A Coat of Arms on Calfskin with Gold Leaf

Posted on November 19, 2022 by Holly

Sometimes, I am not able to show what I’m working on for awhile, because the project is being gifted to someone. Now, I can share this project with you. In November of 2021, I had a wonderful visit from Father Nathan and Father Philip, both from Mt. Angel Abbey, Oregon. Father Nathan oversees the art acquisitions at the Abbey. Father Philip oversees the guest house, but is also a calligraphy instructor. Needless to say, we all had a great time getting to know each other! They came to hire me to create 2 Coat of Arms. One to hang at Mt. Angel Abbey and the other to be gifted (July 2022) to Westminster Abbey, British Columbia, which was founded by some Brothers/monks from Mt. Angel, back in 1939.

Above and below. These broadsides were created on genuine calfskin (aka vellum) with genuine 23.75 gold leaf, gold powder plus watercolor and gouache. They are about 3′ tall and about 2′ wide (from memory, not exact). In this first picture above, I have already sketched the design on tracing paper and transferred it to the hydrated and stretched/mounted calfskin. The dark pink color is gesso, made from the Italian Cennini recipe made right here in my studio. (If you would like to join a future workshop, sign up on my eNewsletter or email me.) There is quite a process to laying the loose leaf gold. As you can see, I lay down the gold before I paint the color. One of my agate burnishers, used to polish and shine the gold, is also visible in these first two pictures.

In the picture above, you will note that I have laid the gold leaf (beat to 1/300,000 of an inch in thickness) on the decorated letters and ‘In Gratitude’ meant to emphasize their appreciation.

The pictures above and below show the staples that I use to mount the skins to the board. I learned long ago to stretch the skins on a wooden frame, but I didn’t like it when my hand went off the side of the artwork and if the frame sat up too high, so I decided to hydrate the skins and staple them to a board. If they are put in humidity for an hour or so and then stapled, they will stretch as tight as the skin on my banjo….or ‘tight as a drum’ as the expression goes. If I don’t do this, I run the risk of my lines of lettering being a bit ‘wavy’ due to the cockling of the skin.

This photo was actually taken from the left side. I rotated it right so that you could see the art upright. It shows the finished art and calligraphy along side my watercolor mixing florets. I followed the already established designs that had been created for the respective Abbey shields, but added some shading for dimension as well as the Veil & Crozier. The crozier also spelled crosier, I learned is carried by the Abbot at Mt. Angel as a symbol of “The Good Shepherd” and his ecclesiastical office. The veil on each shield is symbolic of the sacramental veil.

Below, a close up of one of the decorated letters. The raised gold is obvious and the gold powder lies flat in contrast. (it is liquified so I could paint it on gives a nice contrast inside the W.)

I love the subtle texture in this skin. It was one large one, that I cut down for these 2 documents.

Above you will see how I mount calfskin. Note that calfskin will not lie flat, but can be held taught with the eyelets and threads. I teach this method in my revised Lettering on Vellum workshop. (It is not in the pre-recorded workshop from 2021. This one mainly covers preparing the skin and lettering on it). BELOW: the two hand created images, framed and read for delivery. They have a carved outer frame and an off-white linen mat with a black wood filet. If you visit Mt. Angel Abbey, Oregon, you will be able to see one of them hanging in one of their meeting rooms.

A Calligraphy Manuscript from Luke 6

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Holly

A little bit about the process….whether you are a client or a calligrapher, this will give you a peek.

Above, is the finished piece for my client. It is a verse that I read and meditated on throughout the project. In our then 2021 world, that was/is so very split, it was a challenge to mull over. How can I live this out? Love your enemies? Do good? Be merciful? Forgive? Could you imagine what the world would be like if we followed this?

Back to the artwork. Below…is my pencil sketch on tracing paper where I also indicate to the client, the color placement. The final pencil image was transferred onto the D’Arches HP 140 lb paper. You can improve the lines on the final. Just outline the vine. A light table makes it quite easy to transfer…(I have an extra light box that I’m trying to give to an artist or calligrapher…send me an email and I’ll send you a picture of it.)

On the final, first, I lay the gesso (base) for the gold leaf. It has a flesh tone, or pinkish color depending on how you tint it. I make my gesso from the original Ceninni recipe, guided by Jerry Tresser’s insights. It is like plaster, and can be repaired as you are working with it. Carved, shaped or sanded, it is more forgiving than some gold leaf bases, but they all have their place. I prefer this for my more formal work.

Next the gold leaf gets laid. I teach a workshop in which you can learn the Ceninni method, but I also teach a second workshop where the bases are pre-made, so a little easier to work with. All those little flecks of gold? You can save them if you wish and grind them into gold powder. It takes a lot of flecks. I save mine over the years.

Below, I’m still in the rough and the lettering hasn’t been retouched with all of the little details, but you can get the basic idea.

