And even more daily alphabets
Web design and teaching have taken over my free time recently, but I still get in at least an alphabet a day. What do with them all? It’s actually rather surprising how long it takes to get through a pad of paper.
Yet another daily alphabet
Yep, still at it, at least one a day.
Homemade awls – student grade
I had a good time this weekend making awls for my students from a bag of sponge brushes and a paper of doll needles. The red duck tape should find it easy to find them in the studio 🙂
Here’s what I did, step by step:
- Drill a hole in the end of each brush handle.
- With cutting pliers (snips?), cut off the eye end of the doll needle to a good length.
- Insert the needle in the drilled hole together with Loctite glue.
- Cut and apply a circle of duck tape to the needle end of the awl, piercing the tape with the needle. Clip curves and smooth allowance around the handle — I pulled and attached every other clipped bit and then went back and attached the remaining ones to minimize bulk.
- Wrapped the handle with duck tape to secure the circle of duck tape at the end of the handle and make a nice surface to hold onto to.
Steps 4 and 5 aren’t necessary, but the duck tape adds a nice finishing touch, I think.
I was going to remove the foam brush heads from each one, but then I decided hey! it can be a double-duty tool. When the foam brush is spent, you can either unscrew it and have a straight-up awl, or you can replace the brush head. Rather ingenious, if I say it myself.
Filler for the guild newsletter
As editor of the Big Sky Scribes newsletter, Nota Bene, I sometimes end up with layout holes. This filled the one that was left in the issue that went to the printer yesterday.
The exchange book — completed
Well, actually I have a little left on the 9th and 10th books: 1 set of covers and 2 slip cases. Soon.
Annual exchange book in progress
I didn’t want to post this until other seven members of our annual artist book exchange book got see theirs in person. I think nearly everyone has hers, so here’s an in-progress shot of the edition (or is that a series? — they’re all manuscript books, individually lettered) in progress. Making these books satisfied the magpie in me — plenty of shine in the gouache and book cloth.
Artist books – my collection
I had fun organizing all the artist books I own — at least, all of the ones I can find at the moment that aren’t out on loan, and only one of any editions I’ve made. And I included a few trade bindings of interest. Most of them fit into these three precious boxes.
More daily alphabets – Pentel Color Brushes, ZIG Millennium 005 marker, Sakura Calligrapher 20 marker
Off-weight lettering
Last week a friend pointed out a Facebook post by John Stevens: some “wrong weighted”
lettering, as he calls it, that she was working to emulate. I can’t find an example on his website, but if you’re on Facebook you might be able to see it here. I think it requires some time and enough kinetic familiarity to get a good rhythm going so that the strokes have more life than mine do. In the Facebook post, John calls it the “syncopated rhythm of Ben Shahn mixed with broad pen calligraphy.” In earlier posts here and here, you can see some of my attempts at the Ben Shahn lettering he references. Later, I used that lettering in a book commission of poetry by Madeleine Gomez:
