Thursday 2 December 2010

Saturday's workshop cancelled

No surprises - Saturday's workshop (4 December) is cancelled due to the weather!

Hope to see everyone at the AGM in January.


Christmas lights in Guisborough this time last year.

Sunday 31 October 2010

Thoughts on pricing


Today was the last day of the Ripon exhibition and I hope everyone who took part thought it was worthwhile. I thought it was a great collection and was pleased to see a good number of "red dots" on pieces (including mine!).

The visitor book had some great comments - it's really nice to see that people enjoyed our work, and there were a few comments that the prices were too low!

How do you price your work? What is a "fair" price? Is it enough simply to have sold a piece, knowing that someone liked our work enough to hand over some cash for it?

I think most people in the group would say that they're not trying to make money from selling their calligraphy. If you had to pay for a custom frame, that would add a lot to the price.

I'd be interested to hear what anyone thinks about setting prices. Are we undervaluing our work? Are we undercutting people who are professionals, and making it more difficult for them to sell at a reasonable price? Or is that a separate question?



Any thoughts? Please leave a comment here.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Ripon exhibition - until 31 October

Don't forget to visit our exhibition at Ripon Cathedral - it's on now until the 31 October.

There's a great variety of work on display. Please leave any comments here.




Sunday 3 October 2010

Catching up




Here are a few photos from our June workshop with Manny - layout and design.

If anyone has any pictures from recent workshops, please let me know so I can post them. Thanks!

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Sunday 19 September 2010

New links

Just a couple of things I found recently....

Letterlovers blog - a fairly new blog, "For the Creators and Lovers of Letters, Lettering Art and Calligraphy".

Looks interesting and I'll add it to the list in the sidebar.


A letter a week looks really interesting - could be an idea for a project or a personal challenge perhaps?

And here's a great blog with loads of links and inspiration - calligraffia.

Paul Johnson at Quarto

I joined the Quarto group in Sunderland for a workshop with Paul Johnson (see his website here.

It was a really interesting day and Alison has done a great writeup here, so please take a look. I've got some pictures to post too but these are good.

Scribblers website and blog

Scribblers is a supplier of calligraphy items - they have a good website and blog.

Last year when I needed something in a hurry they posted it to me straightaway and it arrived the next day! Can't ask better than that!

Monday 14 June 2010

Day 7 - Fly



Day 7's word was "fly". Written with charcoal pencil on an offcut from some previous experiments.

Heavy metal - day 4


Day 4's prompt was "heavy metal". For me, heavy metal = gothic. Here's one version of "ne illigitime carborundere te". It's written with a carpenter's pencil and I like the texture, even if it isn't very readable. This was done before I started my "thank you" theme.

Day 6 - Fluid


I'm sorry these posts aren't in order. Now I've posted some things, hopefully I'll keep up to date for the rest of the course....

CBC Catchup


Well, I joined Creative Bootcamp, and I've done most of the exercises. But I haven't yet been brave enough to post anything. So here goes. Over the weekend we were encouraged to do something different, so my something different is to post some of my work!

Each day we are given a "random word" and encouraged to produce something using that word as a theme. I started off trying to write the word in a way that reflected its meaning. However, later in the week, I remembered that I've been wanting to produce a set of "thank you" cards that I could get printed and use for notes when I want to say a quick thank you. So I've started to use each day's work to produce a "thank you" design. These aren't necessarily the finished article, but ideas that I could work on.

I am not sure it will work every day. Today's prompt was "drizzle" and I'm not sure that thank you to the theme of drizzle is a very good way to go! For Radio 4 listeners, it reminds me of "One song to the tune of another":-).

So here goes with day 8 - ornament. I'm afraid the days will be a bit jumbled as I'm not posting in order.

Saturday 5 June 2010

Creativity Boot Camp

Feeling inspired after today's workshop? (I'll post pictures later).

How about joining the creativity bootcamp for the next 2 weeks?



boot camp

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Materials for Saturday's workshop on Design and Layour

A3 layout Pad / Cartridge Paper
Nice paper for writing
Usual Calligraphy Pens / 3A Automatic Pen
Coke Pen / Walnut Inks
Chinese Sumi Inks
Red / Vermillion Gouache
Long Ruler / Two 'L' shapes for cropping

Wednesday 26 May 2010

BIG letters

Some photos from our workshop with Su (a long time ago....but it was a great day!)

We wrote on huge sheets of lining paper and kraft paper with floor mops, sponges, anything L A R G E really.

Then Su showed us how to cut these pieces into smaller sections and use them as the basis for our calligraphy - brilliant!






Tuesday 27 April 2010

May meeting / workshop

Message from Colin....

Just to remind you that the NYC May workshop is to be held on the 8th May which is the second Saturday in the month (not our usual first Saturday). This is because of the Bank Holiday this coming weekend where it was felt that a number of Members would be away.

Chops and May meeting

Copied from an email from Ian.....

Just a reminder to bring your "Chop" artwork to the next workshop. Barbara has kindly offered to organise the ordering and buying of the finished stamps.
The artwork should be at the required chop size - probably within a 15mm x 15mm square, but just how big you want it is up to you.
If you are really struggling to reduce your artwork Colin has volunteered to scan and reduce it for you so just bring what you have to the workshop.
I will be grateful if you would pass this on to anyone not on email.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Preston Park exhibition

I thought I'd start this off by giving my views on our exhibition.
Firstly, I think we should congratulate ourselves on the range and quality of our work. Obviously there are the 'stars' amongst us (you know who you are!) but all the work submitted was to a very high standard.

It was a different kind of exhibition - sharing the cases with the museum exhibits - and in some instances, I'm not sure that it worked. I also think that having cases without calligraphy detracted from the overall effect. Having said that, I think that it was a success: it exposed calligraphy to a different audience and that has to be a Good Thing. It also had us working to themes rather than simply doing something we liked which challenged our creativity.
I have heard criticism of the lighting and hanging and the venue(no reflection on our team who had to do the work!) but if you remember, there were similar criticisms of Ripon Cathedral. If we have an exhibition in a non-gallery space, there will always be compromises.

Incidentally, there was no gilding in any of the 48 pieces: contrast that with the CLAS exhibition in Sunderland. Should we schedule some lessons?

I'd be interested to hear other views.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Christmas Cards











A bit late, I know, but here are some photos of cards made and received by group members.

Welcome to our new blog



Welcome to the new blog for North Yorkshire Calligraphers.

We are a group of about 25 people with an interest in calligraphy. We meet monthly near Yarm, Cleveland.

Our website gives further details about the group and our monthly workshops. The blog will give up-to-date information on our activities.

For more information please visit our website and use the contact us page or e-mail us at info@northyorkscalligraphers.org.uk



Our Exhibition is open at Preston Hall, Stockton

Our exhibition, titled "Marking our Mark" is now running at Preston Hall, Stockton, from 1 to 30 April 2010.

Please visit the Preston Hall website for information on opening times and location details.


The calligraphy on display includes pieces with quotations, comments and observations and the pieces are displayed within and alongside the display cabinets in the "Made in Stockton" permanent collection in the museum.

For further information on the group please visit our website, www.northyorkscalligraphers.org.uk