As you can see below, the color goes on after the gold. There is a lot of layering to the color and it takes time. I like to do my lettering first, then do the color work. If I made a big mistake with my lettering, I would not like to have put all of the time into the border work.

I often have clients who want reproductions of the original. A graphic design quality scanner, Photoshop and a great archival printer does the trick. Below is the very large wide format printer that a photographer uses to print my larger designs and family trees. The Epson must be about 6′ wide or more. He didn’t want his picture out there, but my colleague is very good at what he does and I appreciate his assistance.

I had two large reproductions made and hand painted the gold areas with gold gouache. The original has the shiny gold on the bottom right D’Arches HP. I hope that this was helpful to you in someway. May God bless you and thank you for stopping by my blog!

A DELICIOUS BUSINESS WITH A BIG HEART – MEXICO

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Holly

Las Mermeladas de Beatriz, Las Galletas de Elena and El Licor de Ricardo

Back in November of 2020, my client Alfredo Taborga touched base requesting a handmade calligraphy design, predominated by a decorated letter as the focus…product labels for his new start up company. Alf was sheltering in Mexico, after being grounded from his business travels due to the pandemic. Being the smart man that he is, he shifted gears towards alternative life goals 2 and 3. Goal 1, career. Goal 2, take seminary courses. Goal 3, start a business to help struggling women in Mexico earn a living. It was my honor to create the labels as part of his Goal 3. Below, I will share my pictures and process. Alf’s website/email at the end of this blog entry.

^{Prototype Vinyl label with Decorated Letter for Las Mermeladas de Beatriz}

Alf requested that I first design the jam labels for “Las Mermeladas de Beatriz,” as he has 10 flavors. I typically start with pencil sketches for all of my clients. As you can see, all of the wording is in Spanish.

ABOVE was my first sketch, which was the most influential to the final design. As the design evolved, Alf decided that the B should be in a circle with the ‘wild’ vine work around the letter. (Later you will see the other two product lines represented – E (Panadaría) and R (Licor).

ABOVE, we rejected the script, too hard to read on a label. Border – too stiff.

The ABOVE design won the award for shape, so although we made a circular wreath of fruits around each letter, this shape worked best on the jar. At the time of these sketches, I did not know there was going to be additional lettering on the label.

Final sketch….I reduced the large sketch to the approximately 2.75″ in height to see how it would fit on the wide jam jar. It is tiny, but legible.

The watercolor work begins. The fruit represents a few of his flavors.

ABOVE, this image shows the hand lettering around each circle, in black, and the gold gouache in the R and E, which came after the B was designed. I was able to ‘Photoshop’ them into the original “B” design, retouch and add color to the lettering.

BELOW, we tried a variety of background colors, but the ivory won out. It will look lovely on top of the colored mermeladas. It took quite some time, to clean up the original artwork’s background, so the background color would be flawless. I applied the Bevel & Emboss feature in Photoshop.

The two images ABOVE show what the label will look like in general. The printer needed the artwork in Adobe Illustrator for work flow and so my invaluable designer friend Greg Eckel, DesignCrew, Cincinnati, OH helped me finalize the images. He positioned the cut and safe lines and placed the arch. His digital assistance and coaching has been invaluable. The image BELOW, shows you the black layer that I had to create in Photoshop, to show the printer where the gold is to be placed. There was a black layer on the file for E and for B. Clicking off of the black layer reveals the gold layer.

BELOW, you will see my shiny vinyl labels. Sorry about the glare! Francis Printing, Oregon, did a great job directing me to this type of label. Water proof! Any stray jam can be wiped off and the label is stable. Alf wanted gold. This process, prints the design on a silver film, which once the PMS metallic gold is printed, it shimmers.

This is just a little peek at a hand cut label. The printer will die cut them all to the correct shape so the little pink cut line won’t show. The labels look beautiful, when you see them in person. Something good out of 2020!

Alfredo is a delight to work with, so I am happy to promote his business and share contact information. His website as of early February is still under construction but when up and running, you may ORDER his delicious offerings at www.LasMermeladasDeBeatriz.com, email is up and running now ventas@LasMermeladasDeBeatriz so get on his list and support his business with a great big heart!

A Hand Lettered Mission Statement

Posted on August 27, 2018 by Holly

Above is the final scan of the Mission Statement for a private school, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mars Hill Christian Academy approached me in 2017 to create a document in which they could share the school’s mission. They chose to leave that title off because the words ‘exists to’ states that in a round about way. Below, I will share with you the steps that I took to create it…

As you might guess, I put pencil to paper and began sketching the words that my client, Lisa Cotterman and I felt were most important. As a calligrapher, I like to have what I call a ‘big read’. Something that a person could read from across the room. In this case, these larger words sum up the mission of the school. I used an HB pencil on heavy tracing paper.

