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Bulletin Editor FOC Came Together Through Zoom Calligraphy Were Honored to Nancy Noble� Have Dr his week was Thanksgiving flourishes into their basic elements, in the US, which of course and uses those elements to FOC Council Members Thas me thinking about what demystify flourishing. See the President I’m thankful for. Along with the article on Page 11. Evelyn Eldridge health and safety of family and Cherryl Moote has developed a December 2020 friends, are the many wonderful Vice President Number 141 script that she calls Byzantosh—a Elena Caruthers classes, videos, and lectures that delightful meld of the architectural technology has made available to lettering style of Charles Rennie Treasurer help time go by more. I’m a big Macintosh and elements of Dean Robino fan of video conferencing as a Byzantine lettering. Page 8. stand-in for in-person gatherings Secretary in these days of social distancing. Yukimi Annand taught two stellar Fredi Juni workshops on Hermann Kilian There’s a little over a month until Council Members ‘Built-Up Caps’ in November. Martha Boccalini the end of 2020, yikes! Every The article is on Page 10. year I say the same thing, how Cynthia Cravens did the time go by so quickly? Fort Mason classes will continue to Darla Engelmann This year has been no different be online until the Fort Mason Katie Leavens in that regard. Between online Center opens and we are sure Raoul Martinez lectures and classes, the Friends conditions are safe. To see the Alphabet Editor of Calligraphy calendar has been lineup for 2021, visit the full. Here are the highlights from FOC Classes web page at Carl Rohrs https://www.friendsofcalligraphy.org/pages/classes.html the last couple of months. On December 6, 47 members of In September, Friends of Bulletin Editor FOC came together through Zoom Calligraphy were honored to Nancy Noble� have Dr. John Gillis from Trinity for a holiday party. It was so much College in Dublin, Ireland, present fun getting to talk to people in a lecture about the Faddan More such far away places. Psalter. The psalter was discovered From what I could in a peat bog in the center of see everyone agreed Ireland in 2006, and Dr. Gillis with me. The hands- was in charge of the restoration down best part was and preservation effort. His the slideshow of the discoveries and adventures made calligraphic art from for a tremendously interesting several party-goers. lecture. You can learn more It was like being in a about his lecture on Page 4. moveable gallery on opening night, with On September 12, Risa Gettler the artist right there taught a fun and meditative all-day to comment and ask online class, Illuminated Capitals, questions. You can see where we learned how to paint a screenshot of some of an illuminated letter. You can the participants here. read about her class on Page 2. Best wishes to you all for Suzanne Cunningham, flourisher a safe and cozy holiday extraordinaire, taught Flourishing, the season and new year. Art of the Oval, on October 3. Cheers, Letter from the President the from Letter Suzanne has deconstructed Friends of Calligraphy Evelyn 1 Illuminated Capitals with Risa Gettler By: Carole Johnson n September 12, 2020, function for each item. That nearby substances, especially Risa Gettler led an online the class used every material on the binders in pigments, Risa Oscriptorium, Illuminated the list is its own testament to had the class use gold gouache, Capitals, that showed FOC Risa’s conscientious preparation! her favorite being Fine-Tec Arabic, members how to paint glorious One indispensable tool was a to fill in the appropriate pattern backing board to which the sections on the good paper. illuminated letters like those that art paper could be temporarily grace medieval manuscripts. The next step was to lay down affixed with removable tape, the remaining colors. Risa Her approach in the workshop allowing comfortable access was inspired by significant recommended Winsor & Newton from any angle. The second gouache for its opacity and changes in manuscript crucial item was a pair of reliability. If students wish to production during the late magnifying goggles, necessary select colors other than those of Middle Ages. While early for precision brushwork. a traditional medieval color medieval manuscripts typically In Risa’s opinion, the main scheme, she suggested they run represented the work of a challenge in painting illuminated color swatches to confirm that single monk, the 13th century letters is to avoid mixing too their colors would look good saw the demand for books rise much water into the gouache, together. and secular workshops emerge. since doing so will buckle the Following the relevant pattern Scribes now copied text and paper and ruin the piece. guide for