A Coat of Arms on Calfskin with Gold Leaf

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.

Gold Leaf Workshop

Hello all of you Gold Leaf lovers!  I’m presenting a 1-day GOLD methods workshop on November 20, 2021. ONLINE. 10am-5pm EST. Sponsored by the Ocala Calligraphy Guild in Florida.  Their website is www.OcalaCalligraphy.org and you can head on over to their Workshops section to download the official flyer https://www.ocalacalligraphy.org/workshops as well as making payment there. There is a ‘page 2’ to the first page that I’m posting below – with more description and a supply list. We would love to have you join us. The workshop focuses on pre-made sizes such as Liquid Gesso, Instacoll, Illuminators Bole, Gum Ammoniac plus more, with Patent Gold. Some methods are optional, if you don’t want to buy all. Feel free to contact me www.HollyMonroe.com or the Ocala Guild for more information. If you are interested, you may want to jump on board quickly and get your supplies lined up. For this low price, you will get a boatload of information! This is designed for Beginner/Intermediate, but anyone can join in. Calligraphers, Lettering Artists, Artists, Crafters…

You will need to make Glair for this workshop, as well – I have easy instructions. Look for it as I will be posting a little video of how I make it. See my next Blog.

NOTE: The website for the Ocala Calligraphy Guild is wrong on this flyer, but correct in my text above.

A DELICIOUS BUSINESS WITH A BIG HEART – MEXICO

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 Book of Remembrance – Hand lettered

As the holidays arrive, we embrace those we love and enjoy their company. Yet, there are those who we love, that are missing from our midst, as they have ‘graduated’ from this life. It can be painful and lonely without them so it helps to remember them in a warm and sensitive way.

As a calligrapher, I attempt to do just that.  I have been called upon to create either framed Eulogy’s or Books of Remembrance that capture special traits and memories of a loved one’s life….a treasured tribute that can be passed down through the family.  I will share with you one book in particular, that I created in 2017.

My college room mate’s husband, Hector Dalton, called me to memorialize Beth’s father, Dr. Robert Lincoln Mather. A gift that would go to Mrs. Mather. Hector gave me a lot of freedom in creating the book, but said that he would: 1. Like it to be in blue (family favorite colors) 2. Bring in the 1950’s as that was Dr. Mather’s special era. Since I knew Dr. Mather, I threw in a couple of interpretive ideas as well. He was an eye doctor with 4 fashionable daughters and a wife, so I wanted to include eyes and glasses to bring out his career and family in a lighthearted way. Some of the pages lent themselves to illustrations so you will find a goat, cat, dog, skunk, chickens, a car and a harmonica, as well. Below, I will share the cover and title page and then back up to show you a little of my behind the scenes work.

Credit goes to Jim at Ohio Book (Cincinnati) for creating the lovely binding, debossed gold name and decoration, sewing the pages together, plus attaching the hand marbled end papers that I purchased from Talas in New York. (It took me quite awhile to pick a paper that matched the goat skin. Since I was in Oregon when I created the book, I actually bought and shipped 4 sheets of 2 different colored patterns, so Jim could pick the closest match for the blue leather cover).  The cover is Hudson Calf Leather in Electric Blue from Pergamena in New York. I so appreciate their quality calfskin and leathers for my projects. They are one of the few tanners left in the USA, so help me keep them in business!

Above is the title page for the book. It includes some simple vine work, the color blue, eye glasses from the 1950’s era and one set, signifying Dr. Mather. Note the stethoscope, since he was an Opthamologist. I especially love to work on Twinrocker Paper because of the handmade quality and deckled edges. Note that the top edge is straight. I had to cut one large sheet into two, losing a deckled edge. Therefore, I had to alternate the deckles with straight edges within the signatures.

Now, I’m going to back up a little and show you some of ‘roughs and research’ as the project unfolded. Pinterest and the internet were helpful resources. An old Speedball Textbook had some lettering styles for the simple Decorated Capitals.

I laughed my way through researching the unique eye glasses from the 50’s. 

Below you will see some of the unique shapes often found on signs or advertisements in the 50’s.                                                      These made a nice little field for the Drop Caps to sit on.

After collecting ideas for the pages, I cut tracing paper to size and penciled in all of the words. I discovered that I had to add more pages than I thought. I initially thought I’d need 18 pages, but went to 24 in all. As mentioned, I left room for small illustrations as they came up in the stories that Hector shared at Dr. Mather’s funeral.

After transferring the pages to the Twinrocker paper, I began lettering in the simple Foundational style,                                                                                   so the text wouldn’t conflict with the artwork and caps.

 

Next, I painted all of the little decorative caps with their funky background shapes and little 23k gold stars.                                                                                   Remember how the 1950’s art sometimes had those twinkly little stars to show a gleam? The blue matched the cover of the book and the gray was a color in the marbled paper. 

The little illustrations and 19 eye glasses with eyeballs came last….below are a few of the pages with illustrations.

This book took me about a month to create. Between designing, ordering supplies, laying it out on tracing paper, lettering 20 some pages, painting and illustrating, it took 5 times what I originally thought I would take. (BUT, it would be far too boring to just have text, when Dr. Mather was full of personality. So in came the illustrations for the stories).

Side note: If I were to add one thing to this project, I would like to see a leather slip cover/case made to slide the book into.

So I hope that this gives you a little insight into my process. Now you know a unique way to memorialize a loved one, in a way that reflects their personality – a special book that can be cherished and passed down through the generations. Commissions welcomed.