It is typical for my initial sketches to need adjustments. When I looked at the letters on the final paper size they were tight and narrow. I felt that the large letters needed to be rounder and the lines of lettering wider. I scanned the original sketches into Photoshop and stretched the lines, then reprinting the lines, I cut them apart and retraced them onto the full size rough sketch. See below.

So as you can see, I created a pencil layout just the way I wanted the final lettering to be.

The Mars Hill Academy colors are blue, gold and white with touches of red. I decided to create a blue paste paper background on which to letter. The gold I brought in on a band across the top. Paste paper is a really fun way to introduce color into designs. I especially love the texture that it brings so that the final is not to sterile or stiff looking. In the pictures, you will see little jars of dye that I buy from Twinrocker paper. With paper mâché paste, I use a natural sponge to place this color on the Arches Text Wove paper. The first layer is usually light with subsequent layers darkening the color.

I took this picture at night, so it’s a little dark, but you can see the blue and gold have several layers to give them a rich look.

My studio sink displays the natural sponges, soap for clean up and the rubber gloves that I buy from Costco. My hands would be a real mess without them, as this dye wants to hang around under your nails, etc.

Mars Hill has a Bell Tower that is well known at the school. Lisa and I toyed with this as an icon instead of their crest logo. In the end, we stayed with the crest logo below.

Once I had the paste paper ready, I took my sketches and positioned them where I wanted them on the paper. With white Saral Paper I transferred my letters onto the paste paper.

You can see the tracing lines that the Saral Paper leaves. This gives me a great guide for the lettering. I was also feeling as though the piece needed a little more life. I planned to attach the gold band with the schools name, but it was boring alone. I pulled out some of my Twinrocker handmade paper and took a look at what it would look like as a small deckled border.

My next step was lettering the capitals. Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White paint really helps your letters to ‘pop’ on paste paper as well and other dark fine art papers. I highly recommend it.

In the image above, you can see that I’ve now lettered the italic stylized script, the school name and painted the school logo. The logo took me quite a bit of time as I hand drew all of the little letters and had to paint around them in blue.

It was still lacking some depth and interest…..so…..Lisa suggested that I add the red. I cringed at first as I thought it would clash, but in the end, I think it brings a new dimension to the artwork. As I near the end of a design, I ask myself…what else does this need? I wanted even more on the piece, so I took pastel and shaded around the first letters of the key words in the Mission Statement. It helped to tie in the gold banner across the top as well as accentuating the meaning.

Here you can see the completed parts….the blue paste paper with white lettering and pastel. The gold band with school name and logo and the Twinrocker paper…..these are all photos taken with my digital camera. If you have another minute, scroll back up to the top and take another look at the final scan of my artwork. It will show you the lovely texture in the paper and all of the pieces flattened out. I shipped the art to my framer in Cincinnati (I’m currently living in Oregon). He dry mounted the calligraphy pieces and handmade paper together and saved the school a little money by framing it in their town.

CUSTOM WEDDING DOCUMENTS

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Holly

Weddings, weddings, weddings! This is the time of year when preparations are being made. I receive phone calls for numerous types of wedding documents. I will picture them below with brief explanations. Perhaps you’ll get a few ideas….

This first picture is a framed GUEST SIGNATURES gift. The brides father, my client, requested flowers indicative of Colorado in all 4 corners, their names and space for a certain number of signatures. He also specified the colors.

At first, he wanted people to randomly sign. He came back to me later and said that he wanted the doc to have a more organized feel and would like penciled lines. I gave him a Mars Staetler eraser so he could remove the lines later. (I will do that for you, but he was in a creative career, so he could handle this!) For those who want the lines inked in, that is definitely possible. I either place them with a ruling pen and ink OR a Zig or Pigma Micron Pen. These are fade proof, water resistant and archival so I recommend that guests sign with them.

This next piece is a the WEDDING WISDOM that the pastor shared with the couple at their wedding…..flourished and simple. Italic lettering.

The picture below is a Quaker Marriage Contract.

It includes the bride and grooms name and other important information. This one more traditional in feel with the flourishing, Old English and Engrosser’s Script. (Older technology leaves me with a less vibrant copy….sorry about that!) I could email you a close up of the script, if you’re interested. Bound & Lettered, Volume 10, Number 4 has an article about creating these documents.

Wedding Vows

couple wanted the Three Sister’s Mountains with a border of Juniper and another of Sage which was reminiscent of their outdoor wedding. The borders divided their vows in three sections. A lovely burled frame finished the look for their home. They had sweet words, but didn’t want the world to see! I wanted you to see the layout and the borders. The elements were in the setting where the wedding was held.

And then there was this little piece. Silver and black on handmade paper.

A sweet little gift from groom to his bride….

So many options for calligraphy related to weddings. You are only limited by your imagination! Calligraphy expresses your favorite words to your ‘most cherished’ and creates an heirloom of your love for the next generation.