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Sculpture in Prague

"Metalmorphosis" by David Černý. A moving portrait of Kafka, probably.
“Metalmorphosis” by David Černý. A moving portrait of Kafka, probably. Someone has posted a video here.
"Saint Wenceslas"
“Saint Wenceslas” by David Černý
"Slight Uncertainty" - Fiberglas sculpture by Michal Trpák
“Slight Uncertainty” – Fiberglas sculpture by Michal Trpák
Caught in a pissing match!
Caught in a pissing match! More David Černý.

We recently returned from a trip to the Czech Republic. Prague has so many interesting sculptures, especially pieces by David Černý, Prague’s bad-boy artist.

His “Metalmorphosis” is hypnotic. We stood and watched it for longer than I would have imagined. His “Saint Wenceslas” is a biting commentary on this sculpture by Josef Václav Myslbek in nearby Wenceslas Square.

We saw most of the sculptures listed in this article in the Prague Post. Unfortunately, I’ve lost a chunk of photos, or I’d include them here.

It would have been easy to miss Michal Trpák’s sculpture, “Slight Uncertainty”, hanging above a busy intersection, but our friend Jenny was there to make sure I didn’t. Thanks, Jenny!

I’ll save the modern galleries and medieval manuscripts for later posts.

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Beautiful needlework instruction book

Needlework instruction book. Dublin, Ireland, 1833-37.
Needlework instruction book. Dublin, Ireland, 1833-37.

http://northeastauctions.com/product/two-extremely-rare-needlework-instruction-books-with-samples-from-the-female-model-school-kildare-place-dublin-ireland-1833-37/

http://northeastauctions.com/product/two-extremely-rare-needlework-instruction-books-with-samples-from-the-female-model-school-kildare-place-dublin-ireland-1833-37/

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Nota Bene – newsletter of the Big Sky Scribes

2015-10-17 Nota BeneLately, for various reasons, I’ve been hanging out at the local printer a lot.  I was wearing my guild newsletter editor hat on Thursday, when I picked up the current issue of the Big Sky Scribes newsletter, the Nota Bene. This morning I took all 90 or so of them to the post office. A lot of great stuff was submitted this time, and it’s a good issue. Guild members should see it in their mailbox early next week.

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Rachel Yallop

One of my favorite calligraphers, Rachel Yallop, does beautiful pointed pen work, among other letter styles. She demonstrated her method in the class I took with her at Legacies II in summer 2014. She keeps the angle of the pen staff to the paper quite shallow. I’m sure if I kept my pen at the same angle, my letters would look just this good. Not.

Here’s a video of Rachel Yallp, calligrapher extraordinaire, writing copperplate with a straight pen holder. Originally shared publicly by Rachel on Facebook May 15, 2014.

Follow her on Facebook for a real treat.

A video of Rachel Yallop , calligrapher extraordinaire, writing copperplate with a straight pen holder. Originally shared publicly by Rachel on Facebook May 15, 2014

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Pointed pen practice

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Pointed pen practice: Jane Austen’s letter from Darcy to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. Principality nib at x-height=2.8mm. Moon Palace sumi ink on Strathmore recycling drawing paper.

Today’s work included the final lettering for a commission: a long text in pointed pen script. I haven’t done much pointed pen lately, so I did this piece as a warm-up. It’s the beginning of the famous letter from Darcy to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. Fun stuff. Good thing this wasn’t the real commission: there is a hando (rather than a typo) at the end of the very first line. The pen nib was new but awful. I had to change it out before starting on the actual commissioned piece.

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Case binding and daily ABCs

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Blank 5-signature case quarter binding using the paper which will be used for the final book. Cloth spine, cover paper gouache on Arches Text Wove

Yesterday I finished the testing binding for our local guild’s collaborative book. It had been awhile since I cased in a book. It’s rather amazing how much I forget between bindings … and also how much I remember of the tiny details. Unfortunately, often the details I remember are the same ones I’ve forgotten until just after that detail is executed.

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Sakura 3.0 mm calligraphy marker on newsprint.

And here is one of this morning’s daily ABCs.

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Some recent and in-progress work

2015-10-05-worktable-in-progress-itemsLots of projects going these days.

Today members of our local guild bound a test text block for the collaborative book we’ve been working on. We are making a standard case binding using the same paper on which the book will be printed. Today we got as far as applying the mull to the spine. I had brought supplies for this, and I was determined to unpack it all when I got back to my studio. This led eventually to trimming the text block and applying a headband. You can just see that text block underneath the top black square of paper. I did go ahead and cut out the cover and spine boards, but that’s for another day, because I continued to work on …

Addressing styles. I had the best time addressing some personal envelopes recently and discovered that I don’t really need guidelines for certain styles. So I’ve been developing some more casual envelope address styles. Some of what I tried today is shown above: sumi ink, pigment ink, gold gel pen, and fine marker on white, black and shimmery gold stock.

Yesterday I got out two travel watercolor sets and made test cards using a water brush. At the tops of the cards are the pure colors. At the bottoms of the cards I’ve experimented with mixing and tints.

 

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Book project with local guild

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Our local guild, Bridger Mountain Scribes, has been working on a collaborative book for the past year. (See more about the project on the front page of the website.) I did the layout (the digital paste-up, I mean) and the lettering for the book extras (title pages, footers, intro text), and yesterday I picked up the printing proofs. We are going to print a couple of copies each and hand bind them ourselves. Fun project!

Here’s a shot of some of the raw lettering and backgrounds that I used, and here’s the title page, which gives you idea of how I approached the section heading pages as well.