Format changeover

Still on my little initials, waiting for the muses to visit me again.
I have a lot of 6x15 scraps of paper, so I change a little bit from my eternal 10x10 square, it doesn't change the letters (still about 2 cm in diameter) but it makes the filigree slender.

Not inspired

Right now, I'm having trouble finding inspiration or rather, I don't like any of the work I'm starting and I'm throwing hours of work in the trash.
It's not the first time this has happened to me and I think we all go through this kind of period.
While waiting for inspiration to come back, I do filigrees, at least I'm pretty sure I'll do something not too bad.

small initials with walnut stain and iron gall ink

I even compose new characters because I'm a little bit tired of the Latin alphabet

and then I advance little by little on a more ambitious work but much too long for me to come to the end in only one day.

Sind frei

I continued typing on Namur blue stone, just to experiment with various tools.

It's a bit too blurry for my taste, I'll try another approach but not right away.
I have to wait until the weather improves a little, temperatures and rainfall do not encourage me to work outside for now.

Blue

Sorry to have left you without news lately, I was in Belgium to give some courses, the proof in pictures :

already tired

photo bombing (no reason for only others to have fun)

And, did you know, the Namur region produces magnificent blue stones, much used in construction. My hosts (thanks again Geneviève & Eugène!) had some in their backyard that they let me bring back with me.

First engraving try, it's not that yet but it's encouraging

to be followed...

Filigrees, the comeback

Long time I haven't told you about filigrees here, I'm sure you miss it ;-)

A little work in progress, on a cardboard that my wife previously used to make frame patinas.

I left the nib to play with an acrylic marker, here is a short video of a part of the process

and I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I am organizing a workshop dedicated to filigree learning in Paris on July 21 & 22. You can find all the information in the agenda.

oups

Once checked, the pattern of interlacing on my last nesting box is not terrible...

this is the construction :

the result (that can be seen carved on the birdhouse) :

and the analysis that proves that it is made of 2 knots !! Shame on me...

For the next one, I'll be working more upstream on the knot pattern.

Or maybe I'll make another kind of decoration.

in any case, don't tell the chickadees, they might refuse to come nest there! ;-)

and if you want to embark on the drawing of knots, 2 places are available for my workshop at Welkenraedt!

Alternatively, you can also play with the automatic knotting tool available in the site resources.

birhouse encore

One can't spend all his time making nest boxes when there are calligraphy courses to come!
But one can't spend all his time doing calligraphy while the chickadees are looking for places to nest!

So I made a balcony nesting box with a celtic knotwork pattern on the front, in order to match the two constraints.