Tag Archives: calligraphy

Until…..

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….until WordPress took away the option to use the Classic Editor for writing posts. Where has it gone??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Hasn’t life been difficult enough lately without having to navigate newfangled formats??? Eff it.

Meanwhile, in the calm serene world of Ms Blue, she is still waiting for her hospital appointment to have a tooth extraction – it has already been cancelled once and she is fighting the very real possibility of becoming a codeine addicted raddled anorexic [kidding-ish]. The good news is that the toothache has subsided due to the death of said tooth – it just feels a bit weird instead of radiating complete agony. Thankfully the codeine is no longer needed although it is still difficult to eat.

Distraction techniques have featured some of this:-

halloween calligraphy exchange

Yes, I signed up for a Halloween card exchange on Instagram. I had a bit of a fiasco with my postage stamps due to my inability to add up properly. Being able to add up helps if you want to use swanky vintage stamps when sending cards to places such as the USA, Australia, and Canada. Sigh. I am now out of vintage stamps. I don’t have a stamp to my name. I will slap some pics up of the cards I made after they’ve reached their destinations – if they ever make it!

Calligraphy-halloween-exchange-2020

calligraphy-halloween-exchange-envelopes

Yep, as well as postage stamps galore there was also collage! Of course there was.

Other distractions featured listening to very loud music whilst being ironic:

 

I have another hospital appointment booked for next week. I shall let you know what happens – or you’ll be able to hear my screams, one or the other. Oh yay – I’ve found Classic Editor again!!! There is a God.

Vintage Imagery and Previous Words

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It had been many weeks since I had last posted on my internationally acclaimed Wonky-Words blog. Why had I let my blogging prowess slide? Was I afraid that my legions of fans had abandoned me? Was it because I had too much to say and couldn’t fit it all into the white posting box? Or was I simply giving my readership time to savour my previous witterings?

It was none of the above. Sadly my time had been consumed by watching the pandemic death graphs, I had convinced myself that should my eyes waver, even for a second, then the graphs would shoot upwards and kill everyone – it was, after all, my singular vigilance that kept the UK graphs on a steady decline. It was an arduous task, but I was committed and dilligent in my determination to lower the figures, and not let any snippet of Covid news pass me by. And then, on the 15th June I got bored and decided to commit myself to something else instead.

I turned my head away from the graphs, switched off the news; started reading a book; looked out across the meadows; marvelled at the dancing flamingos on a nearby millpond; watched a couple of good films; started taking multi-vitamins; realised my tinnitus was easier to ignore when I stopped masking it with noise; and I remembered that I was a great artist of considerable merit.

And so I returned to my turret at the bottom of the garden, where, for many hours, I toiled over vintage documents; read previous blog posts; dabbled with specialist inks and papers; sampled fine whisky; so that I could bring my loyal readers an untimely art piece entitled: The Lost Trevor – A combination of vintage imagery and previous words.

Finally I had some artwork to slap up on my blog….

calligraphy-and-collage-uk

collage-and-calligraphy

I shall leave you to enjoy. BUT, I hope to bring more thrilling, yet possibly random, words to this neglected blog next week.

Friday Stuff

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You see what I did there? Okay, so I am no longer the hostess with the mostess trolley on a Sunday, but instead I will be here on a Friday bringing you….GLORIOUS….stuff! All sorts of stuff, the stuff that you’d rather shove in a kitchen drawer and ignore, but you never know, one day it might come in handy.

There will be this sort of stuff:-

collages-featuring-the-alphabet-and-calligraphy
Lots of stuff!

There will be calligraphy….

Old Stuff

There will be vague witterings taken from my autobiography, of which I seldom speak, and of course there will be music!!!

I heard this the other day, I was watching Just Go With It because I needed something to send me to sleep. It worked a treat, but when I woke up towards the end of the film, this was playing:

And I thought, yay, that’ll be great for Sunday Music, forgetting that I no longer do the Sunday Music thing…
So, anyhow, whatever, expect STUFF from me on a Friday. There may even be a vague reference to a map next week.

This post was brought to you in a rush by Scarlet Blue.

A Portrait of the Universe….

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…..on a chair!!!

For Mr Devine. I hope he has received it by now. I posted it [via a red post box] on Thursday, so I’m guessing he should be, at this very moment in time, overwhelmed by the magnitude of his mail. Or, the postman has dropped it in a puddle and he is now drying out the universe on a radiator whilst eating a ham sandwich. I send these things out and hope for the best, but I do keep a photographic record just in case there is a hideous incident along the way.