each remaining color, illuminators invented decorative Toward this end, Risa has imbue a fresh brush lightly developed a technique for letter patterns. Risa’s workshop with paint. Begin in the easiest attaining a reliable gouache allowed participants actual place—in the center of any consistency, one that uses the color section—using a cross- practice in the sequence of steps smallest possible amount of by which these patterns evolve hatch motion that covers the water. She never sets her brush surface and fills the crevices. into sumptuous adornments. to paper without first running Rotate the backing board to this procedure. With a brush, she Prior to the workshop, Risa emailed spot any white places showing mixes a couple drops of water through. After finishing all each student a packet of handouts into gouache in a medicine cap containing a six-page pattern set colors, you can burnish your or dappen dish, then rolls and design with a bone folder, or that Risa had created for the class, turns the brush on the back one based upon a decorated initial the back of a small spoon, pressed of her free hand between the through a sheet of glassine. from the Gorelston Psalter from thumb and index finger. This Norfolk, England, 1310 – 1324. action pushes the paint away For highlight strokes on top In preparation for the workshop, from the ferrule (where paint of the base colors, use Dr. students were asked to print the should never touch) toward Martin’s Bleed-proof White, master outline page onto good the tip of the bristles, forming poising the brush perpendicular paper, e.g., Arches Text Wove, or a good point and indicating to the paper surface, Japanese to trace it using a light table and a suitable amount of water. style. Don’t hold your breath: Micron pen. The set comprised a breathe out while your whole master pattern outline and five Technique demonstrated, Risa arm pulls a long stroke. To iterations of that outline, each tackled brushes. Any round add shadows, darken the base iteration indicating the placement brush, size 1 through 5, with a colors. Make dots with the of one of the five colors neat point will serve. Synthetic handle end of the brush. traditionally used in European bristles are favored for projects Tooling the gold makes it Risa Gettler Workshop manuscripts of the period. such as this one because they are strong enough to move the shimmer. If the gouache was Specific gouache colors suggested not laid thickly enough, add were Fine-Tec Gold; Winsor heavy particles of gouache, which is not as finely ground as another coat. Cushion the paper & Newton Primary (W/N), and make dot impressions with Prussian, or Cobalt Blue; W/N watercolor. As Risa remarked, “Think of gouache as watercolor a ball stylus set in place and Spectrum, Primary, or Flame Red; rocked. Ambient light bounces W/N Permanent Green Light; mixed with rocks.” Risa reserves one brush per color. across the impressions and and Turner Permanent Yellow sparkles back up to enchant Orange; or alternative clear bright Risa likes to honor the age-old the eye of the beholder. blue, red, green, and yellow. practice of always beginning Risa also sent a materials with gold. Because real gold leaf checklist annotated with the is notorious for sticking to all December 2020 � 2 Top: Group Photo of the participants in Risa Gettler's Zoom Workshop. Risa is in the second row, second from the right. Far Left: Ann-Marie Fleming's finished 'A' Left: Gail Sandberg's finished 'A; Bottom Left: Mina Taylor's "T" Bottom Middle: ValerieFranco's "A' Bottom Right: Kimberly Hutchinson's 'A' Friends of Calligraphy 3 A Book in a Bog, Letterforms from the Mud By: Jessie Evans would’ve been made from back Because bogs are rich in when—survive better in bogs archaeological finds, the federal than they do when they end up government of Ireland educates in other places, like soil. The bog owners on the protocol for preservation happens because such finds. After the folks who of the effects of sphagnum, peat, discovered the psalter realized moss, which John says immobilizes they might have a rare find, they microorganisms that deteriorate quickly covered it back up with material buried in soil. peat! They knew exactly what to do because they were instructed by Turf’s up, Dude! the state on what to do. Because Dig this: the Faddan More Psalter all archaeological finds are the was spotted by the sharp eyes of property of the state immediately one Edward Fogarty, who was he Friends of Calligraphy operating a backhoe to extract hosted an intriguing lecture peat, also called turf, from a bog in Tby John Gillis on the Faddan More the townland of Faddan More in Psalter on Saturday, September 26. County Tipperary, Ireland on It just so happened that it was July 20, 2006.
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