Venice Kids Calligraphy
Summer of 2007
by
Fred Reckker
Brehonna returned for her third calligraphy class. Andrew, Edna & Patrick returned for their second calligraphy class. Allie, Ava, Bethany, Eder, Janelle, Kara, Mallory, Marissa, Morgan, Olivia, and Trent registered to experience calligraphy for the first time in the Venice Library Young Adult Summer Calligraphy program. And Theo has been responsible for providing them with this wonderful calligraphic arts experience as for middle and high school students. Unfortunately there was a waiting list and some will have to wait until the summer of 2008 to "learn what it's all about". I'm told that the word is already out for next summer.
Knowing from past experiences that we lacked time for more projects we added an additional hour per class, meeting every Tuesday and Thursday from 1:00 - 4:00 pm, and even added extra time the last two days to complete the projects. Twenty-four hours plus.
After informal self-introductions and a brief review of the syllabus we assembled journals with arches text wove for lettering and drawing, Canson Mi-teintes and hand made papers for the cover and waxed thread for binding. Along with various notes these journals ended up as calligraphic autograph remembrance books for the students.
We began Uncial skeletal lettering with an HB pencil and 1/2" square guides to learn the families. Real words and nonsense words reinforced the structure and letter spacing. Upon completion we transferred to a white Prismacolor pencil to letter our names on dark papers, then did shading with a second color, then a second and a third color. Really cool results!
A simple "thank you" card done with Prismacolors was designed from 8 1/2" x 11" lightweight colored paper, then followed up by a Double-fold Pop-up Card. Envelope templates and paper were provided. Many dads received beautiful Father's Day cards.
Moving right along they were introduced to a Speedball 3mm nib and Higgins Eternal Ink and practiced their thick and thin strokes with the "i"'s, "h"'s, "x"'s and "n"'s before moving to the specific families. Because of their experience with the pencil skeletal letterforms they easily moved into the "thick and thin" steel nib forms. Three simple projects were quickly completed.
Alternate letterforms and numbers completed the Uncial alphabet.
Layout and design was presented with all students using the four-line "Mary, Mary, quite contrary . . " verse. Aligned Left, Aligned Right, Centered, and Asymmetric layouts were discussed. All completed the verse with an Aligned Left layout with a 3mm nib and submitted to me before the end of the class. At the next class I returned the original with three reduced copies at 50% and a 1.5mm nib. They were then taught how to "cut & paste" (most used removable tape) and complete a "centered" layout and their choice layout of the "other three". Their pasted copies were given to Mr. Ruehl who copied them so that they could request their arches text wove to complete their first final piece with the 1.5mm nib. The second and third completed projects would be completed on Arches hot press paper.
A basic Versal lesson was given along with exemplars of Roman Capitals, some Uncials, and Lombardic Capitals. They were given eight decorated samples of 2 1/4" square backgrounds and asked to complete the "Mary, Mary . . . " verse first, then use their background of choice with the Roman, Celtic or Lombardic "M" of choice to complete it. Incredible results!
The third layout and design project provided them with a "Tree if Life" design with a decorated "M" and a left and bottom border. They could letter with gouache or Higgins Eternal and decorate the border with prismacolors. Amazing results!
But time was running short so we only touched lightly on the general principles of Celtic Knot work and computer knot work construction. They viewed a completed ornamental Celtic Capital from the Book of Kells (dragons, eels, knots & designs) and took home an 8 1/2" x 11" copy to color using nine different colors. It's a two to four hour project so maybe next year we'll see the results.
So much to learn, so little time.
Next year we plan to learn Italic. Don't miss the Coastal Calligraphers Guild Summer 2008 Newsletter to see how we did.
