lot of ink.  They will not work for normal guidelines.  The 'thins' are just too thick and the shades can be huge.   But I got to thinking why not try this nib with some supersized guidelines.   There may come a time where normal just won't do and a normal nib like a Zebra G won't be proportional.   Well...butter my butt and call me a biscuit but this nib is perfect for writing HUGE letters.

This is exciting because now I have some options if I want to do some larger pieces.   I just need to practice with this particular nib and writing large so I can get the right balance of ink on the nib where it doesn't glob. 
It will also be fun to try it with Pebeo.   Those are future projects though.  I have to continue refining my resume to get a 'real' job so not much time these days for slinging ink. 

Wow...almost forgot

Happy Springtime!!!

Definitely not calligraphy but I think my new quilled johnny jump up earrings are appropriate to the occasion.   Cheers!

It's all set!

Heading to Ohio in April and going to have a few lessons with the master---Bill Lilly.  I can't say how excited I am.  This truly will be the chance of a lifetime.   You can bet your boots I will be taking video cameras, copious notes, etc.   I need to start thinking about how I can get my stuff on the plane.
What should I pack?   What's the weather like up there this time of year?   I'm already stressing  LOL

But seriously, how do you transport ink safely?    I think I'll just take some powdered walnut gall and be done with that.   That little suitcase I made way back last fall is going to come in soooooooooooo handy now! 

No calligraphy this weekend

Bummer too.   Things have to be done around here and 'the man' is home to help so there ya go.   It will be nice to have the inside painting done and the payoff is once all these chores are done, I can practice more without anything hanging over my head.

Here's a bit of exciting news though.  Looks like I will get to go to Ohio and take a class or two with Mr. Bill Lilly in April.   With the job situation (I'm job hunting now) and money being tight, I didn't think I'd be able to do this BUT...I remembered that we had some plane tickets already paid for through AirTran for a trip we had to bail on last year.  So I can use those for my flight and the only other expense will be food and the lessons!!!    I'm waiting to hear from Mr. Lilly now to make sure the dates are OK then it'll be all systems go!    I've never been to Ohio either so this should be a hoot.  
Be back Monday.

Writing on perfume bottles

OK...I admit this is a bit intriguing.  Wine bottles are fairly large and I think easy to write on, now that I've done a few.   But what of other objects, not including the vase?   I have some old perfume bottles laying around and decided to see how a smaller surface would work with the burs Dremel makes.  

This is my first effort on a small bottle with flat sides.  I thought that would be best with which to begin.   I tried to imagine what people would even want on so small a surface and figured it may be a gift to someone's girlfriend, hence the For: April   

On the other side I decided to try some simple flourishes.  

The problem with this whole thing is no matter what substance I used, Rub n Buf or that other brand, the frosted bottle means the excess won't wipe off.   You can see in the lower right corner where I tried to use some acetone to remove the excess and after furiously rubbing that's all I got off.  OH...lest I forget to mention when you rub hard it's going to remove from the grooves too.   Lesson learned, frosted surfaces are a no-no for this type of thing.  

The second bottle was easier.   Its slick surface took the Rub n Buf well and a little extra rubbing with a clean cloth meant the excess came off. 

These pics aren't great I know.  It's just really hard to focus on the writing with the bent surface and the way light refracts. 

I like the way this turned out but sure wish Dremel made some other burs of different sizes and points.

OK...so technically it's not lettering

But I had to give some pics a try with the Dremel and there was this plain glass vase just begging for something....

Tired of fighting the cheap stuff

Actually, it wasn't that cheap but it simply doesn't work.   I'm talking about the stuff you rub in to engraving to make it stand out.   Rub n' Buf was recommended but no one carries it locally.  I did find something I thought was similar at the local craft store but it DIDN'T WORK.  It was awful.  So in the meantime I've tried acrylic ink and regular gold and silver ink (that looks good but can't get wet).
So...no pics today but I'll post the results when the stuff arrives.   I found it the cheapest at www.profitablehobbiesstore.com ($4.75 vs. around $6 on Amazon and eBay) and there are quite a few colors available which will be nice in the future.   I'll start with the basics--gold and silver. 

Dremel Dremel Dremel

I really love this thing.   I'm having such a good time practicing and even did a bottle for a neighbor as a Congrats! gift.   (She's having reconstructive surgery after undergoing breast cancer treatment).  The congrats is because she's beat this horrible disease and it was scary for a while.  
Naturally I forgot to take a picture before we went over to her house, but I have these pics of a project from today--a sample bottle for Pierre's Wine Shop. 

St. Paddy's Day cards

Finally got the last of these in the mail, hopefully just in time.   Last week was so crazy that it was hard to find time to get these to the post office.  They have to be weighed since they're treated as parcels due to the raised sides.  Fingers crossed they don't close the post office closest to me or I'd really be in trouble.

I got the sweetest note from my aunt last week.  She really enjoys these cards.   She's on up there in years and has trouble writing so I know what it must have taken for her to jot a few lines.  I'm just happy she likes them and they make her smile.  That's why I do it. 
Up next...EASTER!!!   Better learn to make some bunnies and eggs.

So far behind.....

                                                                                                                                                                                    

It's been a wretched week and this is the first chance since Wednesday I've had to blog.  Not that I haven't been busy doing calligraphy-related things, it's just other things made huge demands on my time and there's only 24 hours to go around.   So here it is...DST and I get a whole extra hour! 

Between bits of practice with the Dremel, I've been working on some 'card-lets' with quilling.

