Quarto - Sept meeting pics

Paul's work

I had a brilliant workshop yesterday with the Quarto book arts group that meet in Sunderland. Paper artist Paul Johnson held a workshop on pop-up books, we were creating a row of market stalls that each had a different theme - toys, flowers and clothes.

Paul provided the templates so we could get on with the construction as quickly as possible - the hinges were all dovetail joints and so simple - just a triangle that slotted in and fixed to the paper.


Paul's work


Paul's work

We built the flower stall first, and spent some time using the coloured sheets that Paul provided to create the flowers. It was important to understand how to attach decorations to the pop up so that it all folds down correctly - I had to 'prune' my flowers so that the middle section folded properly!



Above pic - basic construction for one of my stalls.











It was also the ninth birthday of the group so Margaret brought cake for everyone! I'd recommend you visit Paul's website for more information on his work.

September meeting workshop

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, we've had our summer break and will be back on Saturday 11th Sept for our next workshop. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone again although as usual it now feels as though the summer has flow by!

The workshop planned is with Terry Johnson - Presentation, layout & design. Terry is a local artist and architect so has become a regular guest with us over the last couple of years.

Our October meeting will be an in-house follow up session (so we have an opportunity to follow on from the work with Terry) and then in November we have another local artist, Sarah Colgate for a workshop on Pen & Wash. You may remember that Sarah came to visit us last year, so it will be lovely to have her back again. That leaves us with the December meeting as a follow up to Sarah (and time to exchange our Christmas Cards!)

Any new members are always welcome and can pop along or get in touch first for details. We meet at the United Reform Church Hall, Lowther Street, Penrith. From 10am - 4pm.

See you there!

Vellum examples

At our May workshop John had brought with him some stunning examples of work on Vellum, the first here is a commission that Margaret Daubney produced - the client took the other version of this one.







Margaret had also commisioned fellow calligrapher Ann Hechle to produce this piece of work for John - it was a treat to be able to see this up close. Ann had also given John a series of detailed information about each of the squares that she had researched. Brilliant!



Following on from this John also had some of the tester pieces that Margaret had worked on - it's useful to be able to see the tests as so often all we see are is the finished version in a book or exhibition and we're left guessing how it developed and progessed into what we see. It maybe takes away some of the mystery but as an amatuer I love seeing the rough layouts and ideas as it helps me to work through a project and idea's develop as I go along. Some won't work, and some will but unless you follow them through how do you know this?

Photos from Kirkby Stephen Poetry Walk workshop

here's some more photos taken from our workshop day - they are the various layouts that the group was working on during the day.

Kirkby Stephen Poetry Walk - workshop

Today was our much looked forward to workshop with John Ward - on the Kirkby Stephen Poetry Walk. A series of 12 stone carving marking a year in the life of a sheep farmer, the lettering is carved by Pip Hall, a local artist to Cumbria.

Below are some of the examples from John's stone rubbings, you can see that he traces the letterforms from the original rubbings and then uses these to develop a piece of his own work.





After tracing the letter forms that John had produced from stone rubbings, we then looked at constrasting the large letters with the rest of the poem (or just part of it). Cutting the letters out and messing around with the layout is a great way to get a feel for what works, taking pics on a digital camera lets you move words around and keep a reference each time - brilliant time saver!







John also talked us through the use of vellum and he had brought with him some stunning examples of work which I'll add to the blog over the next week....

North Yorkshire Scribes

I was emailed just recently by Sarah from North Yorkshire Scribes who meet over in Yarm each month - they have a new blog so if you are interested then click here for more information.

April Open Day and workshops

We had a great day on Saturday - with a full day in the Penrith shopping arcade, talking to a few people interested in commissions and interest in joining the group! Thanks to everyone who helped out and came along.

At the meeting room we were also joined by Beth, who was on her Easter break from Uni, and hopefully she'll keeo coming along whenever she is able to.

Our next meeting in May is a tutor workshop with John Ward - We'll be looking at the Kirkby Stephen poetry walk which I'm looking forward to.

April Open Day and Demonstrations

-
Saturday 10th April
United Reform Church Hall, Penrith
and also at the Devenshire Arcade, Penrith
10am - 4pm

We are holding on open day with workshops, demonstrations and an exhibition - all for free!



We're hoping that if you are in the area and interested in seeing what we do then we'd love for you to come along and meet the group.

We will have an exhibition space in the Devonshire Arcade in Penrith town centre and also demonstrations and further examples of work at the United Reform Church Hall, on Lowther Street in Penrith.

We're hoping it will be a fun and lively day and the opportunity to try your hand and have a go yourself!

Kirkby Stephen Poetry Walk

-
If you are ever in the area of Kirkby Stephen I'd recommend you visited the Poetry Walk, a signposted public path taking you through 12 months in the life of a hill farmers year. The Poetry Path is a celebration of the hill farmer's ancient and enduring relationship with the beautiful landscape in and around the upper Eden valley.



Along the circular route of public paths there are twelve short poems written by Meg Peacocke which have been superbly carved into stone by Pip Hall, a lettering artist. It's a lovely walk taking you either side of the River Eden and not too long.

We are focusing on the poetry walk in our May workshop with calligrapher John Ward which I am looking forward to. I'm not sure what we will be doing on the day yet but the letters carved are a lovely inspiration.

March Meeting and Handwriting competition

It's been a while since my last post, we had our AGM in February and have now confimed our agenda for the year, we have three tutors coming - John Ward in May, Terry Johnston in September and Sarah Colgate in November. It's shaping up to be a really exciting year.

We welcomed two potential new members at our March meeting yesterday, Linda and Heather. I hope they both enjoyed meeting the group and their first taster session.

We also judged the Northern Pen Show Handwriting competition for the second year running. Five schools entered, again with three age groups (8-9yrs, 9-10yrs and 10-11 yrs). A piece of literature had been pre-chosen for each age group so that they were all judged fairly.

We picked a commended and highly commended for each school and age group plus and overall winner - like last year, all the winners will be announced on the day so I'm not going to spoil the suprise!

Best of luck to all the kids who entered!