Category Archives: Calligraphy

Calligraphy sites

Another Tale From The Scrapbook….

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Apologies for my absence, I have been busy with summer and taking photos for the Grand Gardening Competition in October, or sooner??
I have also made a collage, yay!!! I only seem to get into ‘making mode’ if I need to send something for a birthday, or for a calligraphy exchange. I don’t necessarily know the recipient of my calligraphy exchanges – I hope that I never cause offence and the worst I achieve is a quizzical frown. I receive such beautiful post – there is something within me that finds it impossible to reciprocate with a colourful flourish. Ack.
The other day I was pondering my early creative influences, and I came up with Pipkins; I remember my sister saying it was creepy, but I loved that moth-eaten Hare.

Anyhow, my collage!

Latest collage featuring a typo from The Guardian newspaper in 1979.

Ack. Calligraphy is a beautiful art, and then I go and bring it down to my level.

Hallo Deutschland!!!

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My stats are telling me that I am super popular in Germany and that views of this blog site have gone up 3,210% thanks to my German fans!!! Or a server based in Germany, who knows? In any case I thought I would welcome my new viewers and ask: Who sent you here???? Are you here for calligraphy??? Are you here for my ingenious prose? Should I ask this in German???? Okay then….

Meine Statistiken zeigen, dass ich in Deutschland super beliebt bin und die Aufrufe dieser Blog-Seite dank meiner deutschen Fans um 3,210 % gestiegen sind!!! Oder vielleicht auch wegen eines Servers in Deutschland, wer weiß? Jedenfalls dachte ich, ich begrüße meine neuen Besucher und frage: Wer hat euch hierher geschickt? Seid ihr wegen der Kalligrafie hier? Seid ihr wegen meiner genialen Prosa hier? Soll ich das auf Deutsch fragen? Na gut…

Curtesy of Google Translate, cos I don’t know any German.

Meanwhile, apologies to my loyal chums who generally stick with me through thick and thin. It has been too hot to do much other than stand on cold tiles and whinge about being too hot. I will try to catch up with my blog reading at the weekend, or later today.

Here is my latest collage…

Funny-collage

It’s a Wrap!!!

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I did it!!!! Jon will be back either today or tomorrow and we can all go back to normal. Phew!

I was going to use this post to waffle on about my new AI assistant, ChArmaIne2, but I think this is best saved for next week, by which time she will have turned my Bottled posts into a 850,000 word novel – yes, she is that quick!!

I think this exercise in daily blogging has actually been good for my mental health as it’s prevented me from dwelling on my usual worries – worries that I can do little about. I also like the natural flow that comes with writing back to back posts – so maybe I will take up cluster blogging, who knows. I don’t really want to fall back into my one post every 2 months routine!

Anyhow, thank you for your patience!!

I will leave you now with 67 words of calligraphy, all spelt correctly and in the right order, and a view of me running across the fields to my house for a well earned rest….

copperplate calligraphy

Oops…I am just out of shot.

Next Week: ChArmaIne2 writes 5 novels and a TV series; A Scottish Widows Update; and, Which Wellies are Best? – an in-depth report on rubber footwear.

Chasing a Pension Pot

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They have my money but will not help me find my old pension pot. I have sent them two letters with forms downloaded from their website with ALL the information they need to trace my pension. I have phoned them – they did try to help over the phone but eventually told me to send my documentation by email – which I did. They then claimed that my documentation wasn’t attached to the email – it so was, and I can prove it…. Ack. They are sending me round in circles, despite encouraging people to trace their old pensions, THEY ARE NOT BEING HELPFUL!!!! I have been trying to get information from them since January. I don’t know why I am surprised by their incompetence, as a page has been set up on Facebook to complain about them. I am so frustrated.

I have now decided to make my pension tracing efforts into a calligraphy project. My first envelope to them was addressed in block capitals in Bic Biro. This is my second envelope…

address envelope in copperplate calligraphy

It is a little more fancy, but nothing over the top. I intend to add more decoration and flourishing as the months go by, and then maybe, just maybe, I might get a reply – even if it’s just a cease and desist notice.

Lost Time and Loopy Letters…

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As a child I could often be found in the living room studying the Yellow pages. My natural inclination has always been to gather information – any information – stuff about plumbers; electricians; piano tuners; and even astroturf. When I grew up the internet came along and I found myself lost in a vast vat of Yellow pages – a veritable walk-in wardrobe of cobblers…

Well, that all sounds a bit peculiar. This is because I have lost the last 5,623 words of this post and I can’t be bothered to type them out again – especially the morose bit about feeling like an unwanted dog at a rescue centre.

Crikey, the gist of it was that I spend too much time fannying about on the internet to get anything done, and I have lost opportunities because of this – AND that I feel sad about all of that. And I regret all the time I have wasted reading about stuff that really is none of my concern.
However – I DO NOT REGRET BLOGGING!!! I mean the random surfing stuff.

Right, that’ll do. I really DO have OTHER STUFF to get on with. AND, be very grateful that those 5,623 whining words were lost as you might have been tempted to read them.

My most recent collage:-

gilded-letter-g

gilded g on dictionary page experiment

I so want to make more collages with calligraphy….
This is the first bit of gilding I’ve done for a few years, I think. It’s a bit rough around the edges as it was an experiment to find out if I could gild on to any sort of paper – yes I can!

Do you know what I often feel glum about? Those loopy letters that I never sent. I failed. Maybe I will still send something to the addresses I have – though some of you have probably moved – which could be interesting!

More tomorrow.

Calligraphy and Spelling

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Calligraphy has been in the news lately thanks to Stephanie von Werthern-Gill writing 11,500 words of exquisite copperplate for the King’s coronation roll. I feel a faint coming on at the very thought of being asked to do such a thing! She must have nerves of steel. She wrote all those words without making one single spelling mistake!! I am in awe.

By comparison, here is a recent practice sheet of mine where I was recalling, from my poor memory, Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116….

copperplate calligraphy with spelling errors aplenty

What the hell are impendiments????? And what is a Zeba??? And why, in the middle of trying to recall a Shakespearian sonnet did I suddenly feel the need to write Zebra – for that is what I believe I wanted to write – ?????
Let me not be too harsh on myself as this was most definitely a practice sheet where I was actually testing the nib/ink/paper combination – hence why I switched to black ink towards the bottom of the paper. [Hunt22B, Gouache, then Higgins Eternal, on Crown paper, for those who want to know]

Normal practice on a Rhodia pad looks like this:-

Rhodia pad for copperplate practice

Normal practice, for me, is just about rhythm and flow, and making sure I can still hold a pen. Please note, my numerals are always a bit hit and miss – mostly miss.
Anyhow, I have now set myself a challenge to see how many words of calligraphy I can write without making an appalling spellinges mistake – my current record is 67.

There may well be another calligraphy post on Friday. Who knows. Maybe there will be more about impendiments and Zebas. Excituing!!