ABC workshop

 I haven't posted anything on this blog for ages, too busy elsewhere.

Summer is here, time to make the workshop more visible for the tourist on the go.

I am open every Saturday morning from 9:30 am to 1 pm and at other times of the week, as soon as I am at work, the workshop is open.

You will have noticed that my taste for shimmering color mixes is becoming more and more pronounced with time.

do you like cats?

Romantic writers are good. Physics is good too!
First item in what I hope will be a long series, with Schrödinger to start with.

I'm quite happy with the variations on the Greek letters as well as the ², not to mention the () and the +.

I'm going to take out my college physics books to calligraphy some more equations, it's quite fun, especially to add a legend.
This time I did it in English, the next one might be in French, German or Latin, I still hesitate.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Pangrammatic curtains (continuation & end)

After the German and English versions, I added the French version, another in Gaelic and a last one in red and Latin.

All that's left to do is to hang it on the window...

Pangram curtain

The winter sun is sometimes annoying when I work in my workshop, so my wife made me a curtain.
But I can't leave a fabric of this surface untouched! I have to scribble on it!
And as I didn't know which text to use, I fell back on pangrams in several languages.
The advantage is that it will give my trainees ideas when they take calligraphy classes in the workshop and don't know what to write.
I'm only at the beginning, I started with a pangram in English and in NEULAND.

I continued with a German version in Gothic fraktur...

the next one will be a French version, soon...

The secret I'm looking for...

End of year, end of composition.
I'm done with the fragment of "L’Été" by Camus.
Partly in NEULAND, partly in Gothic, both scripts being inspired by Rudolf Koch.

Watercolou, iron gall ink and gouache on kraft paper.

And I take this opportunity to wish you a very good New Year's Eve & an excellent year 2020.

Write !

A beautiful text by Colette on the act of writing from La Vagabonde.
It's only a fragment, she talks about it in different ways, but it's the one that caught my attention the most.
Who do I know, maybe I'll calligraphy the rest another day?

I was very influenced by Rudolf Koch in this composition, first with the title in NEULAND, then with the Gothic, inspired by his book of signs.

And, to contrast, I have chosen a less "violent" humanistic script for the second part of the text.

The bright day is done...

...and we are for the dark.

I don't know if it's the end of summer approaching, the various events that are not very good in my life and more generally in the world, but this quote has been imposed on me recently.

It is based on Shakespeare's play Antony & Cleopatra.

I covered a white watercolour paper with iron gall ink, which I then embossed. And part of the text has been engraved on zinc to have both brilliance and darkness.

The script used is an approximative copy of a gothic script by Rudolf Koch that I have to keep working on to really make it my own.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

Mirror mirror tell me, I am the most beautiful...

Otherwise I'll break you once more in tiny bits.

Inspired by kintsukuroi but not having the necessary amount of gold on hand, my wife repaired an old broken mirror with kraft that I then decorated with this little warning: -D

This tree & its shivering

It had been a long time since I had read Antonin Artaud, long since I had calligraphied a pretty gothic fraktur.
It is done, here is The Tree.

Turnips

August is already well underway, it is more than time to sow turnips.
But it is necessary to be able to indicate them in the garden thus, as usual, small sign engraved on slate.

This time, to change a bit, I used a gothic and it's the turn of the letters I engraved.

And yes, some pieces are missing, I'm aware, it's even done on purpose ;-)

Rust

Well, it's not totally successful (by far) but it's interesting.

The steel washer is 8cm in diameter, I let it rust for a while in the garden before writing some gothic capitals with etching varnish and then plunge it into a bath of sulfuric acid.

I like rust:-)

Alphabet

Electro-etching on steel, the plate is 15x20cm.
The colors are due to oxydization which happened when I heated the plate after the etching.

What will we conclude from all our obscurities?

To add a little something to my rose window pattern on slate, I engraved a short sentence by Blaise Pascal.

I wrote the text with my little chisel, using it as a nib. The engraving is not very deep but it is visible enough.

more cadels

Another long weekend and here are more cadels.

A Cadel E

and a K :

Both are, once more, inspired by the Ms AN II 3 from the Basel Library.

To see more pics, just have a look to the gallery.

S

A good thing with 3 days long weekends is that one have time to work on things :

A new cadel initial, once more inspired by the  Ms AN II 3 from the library of the university in Basel.

There will be more of these ...

Stained glass

Back from Coulon where I spent a marvellous week in Gérard Guerry's workshop, I can show you my latest work.
As it wasn't very convenient to bring all the mandatory materials for engraving/etching, I went back to work on paper.

It's the structure of a stained glass window from Saint Hilaire church in Niort, embossed with carbon paper. I finished it by filling the pattern with my unavoidable filigrees :-)

To see the whole work, follow the link to the gallery.

S like Stele

The weather is much too beautiful to stay in the workshop trying to do some calligraphy. So I try to get some fun outside.

A small initial S, in the gothic style, first engraved on slate and then filled with rust.

It has to remain some days in the garden for the rust to look similar on the whole letter but it already looks good or so think I ?

ABC etc

Last weekend, unusually, I had some time to work. But the sky was as blue as an orang utan so I decided to go to the beach, even if the water was so cold that I soon looked as an orang utan. Anyway, I manage to produce some little things, the beginning of an alphabet of brooches and, as I really love books, a nother brooch for my personnal use...

The initials are inspired by the Art Nouveau with a puzzle look which comes from the gothic period, and I like them. Not to mention my SERIAL READER brooch that I love !

zinc

Still no time for real work, this time I decided to make two little broochs instead of magnets.

I take the occasion to tell you about Monique who decided to create cadel initials on zinc after she discovered them on my website. With no information from me on the technique, she managed to get quite good results!

If you are also interested in zinc engraving, please send me pics of your works, I'm sure that all together we can improve this technique.

Cadel G

As the interval with my previous post may have warn you, I really don't have time for calligraphy for the moment. So as to have you wait until I find some time to create new works, here are some pics of a cadel initial I made some time ago.

The cadel pattern is inspired from a manuscript of the XVth century and the shape of the initial from a much earlier one, so I dare say it is a real creation.