Painting Speech

The completed certificate

callibeth — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:50:12 +0000

… from earlier this year. I had posted a snippet of it at the time.

Envelope Exchange – August 2011

callibeth — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:53:06 +0000

I’ve been busy on the book commission, but took a few minutes to do my envelope for the year-long 2011 Envelope Exchange. I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with my Epson wide-format new inkjet printer, and I carried that experimentation over to this envelope. (As usual, click on the image to see it at a larger size.)

These are the layers on this #10 Strathmore Laid envelope:

Inkjet-print of a scan of some painting on Arches Text Wove.
A layer of Utrecht Workable Spray Fixative.
The name in Dr. Martin’s Iridescent calligraphy gold ink, shaded in FW Antelope acrylic ink(#2½ Mitchell nib and Principality pointed nib).
The address in the same FW Antelope, with #4 Mitchell nib.
Flowers with #3½ and #4 nibs.

I chose the stamp after I did the envelope. I’m surprised at how well they go together.

Designer Bookbinders of America

callibeth — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:03:33 +0000

Designer Bookbinders of America — what a wonderful new organization and website showcasing excellence in designer bookbinding!

Birthday cards

callibeth — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:57:57 +0000

These are currently sitting in General Delivery in a small town in North Carolina. The birthdays are Friday and Saturday, but I bet the birthday boy and birthday girl don’t see this before they pick up their birthday cards.

Each of these quotations are very apt for two of the youngest seniors I know.

Watercolor, gouache, Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White, pastels — on Arches Text Wove.

Here’s a new post

callibeth — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:26:00 +0000

… just for my daughter, who thought the dates were wrong on my blog. They aren’t. It’s just been so long since I posted anything …

A birthday card

callibeth — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:55:19 +0000

I’m enjoying playing with these alcohol inks and stencils that Martha Lever has been showing on her blog. Click on the image for full-size view.

Made for the most stylish birthday girl I know.

callibeth — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 01:24:38 +0000

Even though it’s been on the Internet for 2 years, I’ve not seen this video of Hermann Zapf until today.

The Art of Hermann Zapf from Johnny Dib on Vimeo.

It must have been filmed 40+ years ago. That paper is luscious, probably handmade. And his pen renditions of type are amazing.

Seen on It’s Nice That.

Another sliver of a commission

callibeth — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:18:12 +0000

A sliver of a commission

Here’s something I’ve finished this morning. Since it won’t be presented for a couple of weeks, I’m only showing a sliver of it, and redacting identifying parts.

So I got it completed — on the second time time around, never mind what I did wrong on the first time around — but the names under the signature line ran a little long. No problem, I thought. I can just extend the signature lines. Then I realized that the extension ran into the space for the gold seal. This is the third time around.

Such are the minor idiocies of working under the influence of a major head cold. I’m assuming it’s a cold. After all, I had a flu shot this year, so it can’t be the flu. Right?

Overthinking the journal

callibeth — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Starting my 2011 journal

Yesterday I started a new journal for the new year. For many people, that means popping down to Borders for a $10 ready-made journal with ruled lines, and interesting cover, and a useful magnetic closure. (I love those magnetic closures.)

Evidently that would be too easy for me.

Instead I built my own, basing the page proportion on the golden ratio (1:0.6180339887), and the page layout on Rosarivo’s “divine proportion” and the van de Graaf canon of page construction, in turn based on medieval manuscript page design.

I’m using a pad of short-grain sketch paper, and I’ll bind it at the end of the year. Assuming I’m still writing in it by then. But of course I will be, right? It’s my new year’s resolution.

Happy New Year!

callibeth — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 15:42:01 +0000

Happy New Year, using a Zig scroll-and-brush marker and Photoshop