I’ve moved!

Posted on December 28, 2010 by callibeth

… my blog, that is. After years on Blogger — checking the archives, I see that it’s been a little over 5 years — I’ve moved this calligraphy blog to my calligraphy website. It may be a few days before I get the sidebar back in order, but the posts are all here. The old site was here but it now redirects to this blog, and you should be able to see all the old posts here.

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A small Christmas commission

Posted on December 19, 2010 by callibeth

Just a little thing, but fun to do. It’s a private little song the client sings to her grandchildren, so I haven’t reproduced that here, but I can show the little pink and purple flowers I added in the left margin.

Meanwhile, I’ve begun working on a much bigger, very exciting commission that I expect will take a good while to complete. I’ll be sharing bits and pieces, although not the commission itself, in future posts.
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Envelopes

Posted on December 18, 2010 by callibeth

Using Adirondack alcohol inks and Martha’s blog posts as inspiration, I’ve just completed the last of the addresses in the annual envelope exchange … with a few extra envelopes for future purposes.

The 2nd photo shows the envelopes before they were addresses, and the stencil I used. Actually, I hated the addressing job I did on the bottom envelope, so I trashed it, made another round of stenciled envelopes and started again.
Fun!
Posted in envelopes, painting | 2 Comments

A Tale of Two Books

Posted on November 21, 2010 by callibeth

Just finished a commission for an accordion book. I thought I understood what the client wanted, but you know, every once in a while I just get it wrong.

I heard:

  • Stained glass but not religious (which I suggested would be difficult).
  • Masculine.
  • Traditional.
  • Muted colors.

Well, I’m not good with muted colors; this first attempt is muted colors … for me.

What I didn’t understand was the particular meaning of traditional. Looking at this first attempt I now realize that this looks like a particular style of my Presbyterian youth. My mother had jewelry that looks like this, and I was clueless about that connection while designing the book.

So I started over again with a style that the client had liked in the past. And I realize that even though it doesn’t have muted colors and it doesn’t seem very masculine to me, it is more traditional — in both a catholic and Catholic sense.
The cover is a green silk bookcloth shot through with gold. I think it works. I made a wrapper from handmade paper with leaf inclusions, using a strip of book cloth as the ribbon holding the bone clasp.
Commissions are always a learning experience.

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Bookbinding Tutorials

Posted on November 15, 2010 by callibeth

Today I went looking for a simple multi-signature book binding tutorial for a friend. En route I found all these interesting binding tutorials:

Makes me want to make a book.
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Origami + Calligraphy

Posted on November 7, 2010 by callibeth

Last month I did some table cards to identify the food at a reception featuring Japanese and Chinese cuisine. I meant to take some photos before I let them go, but, as often happens, I forgot. So I was cleaning up the studio today and came across the remains of the project. These rejects show the Japanese and Chinese cards, respectively.

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Wicked’s Wizard on History

Posted on October 22, 2010 by callibeth

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Dinesen on the salt water

Posted on October 11, 2010 by callibeth

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Faulkner on GTD

Posted on October 5, 2010 by callibeth

Watercolor detail from a handmade book I’m working on. Quote done with leftover watercolor from the book. The lettering lost a lot in the tweaking process, but I don’t have time to go back and fix it.

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Oscar Wilde on Art

Posted on October 2, 2010 by callibeth

This quotations was inspired by the image displayed with Alex Savakis’ interview with Martha Ericson.

The lettering looked like such fun, I channeled my inner 8-year-old and used a multi-colored gel pen. Halfway through I wished was writing on black paper, and later — voila! through the miracle of Photoshop — I had been.
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