Filigrees online course

 There are a few seats left for the next online course in English about filigrees on September 25th and 26th.

Information & registration there

If you speak French, there's another course on October 9th & 10th.

Swedish challenge

 For those of you who are not on instagram, I am currently participating in a little challenge launched by a group of Swedish women.

It's about calligraphy words or expressions in Swedish.

Here are my first realizations.

tindra which means "twinkle"

äntligen fredag which means "thanks god it's friday"

fika for "getting together over a cup of coffee"

Online filigree courses

i 'm doing a small series of filigree letters again, a little bigger than usual and with some gilded dots.

This is the occasion to announce 2 online courses on filigree.

The first one, in English, will take place on September 25 and 26, it is the first course of the series.

The second one, in French, will take place on October 9 and 10, 2021, it is called filigree 2 but can be taken without having done the first one, they are 2 courses of the same level.

You will find more information and links for registration on this page.

And I leave you with my last creations, have a nice sunday :-)

Welcome

 Welcome to little Alexandre, born last week.

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

The garden of delights

 I call it by this name because of the well-being it provides in exchange for the care we provide but it's just my garden.

Here is a calligraphic version in NEULAND variations which lists almost all the contents of the place.

And could I do it without filigrees?

Of course not, I even invented some new patterns for the occasion

And, for once, I put, not only color, but GREEN !!!!

Lots of different greens, mixed with red, blue, yellow, brown but still greens.

The scale is not always respected but the layouts and the general shape are.

Have had enough ?

Well, here it is again.

2 small filigree initials to announce an upcoming online course on the subject.

It will be on August 21 & 22, 2021, online and in English.

Registration here.

The letters are 2cm high, the A is in walnut stain, the C in watercolor and the dots are gilded with gold leaf.

22

 I was recently commissioned to do a street number in the Art Nouveau style and with my inevitable filigrees. I did the work on paper and with walnut ink, it will then be engraved, probably on metal by people with the necessary laser engraving equipment.

And while I'm on the subject of filigrees, I'd like to take this opportunity to announce a new (and final) online course in french on the subject on 22 & 23 May.

If you want to participate, you can register here.

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 :-)

Faut être malin

It was on hearing this serinerant slogan on the radio for the umpteenth time that I decided on my calligraphic occupation of confinement.
Most of my colleagues are involved in "challenges" and my gregarious instinct being what it is (ie non-existent), I had to find my own way.
So I compose from advertising slogans, one maxim a day.
Here is my production for the moment.
You'll tell me that it's nonsense and I'll tell you that you're absolutely right :-)

Today, it's chemistry !

And it is a reinterpretation of Mendeleev's table as he presented it in 1870.
Of course, some elements are missing compared to what we know today and the usual representation reverses the lines and columns compared to this one but it is always good (or almost), to return from time to time to the fundamentals :-)

I calligraphed the symbols of the elements with walnut stain and I decorated the table with iron gall ink, decorating the different cells with small clouds of electrons.

And (I shouldn't say this but you don't get to do it again), I had made a mistake in the position of the gold (Au), I cut out the incriminated square and replaced it with an embossing of a golden patina that my wife had made on kraft paper. I think it's very beautiful, it's normal, it's my wife who made it :-)

CQFD

Before returning to more serious things (or not), a small series of abbreviations with my unavoidable filigrees.

What had to be demonstrated (in the french version of "quod erat demonstratum")

Too much information

I thought there were too many filigrees (too much information!) so I made a more sober version.

and, because there'll be more, et cetera.

Solitude and society

On the weekend of 18 & 19 April 2020, I will teach a workshop at the Welkenraedt Cultural Centre. It will be devoted to the writing and part of the decoration of the second Bible of Charles the Bald.
I worked on this manuscript more than 10 years ago and, in preparation for the workshop, I am getting back to it and trying some variations (especially of hues) based on a text by Seneca.

Decorated capital letters and original text with walnut stain, translation into a later writing in iron gall ink.

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!

Primer - the cover

Okay, it's the third post in a row on the blog about this primer but it's also been almost 3 weeks that I've been working on it without stopping.
And so here is the first somewhat finished version of what will be the cover.

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.