Romanesque initials

 I am making progress on my materials for the course on 12th century initials and filigrees that will take place next April.

But, of course, nothing beats creating to put into practice the elements found in the manuscripts. So here is a small piece of a work in progress.

Yes, it's green (sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone), soon a complete view of this composition and, in the meantime, you can already register for the course at the Arche de Saint-Antoine.

V is for Very long time

It's really been a very long time since I've inflicted one of my filigree lettering on you. Probably because I took a break and devoted myself to other elements of calligraphy.

So here is a two-tone V with filigrees (a little different from what I usually do) and my inevitable little gilded dots.

And I take this opportunity to remind you that there are only a few days left to register for the course on split versals & filigrees that will be hosted by the gentle penman platform.

Welcome

 Welcome to little Alexandre, born last week.

To celebrate his birth, a filigree initial with, for once, a bit of color.

Waiting for inspiration

Or rather, while waiting for things to become clearer in my head about my next composition, here are my morning scribbles.

Four little Payne's gray initials with their filigree. You've already seen dozens of them, but it's always nice, isn't it?

Again...

 A new filigree initial, in the same style as the previous one. A D this time, still 3 cm high, still gold leaf, Payne grey for the letter and Prussian blue for the filigree.

Variations

 I've been very busy lately with my online courses and I haven't had much time to create new works even though I have (as always) a lot of projects in my cartons.

To make you wait, a few small letters with, once is customary, a little color (I admit, my palette is limited).

December 25

 The Christmas holidays are approaching and you may not know what to offer your loved ones in these troubled times.

I propose you filigreed letters and monograms.

The materials (inks, paints, gilding, papers) are used according to your requests.

Prices range from 20 to 200€ (excluding shipping costs) depending on the size and complexity requested.

For any order, you can contact me by mail or by phone from the contact information displayed on this page.

some recent examples with a quartet of Payne grey lettering 2 cm high

and then a lighter blue for a D of the same size

walnut ink, always at 2 cm

And a large monogram (letters of 4cm and filigree of 10) with gilding. 

Filigrees online - new date

 As the 2 first courses are full and, as I had to cancel IRL courses because of the lockdown, there is a new course available 21 & 22 November.

Registration to be done on zoom with this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PMnnA0ueQ2OnEfxKgRAC-w

We will study things like that

But we will go further and, further & further. There will be a Filigrees II beginning of 2021 for the ones who will have registered to the first course and who would like to go further (did I use "further" too many times ??)

Initials, next step

A few more initials & some monograms, things are progressing slowly.

commission

Not being able to give my classes, I nevertheless continue to work.
And a charming lady from Canada was kind enough to order some small letters with filigrees.
Here are the first ones, there will be more!

If you, too, would like to buy a letter, a monogram, on paper, on parchment, on metal, etc, don't hesitate to contact me :-)

E ?

Little exercise to pass the time: what romantic text am I working on?

The clue is of course the letter which starts the text (and the gilding is part of the solution).
As it's a bit tenuous, another clue is prose, it's in French and I've already calligraphed a text by this author.

Whoever gives me the author's name will get something when the post office starts working normally again.
And another thing for the person who finds the passage in question.
Take care and stay at home :-)

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

Soapstone

First attempt at soapstone carving.
It is really very easy to work, the difficulty lies more in the fact of not making marks when manipulating the piece as this stone is very soft.

The stone is about 4cm high and no, it is not the beginning of an alphabet but simply the initial of my wife's first name and mine.

A

A small commission, the letter is 3cm high.
Prussian blue, cobalt blue and gold leaf on paper.

Colors

A for grey, J for blue, R for walnut and S for red: -)

and then a few more with only walnut and iron gall ink

a bit of R

I'm moving slowly towards the end of the primer, I'm not going to show you all the letters here but still a few to keep you on your toes.

We will soon be able to start the publishing phase!

Fame !!

I am very happy, there is an article dedicated to my work is featured in the last issue of Bound & Lettered, an American magazine published by John Neal.
In addition to many illustrations & explanations of my work in general and in particular on filigrees, you will find there the pictures of the different steps of the letter E I was telling you about here and that I finished !

You can order the issue of the magazine from the following link: 17.1

Primer - next steps

I am slowly moving forward with the primer project I was talking about earlier.
I do the alphabet from each side, it's nicer than doing it in order.

Primer - the A

Tired of only doing small letters, I asked the help of my friend Pascal Aussi to create a primer.
So he selected words that appeared in his songs, and I' m in charge of putting them on the page.
Today, the first letter with the word "Arbre" (Tree).

As usual, the initial is about 2 cm high.

More initials

I'm finishing to rebuild a complet set of initials, and I vary a little bit the colors...

Want some more ?

Because there are still some :-)

And I'm currently working on another letter, a bit larger (3cm high), with 2 colors & a bit of gold but you'll only see this "work in progress" version for the time being