Volume 12, Number 2 $8.50

artists’ booksbbookbiNdiNgbpapercraftbcalligraphy

Creating Double-Stroke Letterforms by Martin Jackson

Dancing Letters Scholarship Fund

Creating a Scroll-Tip Pilot Parallel Pen by Carol DuBosch

Between Verse and Vision by Risa Gettler

Heraldry for Calligraphy by Helen Scholes

Spinning Letters by Judy Black, Susan Gunter, and Marilyn Rice

A Passionate Gallery

New Tools & Materials

Passionate Pen Envelopes

Leporello Accordion Book by Carol DuBosch

Contributors / credits

Subscription information

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A Few Excerpts from the Now Intergalactic Song Fest and Cosmic

Miscelany. 2014. Risa Gettler. Hand-lettered and illustrated manuscript book

of nineteen poems by John S. Tumlin. 40 pages, images and text on recto pages

only. Leather binding is by Edna Wright. Each page is held in an open-front sleeve that is sewn into the binding. The front of

the sleeve serves as a frame for its book page (which can be removed).

22" x 13" x 4". Photo by Risa Gettler. “Between Verse and Vision,” page 14.

Bound & Lettered b Spring 2015 1

Volume 12, Number 2, February 2015.

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CREATING DOUBLE-STROKE LETTERFORMSBy MartiN JacksoN

there are two methods to create double-stroke letterforms. one is to use a scroll (or split) nib or pen. these are made to automatically produce double strokes – the pen/nib does it for you. a variety of writing instruments offer scroll versions: Mitchell makes six differ-ent scroll dip pen nibs, Manuscript offers two different scroll nibs (scroll 4 and scroll 6) for some of its fountain pens, and four of the automatic pens have split nibs (numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10). there are also scroll markers, but to make your own split-tip marker, just cut a notch out of the nib of a regular chisel marker. the newest scroll tool is a modified Pilot Parallel Pen (see Carol DuBosch’s article on page 12). the second method, which i’ve taught in workshops, is to use regular nibs, such as Brause, Mitchell, or speedball, and create a “double style” by writing two separate strokes. this method allows you to decide which strokes need to be doubled and which should remain single strokes. sometimes what you leave out is more important than what you put in – not every stroke needs to be doubled. Generally, only the thick strokes are doubled.

All calligraphy shown in this article is by the author.

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DANCING LETTERS SCHOLARSHIP FUND

this past year, the Dancing Letters scholarship Fund (DLsF) was thrilled to be able to offer five people full or partial scholarships to Legacies ii, the 33rd international Lettering arts conference held in the Dallas area this past summer: Nick anderson, Wendy Fung, carol scott, oona tully, and Wendy carnegie. the DLsF was created in 2009 in the memory of ann Van tassel, who had enormous passions for calligraphy, for sharing what she learned, and for teaching. ann was enormously creative and would have been thrilled to meet the 2014 scholarship recipients. they all have her enthusiasm and desire to learn more and to share with others their love of letters. the Dancing Letters scholarship Fund is available for annual con-ferences, local workshops, and yearlong calligraphy classes (such as

a “reggie year”), as well as for camp cheerio calligraphy retreats, Literally Letters at Ghost ranch, and similar programs. application information is available on the scholarship website. if you know of a possible recipient, we welcome suggestions of candidates. to continue offering these scholarships, the Dancing Letters scholarship Fund needs your help. Please donate. All money given to the fund is used for scholarships. you can make a contribution in honor of or in memory of a past teacher or a lost friend. the Danc-ing Letters scholarship Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. to contrib-ute, please go to our website www.dancinglettersscholarshipfund.org or simply mail your tax deductible contribution to: the Dancing Letters scholarship Fund, 196 Lasell st., West roxbury, Ma 02132, Usa – Elissa Barr

Wendy Fung’s pieces from Amity Park’s class, displayed at “Show & Share” on the last day of Legacies.

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EREWHON, first of two pages. Gouache, color pencils, and gel pens. Erewhon (an anagram for “nowhere”) is a Utopia in a faraway land. The high-waisted, monoline lettering with a tall x-height and short ascenders and descenders was used to give a modern, futuristic look. Color pencils were used in the illustration on the first page to render the “lush... jungle growth” and “a young world vibrant with life.” Photography by Nicole Toesca.

BETwEEN vERSE AND vISIONBy risa GettLer

A Few Excerpts from the Now Intergalactic Song Fest and Cosmic Miscelany. 2014. Risa Gettler. Hand-lettered and illustrated manuscript book of nineteen poems by John S. Tumlin. 40 pages, images and text on recto pages only. Binding by Edna Wright. 22" x 13" x 4". in December 2011, i was contacted about a book of poems. the client, who found me through a link on my guild’s website, wanted an original work of hand lettering and illustration. the book would be a surprise gift for the poet, John s. tumlin, the client’s father. through counting lines, words, and characters, as well as figuring the average number of words per line and maximum words per line, i was able to estimate how many pages it would be. i recommended a horizontal format for the book as many of the poems would fit on one double-column page, resulting in fewer pages than a vertical format. My client, John robert tumlin, said he wasn’t closed to a horizontal book, but that he had envi-sioned a vertical one. (to avoid confusion between my client and his father, in this article i will refer to my client as “John robert”).

