On a stormy Boxing day....



Fortunately we have a fireplace, which can be heated with wood.



Whole Boxing day without electricity on countryside, where I was celebrating Christmas.

Wish you a Merry Christmas....

..and a Happy New Year : )
Thank you everybody for lovely christmas cards !

I´ve been on holiday

quess where?

Yes, in Thailand over two weeks. And it was lovely. So I haven´t done any calligraphy for a while, but now it is time for x-mas cards. Hopefully you all ATS 25 students remember what we agreed.......

Angela

Yesterday I saw a programme about Grand Canyon, and it reminded me about Angela. Her first work is about Grand Canyon. But I show here her further work "something you haven´t done before". Angela had choosed gothic fractur, here are some trials:

I have wrote on my notebook : block of fractur, one word heavier, vertical

Birthday card for 1 year old

I did this for a friend of mine, her granddaughter will be soon one year old.

Another certificate

It seems that my gothized italic is very useful for certificate of honor. Here is another that I did for the Finnish Chemist Society. I did actually two final pieces, from which I choosed one. The text was not properly centralized  in one of the works, so I did another with a little different way...

My study

Here is my study in the morning light, sun is rising. The sky was beautifully red, but unfortunately it doesn´t show in photo. I live on the 7th floor.

Time flies..

..and I haven´t done much ATS-homeworks.
But I`ve done a commission work for University of Helsinki. I used my gothiced italic style.

Teaching

Last weekend I was teaching italic, basic stuff, to fourteen people in Kangasala (a town about 32 kilometers from my home). People were very enthusiastic. We did italic minuscules, italic capitals, some colour experiments with soft pastels, two colour writing and cola pens.

 

Chris: My garden seat

Chris had carved images out of lino. She had printed images with oil based colours, which are not easy to write on. Book has a lovely cover, which invites you to open the book. "Nearly there!" said tutors.

Chris and her works

Our "homeworks" - Sarah

In April

And now it was like this

"When you have less background, the focus gets to the poem", said our tutors.

At Morton Morrell

Morton Morrell was a really nice place in the countryside. There was an old mansion on the area, unfortunately it had been burned few years ago, and it has not been restored. But it is beautiful from outside. We took a walk to there every day and injoined the view....

Anja and I hugging the tree  : )

2. time in ATS

This time we met in Warwickshire in Morton Morrell acriculture college 2-4.9.2011
It was much more easier this time, because we knew what to expect and we knew all the people from our group.
Although the place was not so easy to travel to: I game with Marika on thursday to London via Riga.
 We flew with Air Baltic. We spent one night in London in B & B acommodation near Marylebone station, from where we took a train to Leamington Spa. Anja joined us in Marylebone station and we all three travelled from there to college, first by train and then we took a taxi to college (it was only about 7 miles from the station).

Marika & Anja in Leamington Spa

Häme medieval fair

Finnish Calligraphy Society had an exhibition at the historical museum during medieval fair. On sunday 21.8.2011 Marika and I, we were there writing and telling about calligraphy.
People were able to try writing with feather.

Summer in Finland....

We visited at Anjas summer cottage, and of course she showed us some calligraphy...

What is summer without swimming in the lake....water was so lovely... I am swimming here in the evening about 10 p.m. and still light. Anjas cottage was in the island and the lake is Längelmävesi.

Albert & Charlene

Wedding congratulation to Prince Albert and Charlene....commission work

Other things..

During the summer I´ve done some cards.

here are congrulation cards for graduation.                               ..and here one for confirmation

wedding

Practise with gothiced italic

Text should be a little tighter... poem is about kestrel (falco tinnunculus), but feather is not kestrels.

Former work and development

On the first weekend I had this kind of idea for a work:

The moon was golden, but everybody told me that it should be silver. Well, I know the tango "Hopeinen kuu" Silver Moon, but on my opinion the moon can bee golden.... What do you think?

Anyway, here is the final work; the moon is silver and I have changed the script too..

September 3-4

Next weekend will take place at Morton Morrell. It is not so easy to get there as it was to Cambridge.
Me and Marika shall fly on thursday to London Gatwick airport and we will overnight in London. In the morning we will take the train to Leamington Spa and from there to college by taxi (it is only about 7 mails).

Marika in train when we took a little "sightseeing"....

It may be an adventure, like we had in Germany last year.....

Project for September...

At first I thought that I will do gothic script (that was in April). I tried some, but no, it didn´t seem to work.

Then I tried Irene Wellingntons gothiced italic script.

Here is gothiced italic by Irenes style.

Finally I choosed this style, its is gothiced italic too, but different from Irene´s.

This is almost a final piece by that script.

For the next time in September

We will meet next time in September.
This time our project is:
try something you haven´t done before. It can be a script or a technic etc. Something that is useful to you. Explore, you don´t need to do a finished piece.
plus you can also do your last work, if you want to.

After first weekend

...I felt quite confused. It is hard to listen and speak in english almost all the time. It is a relief that there are three of us from Finland.

First meeting

We had a project for our first meeting: theme was ´place´. I had many ideas how to procress the work, I didn´t have a finished piece (which was the idea). My place was a vampire forest or something like that.

Me and Sarah in restaurant on friday evening

Newnham College

First weekend 2-3.4.2011

Our first weekend was in Cambridge, in Newnham College.
When we (me, Marika and Anja) left from Finland, it was winter - snow and snow.
So we were really charmed by green lawns and the flowers that was blossoming.
We came by plane to Stanstedt - and our plane war late about two hours, so we missed a little bit from the start.
It was supposed to meet other members of our group in restaurant and eat together and get to know each other.

We game late and we were exhausted and hungry that we almost fall asleep after dinner.


Newnham College gave marvelous surroundings for our weekend. What a beautitul place !

What is ATS?

ATS = The Advanced Training Scheme.
The Society of Scribes and Illuminators in UK gives this course, which started in 1985. The Scheme exists to provide a structure of tuition, support and guidance for those calligraphers who want to develop their work in a more personal direction. It's not a teaching course. It's a programme which encourages students to find their own way ahead, and the tutors are very skilled in helping you do just that.(you can find more information www.calligraphyonline.org).


I started last spring, I`m a member of group 25. There are seven of us: myself, Marika, Anja, Chris, Sarah, Marion and Angela. Our tutors are Cherrell Avery and Gillian Hazeldine.