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Gold on Lettra

This is Dr. Martin's Copperplate Gold on Crane's Lettra envelopes.  I tried to capture the texture of the paper, the raised quality of the ink, and the glittery sparkle.  Nothing compares to holding the envelope in your hand and turning it to the light, though.

Burgues script, flourished

Bookmark for Lisa

Spencerian Script in my favorite walnut ink

Crane Pen Pal Envelope

 Crane paper company requested pen pal letters, so I sent them one and received the most gracious note back from them!  It's fun to get mail, isn't it?

To Save an Envelope

There is nothing more frustrating than to discover small errors when proofreading finished envelopes.  Thankfully, though, most of the time small errors can be repaired and the envelope saved.  I'll show you step by step how I do it:

In this case, I've misspelled the last name.  Tushscherer should be Tuchscherer, so the 's' has got to go and it must be replaced with a 'c'.

The first thing is to gently shave the letter off the paper using a curved exacto blade.

Like so:

After brushing away the fibers, it doesn't look to good, does it?

This is what it looks like after the Pentel Hypereraser does its magic!

There's still a bit of a smudge we'll have to take care of, though.  Bring on the Staedler Mars Plastic eraser!

Last step is to gently burnish the spot to get the disturbed surface of the paper ready to receive ink.  I use a piece of glassine paper and a bone folder to gently rub over the surface.

Now it's ready to be lettered over!

Voila!  Only your calligrapher knows for sure!  ; )

New toys!

I got a shipment of supplies from John Neal today!  Getting a shipment from John Neal is usually a little like Christmas because I always try to buy myself a new little toy to play with.  This time I ordered a sample pot of Twinkling H2O's.  They're just $2.00 for a pot, but you have to take whatever color they send you.  Lucky me!  I got a pot of Indian Copper, a lovely glittering copper.

I played around with it a little bit with the pointed pen, adding distilled water and mixing it right in the pot with my brush, then painting it on to the nib.  It wasn't too hard to get the right consistency for lettering.

Couldn't get a very good picture but maybe you can see a bit of the twinkle. . .

The Business of Thanksgiving

The sun is streaming through the windows in my studio.  The pens and brushes are standing at attention in their jars, and the light is glinting off them merrily--a visual invitation to come, sit down and play.

The bed is not made, I haven't had breakfast, I need to sort laundry; so many morning tasks remain.

I think I'll get off the computer and get busy.  The sunshine will have moved on, but its bright, inviting image will remain, calling me to 'come and play.'

I'm thankful that my work feels like play.

What are you thankful for?  Be sure to stop by Rebecca Writes and see what others are thankful for!

Cross posted at Hiraeth.

The Business of Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for some new sources for leads and the time in which to pursue them!

The Business of Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for creative inspiration.  Some days I sit down to work and nothing comes together.  Any creativity is elusive and seems to be planted deep in heavy sand--irretrievable.  Nothing works; nothing looks right and I have to walk away before the tension of frustration finds its way into my pen grip.

But then there are those days when multitudinous ideas seem to elbow each other to the front of the line, where one idea leads to another and the work is fluid and nearly effortless.

Most days fall somewhere in between.  And that's life, isn't it?  It would be hard to live with endless frustration; it would be so easy to just give up.  I think it would be equally hard to live with ideas popping constantly; who has time to follow all those tempting ideas?

There's a time for everything. . . a time for inspiration and a time for struggle. . .

To everything there is a season,

      A time for every purpose under heaven:
        A time to be born,
And a time to die;
      A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
        A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
      A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
        A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
      A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
        A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
      A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
        A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
      A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
       ⁷ A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
      A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
        A time to love,
And a time to hate;
      A time of war,
And a time of peace.

WIP

WIP:  Work in process. 

I haven't yet unscrewed a bottle of ink or picked up a pen, but the project has been 'in process' for several days--in my head and in my imagination.  I don't know about you, but I have to think long and hard about a piece before I ever sit down at my drawing board and begin the actual work.  So much goes on in the creative process before I ever dip a pen.

This afternoon I'll pick up a pen and begin work on a commissioned piece--a quote by Martin Luther:

Here I stand.  I can do no other.  God help me.  Amen.