Thistlework Design Calligraphy Studio

Dining room. After noon.

& I know there’s a mouse in here somewhere.

In my happy place… studying the Ancient Celts, assisted by Pyewacket.

I’m obsessed with this latest addition to my library. I had been listening to it on Audible, but really needed to see the maps and timelines showing migration patterns. I highly recommend this book if you’re seriously interested in learning about how the debatable concept of “Celtic” evolved.

🌎🌳

It’s an honor to have the annual task of hand lettering the names of award recipients on the prize boards at St. Mark’s School. This is a tradition that goes back many decades.

https://www.facebook.com/stmarksschoolMA

Recent work done at St. Mark’s School.
Always fun lettering on a ladder. 😉

Process of recreating their griffin mascot:
1. Tracing another artist’s original from previous years.
2. Transferring the traced design onto the new board with Saral transfer paper.
3. Painting the interior color, custom mixed dark blue with black.
4. Painting the white outlines.

There is still time to register for “Celtic Knotwork for Calligraphers” as part of the Masscribes Artists’ Roundtable workshop series (where members teach members!). Here are scenes from a previous Celtic knotwork class with Diane McDougall-Desautelle. In one short afternoon, students learned how to expand on the basic “Triquetra” or “Triskelion” knot to create a four-cornered design. Imagine what you can learn in a whole weekend! WHERE: Upton Community Center WHEN: February 22-23, 2005 This workshop is open to members of all levels of drawing and calligraphy ability. Not a Masscribes member yet? No problem… Visit www.masscribes.org to JOIN TODAY! Then go to the “Workshops” tab to register for this class. You can sign up for just Saturday (for knotwork basics)— OR both Saturday and Sunday to combine your new knotwork skills with Uncial calligraphy. 💚🖋️ #MembersTeachingMembers #LearnCalligraphy #UncialCalligraphy #UncialScript #Masscribes #LearnCelticKnotwork #CelticArt #NewEnglandArtists #newenglandcalligraphyorganization To learn more about the instructor and see Diane’s work, visit @dimcdes.thistlework on Instagram, or hop over to her page: https://www.facebook.com/thistleworkdesign

It’s that time of year again… I’m back at it, gilding winners’ names on the golf tournament plaques for the local country club.

Did you know that if you’re working with loose leaf gold, but find yourself wishing you had patent leaf gold so things could go more quickly and you’d waste WAAAAY less gold… you can actually “make” your own using a sheet of glassine. (I mean, we all love watching little flakes of gold floating around, but I *do* like to try and conserve as much as I can.) You may already have some glassine for the purpose of burnishing. It is a smooth and glossy semi-transparent paper, kind of like wax paper — but not waxy. Even though it is “air, water, and grease resistant”, you can press it against your cheek or neck — just like you would with your flat gilders tip brush to pick up loose leaf gold — and get just enough natural oil from your skin on the glassine to “grab” when you lay it carefully down on a loose leaf sheet of gold in a booklet. Just give a little press evenly across the sheet and then carefully, holding the very edge of the glassine, slowly lift and the whole leaf of gold will come up with it. While the “hold” is not as strong as that of true patent gold leaf, if you move slowly enough when you go to place it where you want to transfer the gold, it should be pretty cooperative.

I’m fortunate to have an old box of 3-inch square science lab “weighing sheets“ (essentially the same as what we would buy from a gilding materials supplier) that another artist in Masscribes once put out on a materials swap table at one of our meetings. (Don’t you just love it when art and science come together? 😆)

Getting very excited to teach my Celtic Knotwork class again (in February) through Masscribes — New England Calligraphy Organization. This time around I will be including a section on Uncial script — which, of course, pairs so perfectly with knot designs. Beginner level calligraphers are welcome — so if you are local and interested, but are not yet a Masscribes member, you can join any time of year! Just click on the Membership link at www.masscribes.org