A Fabulous Season Kick-Off
By Colleen Mlecoch
The Colleagues’ program year got off to a wonderful start on September 16 at the St. Louis Park Library. Members arrived at the new venue eager to catch up with friends they may not have seen for several years. Some brought items to give away, others brought recent art work to share, some borrowed books and journals from the CoC Library collection, all brought plenty of enthusiasm! Marion Greene, CoC Board secretary, served as emcee. With a great sense of humor, she kept everyone engaged and on track.
Patricia Paolella wins a blue ribbon for delivering an awesome presentation titled, “The Art of Writing: Tudor England and The Secretary Hand.” A participant at TudorCon 2023, a hybrid event held in Lancaster, PA (adjacent to the Renaissance Fair), Patricia represented The Colleagues of Calligraphy among a group of scholars/authors who speak to an audience of Tudor era enthusiasts. Other speakers included Tracy Borman (On Elizabeth’s Stepmothers), Carol Ann Lloyd (The Tudors by Numbers), Becky Stockton (Tudor Gardens and Gardeners) - and more!
Many of those present at our CoC meeting had seen examples of this hand in the past, but most of us had dismissed it (as transitional, perhaps?)... Patricia sparked our interest and appreciation for this late stage gothic style of handwriting and its uses as it developed -along with society - in the early 16th century. As one member said, “A big thank you for a fascinating lecture! It was so full of clear detail. The time-line of each letter style and the many samples of notable scribes was illuminating. Your lecture could have easily gone on for another hour!”
Joe Balabuszko, who had planned a demonstration on making alcohol ink, took a different direction at the request of participants who were more curious about making chalk paint and gilding. Joe has a deep background in many techniques and we are excited to have him as a new member... Welcome Joe and Lisa Larson, who also became a member on Saturday.
Patricia has provided some pictures from the actual Tudorcon event (https://www.englandcast.com/tudorcon/) - enjoy!
Georgia Greeley shared some of her recent book creations. She also shared some Chinese paintings she created under the guidance of Hong Zhang who will be presenting a workshop on Chinese Calligraphy in October.
Mary’s first attempt at the use of gold leaf. Mary used scraps of gold & other metal leaf. (apologies for the skewed image). Thanks for sharing this Mary! It is lovely!
Thank you, Jean Formo, who shares here - what she intended to bring until a last minute challenge prevented her from doing so:
From Jean:
These items were going to appear at our September show and share gathering. Had some directional challenges that day and could not make it! Some here are blackletter practice papers in view of our current theme. There is a colored pencil drawing on film. It is in progress...see sketch lines. A few are pencil drawings of our recent August river cruise...from memory. The smaller one is a silver point drawing. Walking in Wonder is the very first pencil rough of something I am doing for fun. The final will be much better(all by hand in pen and ink without any Photoshop help.) The letters in that one are invented as I go according to proportion, balance and weight. It is a rough so the erasure and corrections are visible in it now. I will make another final of it using 5 graphite pencil gradations to incorporate highlights. The phrase comes from a John O'Donahue book I have which uses a basic cap font unlike what I have done.
I included the Israel Kraft Plant one because I think it's a good example of using blackletter to surprise the reader. Our late talented Glen Epstein asked me to do the text (which his comedic mind invented) any way I saw fit in any hand. We both agreed that this one worked. I still like it a lot. It joined about 100 or he Glen-concocted gems in one of his wonderful calligraphic calendars.
Take care, Jean