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YES!!! The Universe!!! Now available…. ON A CHAIR!!!!!!

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The USS Enterprise….ON A CHAIR!!!

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A CHAIR!!!!!!!

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…sent with an explanatory note….

vintage 1st class stamp uk

….and an appropriate stamp, featuring Ms Norma.

I know that this is probably not the most visually stimulating art, but I so enjoyed making it! I enjoyed making it so much that I even bothered to hunt down an appropriate stamp. I intend to make more, I intend to make more abstract versions of my blogging experience! Yes, the digital made real! Some I will send out to terrify delight a chosen victim recipient, and others I will keep to decorate the downstairs loo. Lots to do then!

Meanwhile, March was a sad month. Many thanks to everyone who left supportive comments on my previous post.

Decades Go by….Rinse, Repeat.

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Between us, Jon and I have cobbled together a new meme, it is called ‘A Decade Ago’ or #adecadeago, which is exactly the same as ‘A Decade Ago’, but without spaces, and has a fancy hashtag slapped in front of it. To take part all you have to do is shimmy through your blog to 2009 and see what you were doing 10 years ago. For example, I was doing this: X-Rated. Yes, I was taking part in a meme!! I was collecting letters, talking about my favourite things, and waxing lyrical about udders, or some such. Mr XL’s comment summed it up best when he said: It’s like a bad Scrabble hand that you’ve made a triple score with, or something.…

In the spirit of favourite things, I have decided that my 2019 is going to be all about FAVOURITE THINGS, and recycling, I know! Hot topic! And I am going to do my part by recycling old blog comments, and bits of old blog. For example, in response to my comment box HERE, I have made this:-

collage-featuring-calligraphy-and-vintage-paper-uk

Repeating Patterns…

It is called: Repeating Patterns 149, and is made from scraps of paper from my studio; a vintage book; and as previous described, old blog comments. It amuses me that I can take what was originally digital and turn it into something with a vintage aesthetic. And I love making these.
So, from the top….

collage-detail-typewritten-text-on-parcel-paper-uk

collage-detail-vintage-photo-and-vintage-book-page-uk

Little Scarlet….

collage-detail-of-repeating-patterns-uk

Many thanks to Mr Modo, in the guise of Mrs Westicott, for the comments! He is long gone from the blogs, but now he has been immortalised.

It might be your turn next, if you’ve ever left a comment on any of my blogs…

Calligraphy Blog?

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The wonderful people at the Scribblers calligraphy emporium have had a link to this blog since I first began writing here, which is very generous of them, considering I often go off on a tangent. I do feel sorry for those who come here seeking in-depth discussion regarding nibs, inks, and paper, but end up with a row of rubber ducks and witterings about secret villages and exotic train travel. It wasn’t supposed to be this way! I think a personal blog, such as this one, is a reflection on the core characteristics of its owner. Yes, I am random, and a little unfocused. Trying not to be does not work. I often fail when I try to be organised, and then I am cross with myself for failing so dismally, and then nothing gets done at all.

So, I am throwing out the plans; the challenges to write every day [actually I do write every day but I choose not to share]; the projects that seem to have promise, but ultimately go nowhere; and I will instead be true to myself. Yes, I would desperately like to be one of those people who can follow through on a project, such as the Loopy Letter project….but I’m not. No excuses. For those who did sign up for that crazy project – you will get something in the post one day, but it won’t be as exciting as a letter!

My current situation is not conducive to committing myself wholeheartedly to the things I’d like to do. Watching my parents die together, slowly and painfully, as I am doing, does not make me fit for much more than the daily basics, i.e. washing, dressing, eating, and walking the dog. Death eh? Old age is a killer. I am also having a bit of a sense of humour failure right now. I am trying to keep my pecker up, but it feels forced. My pecker is decidedly droopy. My intention was to use my Loopy Letter project as a distraction, something fun outside of the daily grind, unfortunately it turned into further pressure.

I am rambling now, which is self-indulgent. Anyhow, for those poor souls who come here expecting calligraphy….
I have taken up doodling, and adding my doodles to my calligraphy. It started with an ‘E’….

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E by gum….

….and progressed to writing out ‘Carbuncle’ for fellow calligrapher Amy….

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A graceful carbuncle for Amy…

I then went on to tackle some names….

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More doodling…

….but I like ‘Best’ the best….

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Best doodling…

This isn’t all the doodling I’ve done, I have reams of it, but these are probably the bits I liked the best 🙂