Demystifying Pointed Pen Flourishing

If you're a newbie to pointed pen flourishing and wish to know more, you should you should run, not walk to a workshop taught by Heather Held.

(My apologies to Heather for this less than flattering photo of her - but at least you'll recognize her when you meet her!  I was so busy creating marks on paper, the last thing I thought of was taking the perfect portrait!)

Just watching Heather work is one of the best ways to learn.

All these photos are from the second day. The first day was letterforms.  It was good Copperplate practice time which was much needed!!  I now have some insight into the differences between Copperplate and Spencerian.  I'm definitely a Copperplate girl.

The heart of the flourishing we learned from Heather was the Universal Line of Beauty which you can see below.

 From there we learned this basic cartouche and then it was all about embellishing that basic cartouche.

 

 

You can see how Heather turns her paper every which way.  What a scary concept for me!  And I almost died not using a guard sheet.  To me, it's like driving without a seatbelt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got exactly what I needed from Day 2 of Heather's workshop. You can stare and admire pointed pen flourishing in old books and reproductions till the cows come home and that's where it stays. In the books! Not one person in that workshop had a piece of flourishing they couldn't be proud of.

It was amazing.

Heather Held is a very calligraphically determined person. It's obvious from the moment she begins teaching that pointed pen is her passion. 

Near the end of the second day we began working on coloured paper with Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White.  The trick is getting the consistency of the gouache just right for the nib you're using!

 

Then we graduated to adding colour...  This is Heather's work, of course.

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I'll share a couple of my own things.  I threw out *a lot* of practice pages.

I just want to acknowledge Christiane for ruining my life by introducing me to the Esterbrook 357 vintage nib which is no longer made.  I hope I can make this nib last forever.

 

Yes, that should be Esterbrook!

 

I haven't had so much calligraphic fun since the pigs ate grandma (as the saying goes) thanks to Heather! 

We'll all be able to recognize work by Heather's students.  Just look for that basic cartouche. See it? vbg.

 

Thanks to the Fairbank Calligraphy Society in Victoria for hosting Heather's workshop and thank *you* for stopping by and reading!

Suzanne

 

Heather Held is a Canadian calligrapher and you can be inspired by visiting her website here.

 

 

A Chance to Win!

Hop right over to the Paper Crafts Connection Blog for a chance to win a selection of Quietfire Rubber Stamps!

 

Designer Betsy Veldman has use our stamps to create a delightful Christmas project!  Thanks Betsy!

The deadline is this Friday.
Thanks for stopping by! Suzanne

Happy Birthday Susan!

This really is a birthday card - for a very special person who shares the birth date with my mother, another very special person!  And ahem, it really is going to be late getting to CT!!

 

Happy Birthday Susan!

 

and for those who are interested, here are some of the details.

 

 

 

Learn to Write Your Hurts - Card

I wanted to create another card using Bibi's Nature Prints, but this time try using watercolour pencils to stamp the image.

I used one of the stamps from #01 Love Those Leaves set. I chose a selection of green, yellow and orange watercolour pencils and dipped the tip of the pencil in water.  I coloured the surface of the stamp here and there with each dampened pencil.

Then I spritzed the whole image using the fine spray from a Mini Mister and stamped onto the Sun Kiss decorated paper.  I repeated this two more times so I had a line of leaves. I wanted a bit more variety in the leaf colour, but I guess I wasn't adventurous enough with my watercolour pencils! (I'm kind of sneaking this card in when I should be doing something else!  You know that feeling?) The quotation was stamped with Olympia Green VersaFine ink after the leaves had dried.

Romantic Rectangles die was used to cut out the Sun Kiss paper.  I could have layerd and layed, but thought that this looked pretty good the way it was, except for needed a little shading around the edge of the diecut.   I used Distress Forest Moss and Shabby Shutter for that. I used Pop Dots to mount the decorated die cut and give dimension to the card.

To finish off, I coloured three pearls with Pesto alcohol ink and added them in the bottom right-hand corner. 

Here are the supplies and links!  Thanks for looking, Suzanne

Happy Anniversary Card

This is a little Happy Anniversary card to celebrate the second anniversary of Nature's Print Shop.  Congratulations Bibi!  Bibi uses *real* plants and foliage to create her prints for rubber stamps.  There is a real art to that!

To celebrate, Bibi is having a sale on her Etsy shop - you can pick up that link on her blog.  When I saw her Etsy shop, she inspired me to finally get mine active after being an Etsy member for two years! 

Happy Anniversary Bibi!

I've used stamps from two of Bibi's sets:
#01 Love Those Leaves and #10 Weed Love

I didn't mean this to turn out quite so delicately.  I'm sorry it doesn't show off the leaves well.  I seem to be stuck in this colour scheme....

 

Reagents:

VersaMagic Dew Drops: Aquatic Splash, Oasis Green and Sea Breeze

Ribbon



Trick or Treat! Oh, just a little trick....

It's my turn today over at Quietfire Creations.

Drag your chains over to see the whole card and how it was made!

See you there!  Suzanne

Inspiring Solitude and Rugged Grandeur

"No scene has ever given me an equal impression of inspiring solitude and rugged grandeur."
~ Walter Wilcox wrote of Moraine Lake and Valley of the Ten Peaks, 1894 (?), Banff National Park

I could never become tired of visiting here.
Thanks for looking!  Suzanne