I call them that because they're only 4 x 4.   The new, larger Enveloboxer came last week and now I need to make a few 1/2 inch boxes for the quilled flowers that are deeper than the 1/8 inch ones.  

Hubby had a great idea (he usually does) that I should seal these up in some kind of cellophane bags as protection.  The only thing I can think of that would seal them is that gadget people use to seal up food.   I have no idea other than that what to do.  Ziploc bags?

More practice

This is really fun but much harder than I thought it would be.   The flex tube isn't that flexible although it's better than holding the actual Dremel unit.  The end is very wide, which would be good for someone with arthritis but if you prefer something with a smaller circumference it will take some getting used to. 

Another issue is the lack of burs locally available.  I've settled on two that seem to give me the results I want (until I find some better shapes) so that's important.  The problem is I don't know how long these burs last (how do you tell?) and where to get replacements?   I need to order a batch from somewhere though so I'll have plenty on hand to practice.  

One other fly in the ointment--how to make the letters really stand out afterward.  I found some wax paste at Joann's yesterday--what a mess!   It clings too much to the bottle and if you wipe hard enough to get it off (actually wiping didn't do it, this stuff needs mineral spirits to clean up) you remove it from the grooves.  I had tried a mix of gold watercolor but that's just too faint.   This am I remembered I had some silver acrylic ink and the results are as you see below.  I like this pretty good and with acrylics, it's a matter of taking a damp paper towel and wiping off the excess.   There's a dropper in the ink bottle which makes it easy to apply.  So, the adventure continues. 

Finally got some practice done with the Dremel!!!

Once I figured out what nut when with what part of the tool I was fine.  I'm not crazy about technical drawings because they sometimes leave off a detail that helps identify the part.  When the bur wasn't spinning I knew something wasn't right.  First try:

Second try with some flowers:

Overall, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the first time results.   I have to play with the different attachments and see what effects I get but what do y'all think?

Thanks Stacey Podell!

What a great class after our Scribe's meeting yesterday.  Incredibly informative and entertaining.  She even motivated me to get out my Phantom Liner again and give it a try.   I have cleaning and what not to do today but I intend to practice with it later on and maybe work up the courage to get the Dremel going.  Lord knows I have enough wine bottles have been saved for my practice.  
One thing I noted Stacey had that I did not were these clear liner sheets that came in a pack.   What I liked about them is you could use them as is with a lightpad or flip them over and use with the Phantom Liner.  That makes them worth the price IMO since they wouldn't be single use items.   In this economy we have to get the most out of our tools eh?   I believe this is the item at John Neal:  http://www.johnnealbooks.com/prod_detail_list/s?keyword=underliners

My Dremel holder came !!!

I thought it was going to be huge.   Went to check the mail and the whole box was in the mailbox.  Here it is all hooked up and ready to go.  

Unfortunately I won't be able to practice with it until Monday at the earliest.  Got my Scribe's meeting today and that'll pretty much shoot the afternoon.  On the bright side we have an excellent after meeting talk by Stacey Podel scheduled.  She's going to talk about addressing envies, pricing, and the phantom liner.   I'm particularly interested in envie pricing.  I wouldn't have the first clue of what to say should anyone ask me to address their envies. 

Working on St. Paddy's day cards and practicing

I realize that when writing something out it won't be perfect.  Even when doing the same letters within a word there will be some variation.  Like double l's, double r's, and so on.  Perhaps it's because I'm so used to typing now and every letter is identical that I set a high bar and if there's the least variation I'm not happy.   I often wonder how other calligraphers feel about this.  How do they handle those slight variations with handwritten text?  

What made me think on this is the project I'm working on now for possible stamps.   I'm using McCaffrey's black ink too, which is really more of a gray, on white Canson.  I love the hairlines I get with it, just wish I could find an ink that gave good blacks and nice hairlines.  

So today, I'll keep writing until I get a few that good ones.

This could be interesting

Here's an interesting opportunity for me.   An acquaintance knows some people that  make rubber stamps.   The owner wants me to submit some of my work to see if they can do some custom stamps.  The only problem I see is the hairlines.  What makes pointed pen work IMO so pretty are the contrasts between the thick and thin elements.  It's not only something that we really practice hard to get just right but it's a bit of a competition for bragging rights as to who has the best.
I don't think that's going to translate well for stamps as they'll need to be somewhat thick to do.   I'll try to work up some words with medium thick 'hairlines' and thicker shades.   I've never done anything like this so we'll see how it goes.   Wouldn't it be a hoot if they took some of my work and made stamps thought?   Do I ever have some ideas for some flourished stamps too.   Rock 'n roll!

I finished my quilled cross too.  Decided to turn it in to a pendant (where am I going to find a chain to fit?).   I have some 1/16th white paper so I may make some tiny earrings to match.  Just in time for Easter! 

It's almost that time...

Wedding season I mean.   I don't address envies professionally.  I'm not sure I'd ever want to after hearing all the bridezilla stories.   I'm also reminded of a story told by a local calligrapher of a young woman who gave her the wording she desired on her invitations
.  

U R Nvited 2...

I'm not joking.  She was 21 at the time.   Mind blowing really.   Whether this is some sort of indictment of the education system is for a different blog.   Luckily the mom got involved and set the girl straight.   But I can't help but think there are many stories like this.  
The internet is a wonderful tool for people who may wish to know how to say or do things.   This is an excellent site for anyone who may have questions about the right way to word their invitations.   To all those who do this professionally, I doff my hat.