Thursday, April 7, 2011

Progress on the THING

This is the most ambitious calligraphy project I've done ever, and that's saying something.  I hereby christen it the Thing; everything I work on is usually called a Thing for at least a little while, what can I say?

Anyway.

Today I gave up on the vellum - it's just too damaged for me to cut a large enough piece out of it (though I can and will cut smaller sections out for other projects) - broke out the Bristol board and the ruler and pencils. This one is large enough I also broke out the T-square (the ruler is longer) and because of the design, I even got to use my compass.  I like my compass.  I've done ridiculous geometric marvels with the compass before.  Today I just drew a dozen circles in various strategic locations.

You wouldn't think that just getting guidelines down would take a couple hours, but it does. Either I'm precise and fussy, or just slow, or both, but it took at least two hours. Some of that was ruling the lines for the margins, quite a bit was involved with the first initial of the piece, and surprisingly, not very much time at all was needed to get the guidelines down for the text.  The finished piece, not counting margins, will measure 12x14 inches.  Of that, only a 5.75 inch square will be devoted to wordy stuff.  Yes, I know.  Don't give me that look, my husband already did and I was immune to it then, too. Just trust me.
 
Tomorrow I'll put the text down (whee!) and finish drawing in the knotwork on the letter T and animals on the initial I.  And then there will be gesso... and probably also the first stages of hand-polishing gemstones.  I've never done that before either, so I want to start as soon as possible.
 
And that's the Thing.  Pictures will follow after the piece is given to its intended recipient.  It's an award certificate, basically, and in our society, these things are very hush-hush, "state secrets" so that we don't spoil the surprise.  In other words you don't get to see it till they do.
 
My fingers have had a few days to recover from Death Grip Calligraphy (it's a beginner's mistake but I still make it whenever I've gotten out of practice), so while I now feel able to do the lettering without pain, I'm concerned I'll have somehow lost my comfort with the alphabet style.  Feh.  Second-guessing gets me nothing, especially when I have tomorrow to fret over it and tonight to sleep.
 
G'night, people who may actually be reading! (Thanks again, Barbara Sher Who Is Awesome.)

2 comments:

  1. Where can I see pictures of what you do? I´m getting real curious! :D

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  2. Click the "images" tag in that sidebar to the right. Lots of stuff over there, including some calligraphy if you dig down far enough!

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