Carl Rohrs Brush Lettering Workshop

Wow! I got to meet one of my idols last weekend, and he did not disappoint. What a nice man Carl Rohrs is! And - naturally - what a great talent! If you have the opportunity to take one of his workshops, I recommend it highly. I had wanted to study with Carl Rohrs since I first saw his work in a newsletter over twenty years ago. I am so happy I have finally had the opportunity. The Nashville Calligraphy Guild hosted Carl and I was able to join him for dinner both Friday and Saturday nights. We had become Facebook friends, and now, I hope, we are real life friends too. (He may be too disappointed with my brush lettering results to want to claim me though.) I promise that I am going to practice and make him proud! I didn't hunger for this workshop for so many years to not want to do it well. Carl was very good at seeing what needed to be changed, and very gentle in his direction as he sat beside each of us individually for some one on one instruction. I am surprised at the number of pages I produced. The good, the bad and the ugly pages are below.

This is Carl, instructing.

This is Carl after receiving his gift book from the participants. Ann Cobb put the sweet book together with a photo of each participant and each of us signed our 'page' - some in Carl Rohrs' style.

And this is a page from the handouts Carl gave us in the form of a wonderful book - something to strive for.

This is a view of Nashville as I was leaving the workshop and heading for home. Donna Hacker and I did some mini touring of Nashville - such a nice city. We ate breakfast one day at Pancake Pantry...worth the visit! Can't say the same for Noshville, where they couldn't even get our eggs right. (I love my Panasonic camera with the Leica lens, but if a camera shop can't clean the lens for me, it looks like I will have to purchase something else. I hate that the lens is messed up.) Suddenly this is looking like an advertisement...sorry!

I was also able to visit Paper and Ink Arts as soon as I arrived in Nashville. Catherine, Jennifer, Jan and the nice young man whose name I didn't get are very friendly and helpful, and I felt like a kid in a candy store. (What am I talking about? I WAS in a candy store!) I made a pretty good purchase, but what is it about calligraphy supplies...I keep wanting more. I have new nibs to try, some walnut ink crystals to make really dark brown ink, a Badger stirring tool to stir my paints and inks, a new pointed pen holder just like one I already have because it's my favorite and I am scared of breaking it, and then what would I do? HAD to have a spare. Plaza Arts also received some of my plastic. It's a fine art store and once again, I was in a candy store. What a weekend!

(An envelope I did was published in a new book, Calligraphy for Greetings Cards and Scrapbooking by Peter E Taylor of Queensland, Australia. I will have a blog post about the book in a few weeks, but I have also posted a bit about it on my Jan Hurst Letterlady blog.)

Handmade Leather Journals and Jen Stones

A couple of weeks ago I took a leather journal workshop in Carmel Indiana with a few of my good calligraphy friends. (See earlier post.)

Last Saturday two friends came to my studio where we made another journal. This Saturday I am traveling to Nashville TN to take a long-awaited workshop with the fabulous calligrapher, Carl Rohrs - someone I've wanted to study with for many years, and next Saturday my friends are returning to my studio to make another leather bound journal. These art-filled Saturdays are beginning to be a nice habit!

Here are photos of the journals I made these past couple of weeks.

From the top:

This is an inner pocket page and the liner page in the rust colored journal, created from a yard sale suede skirt. The rust one was made to incorporate a seam in the skirt.

This photo shows the 'long stitch in slotted spine' detail of both journals. The blue one also has decorative leather pieces on the spine.

The blue journal I made in Carmel has a pencil slot. I deleted that from the newer one because the liner ripped a little around the slots.

While searching for these photos I ran across one of my favorite handmade books, created following an Annie Cicale workshop. It is made with watercolor paper, all hand painted and hand lettered with friendship quotes with a bit of collage on the cover. It was a favorite with judges at the Kentucky State Fair one year too - it won the blue ribbon!

Jen Grove was one of the friends who participated in both leather journal workshops. She came bearing gifts of her lovely painted glass stones, which I have dubbed "Jen Stones". Simply beautiful!

I will hopefully have some brush lettering from the Nashville workshop to post next week (and then maybe yet another leather journal.) I am scouring thrift shops for discarded leather garments! If you plan to clean out your closet and discard any leather or suede, please give me a call. : )

White on Black Pressurized Roman Lettering

This is a gift I need to get into the mail. The poem was requested in black and white, but I put a little twist on it by reversing it. The pressurized Roman lettering is done in pointed pen with McCaffrey's ivory ink on black acid free paper. I love the McCaffrey's ivory, but seldom have the opportunity to do white on black lettering.