to move forward, i suggested we do one poem in the horizontal format so he could see how the poem would look on a horizontal page. at the same time, we would learn if we worked compatibly together. Fortunately, John robert was happy with the decorative elements, delighted with my letter-ing, and comfortable with the horizontal format. an agreement was signed, and off i was on a three-year adventure. the nineteen poems are an interesting mix of old-world themes and science fiction, and it was apparent when i started on the second poem that each poem would be independently interpreted. each one would be its own visual creation, each an integration of words and images. No two poems would be treated alike; they each would have their own style. a project of this depth involves things you can’t foresee. With this project, it was the time required for research – i did more reading than writing. the poet, now retired, was a literature professor, and that is reflected in the many literary references in the poem. i read portions of Dante’s works to understand and interpret “the Lost Pilgrim.” “Marking Up the sky” sent me researching astronomy. (i had to illustrate the poem twice, the second

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make. For they are not fixed but move as the needs of fight-ing require; the yale advances one of them as it fights, folding the other back, so that if the tip of the first is damaged by a blow, it is

replaced by the point of the second.” there is also a dark yale illustrated in the border of a page in the Bedford Hours, which was produced early in the fifteenth century for the wedding of John, Duke of Bedford, to anne of Burgundy. Lady Margaret Beaufort used a more goat-like version on her coat of arms that adorns the entrances to the two colleges she founded in her name at cambridge Univer-sity, england: christ's college in 1505 and st. John's college in 1511. Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509) – educationalist, scholar, and philanthropist – was the

HERALDRy FOR CALLIGRApHyBy HeLeN scHoLes

Yale in the Bedford Hours, British Library Add. MS 18850, f256v. By permission of the British Library.

i fairly recently joined the management committee of the calligraphy and Letter-ing art society (cLas). often referred to as simply “the committee,” it is similar in function to the board of directors of an american Guild. When we were discussing renaming our certificates of skills courses, i heard about the course on the heraldic arts that had been designed by tim Noad, a very well-known and respected heraldic artist who works at the college of arms in London (the official heraldic authority for england) and who just happens to be a member (like me) of oxford scribes. i saw tim at a Letter exchange talk in London and asked if he would be interested in running a course based in oxford. Happily, he agreed. (tim’s book on illumination, coauthored with Patricia seligman, is out-of-print. it was titled The Art of Illuminated Letters in the Uk and The Illuminated Alphabet in the Usa.) Nearly a year later, a group of twelve cal-ligraphers, eight of whom were from oxford scribes, started the course of four saturday workshops, with homework in between. at cLas, we like to think of it as a year’s course spread over four one-day workshops – an

incredibly good value for money! our first workshop was in september 2013, learning basic principles: designing and drawing a shield, what a compartment is, the difference between the field and the charge, and much more. We had three additional workshops on heraldic beasts, mantling (drapery tied to the helmet above the shield, often given the form of acanthus leaves), and coronets and helms (crowns and helmets). We were set tasks to complete with formal notes to write up, and we were to de-sign a finished piece of work that combined heraldry and calligraphy. i chose to illus-trate the yale for my final piece. The Yale

My first task was to decide how to depict the yale, as this mythical beast appears in many guises through the ages. in the twelfth-century aberdeen Bestiary, it is a black creature. When translated, the description on the page reads: “there is an animal called the yale. it is black, as big as a horse, with the tail of an elephant, the jaws of a boar, and unusually long horns, adjust-able to any movement the animal might

A yale in a detail of the Aberdeen Bestiary, University of Aberdeen Library, MS 24, f16v. Copyright 1995 © University of Aberdeen. Used with permission.

The Aberdeen Bestiary, folio 16v.

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Value. Annie Cicale. This book began as a steamroller print created at PrintOcracy,

held in 2013 at BookWorks in Asheville, North Carolina. A 3' x 3' print was chopped

into 8 pieces and added to, using graphite, watercolor, gouache, and ink, as well as

wasp’s-nest collage and other materials –hence, mixed media. It is bound in red leather

and housed in a clamshell box. Its present size is 11" x 11" x 1". The main text says, “The reverse side is also the reverse side.” The supporting text includes the complete definition of the word “value,” along with

quotes from minds profound that address the many meanings of that word.

Entertaining the Mystery. Barbara Close. The

background texture was printed on Ingres paper as part of a demonstration of the Gel Printing Plate from

Gelli Arts. I later added Sumi ink marks and, really

liking the results, then added the calligraphy

at the bottom. I use this piece to show students

one way to integrate lettering with art.

At far right: Words.

Peter Thornton. 2" x 7". Ruling pen

with watercolor and walnut ink, and pencil.

One of several trials. Text: Washington Gladden.

A pASSIONATE GALLERyThe instructors of this summer’s global gathering of scribes and artists, The Passionate Pen, hail from countries large and small: from all over the United States and Canada – from the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washing-ton, and BC) and eastward (New Mexico & Nevada, Indiana & Illinois, Ontario & Ohio, Tennessee & Texas, New York & New Jersey); from the Republic of Ireland and the Republic of Slovenia; from Argentina and Australia; from England and Italy and Israel; and from the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of Germany. There will be a faculty exhibit at the conference, but since only a few of the readers of Bound & Lettered will be able to attend, here is an offering of art from some of those talented teachers. More will follow in the next issue of Bound & Lettered.

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