Meetings Archive 2023–2024
Below is a summary of the meetings held during this year.
Programs will be added to our public YouTube channel when possible. Members receive private links to ALL our replay videos.
June 5, 2024
Members Quote Swap (via Padlet)
Write out your version of this quote in any style on whatever substrate you choose and share!
Kindness connects us. Pass it on.
Before the meeting, load images of your artwork onto the Escribiente Padlet (check your email for the link). During the meeting, you will have a chance to talk about your work. Then the wheel of fortune will be spun and a lucky member will win your piece. You will be the winner of someone else’s.
If you will not be available for the meeting, you can still participate by sharing your work on the Padlet and adding information in the caption.
On June 15th at 1:00 pm we will meet at the Heights Cumberland Presbyterian Church to share the things we posted plus any small gifts you have received or given to others that feature calligraphy such as cards, books, bookmarks, mobiles, ornaments, etc. We will be featuring items by Caryl McHarney so please bring any pieces you may have received from Caryl.
May 1, 2024
Carve a Letter Once, Use it Again and Again
Presentation by Michal Sommers
Make a hand-drawn letter and use it again and again by turning it into a hand-carved stamp. Follow along to learn fundamentals for designing, carving, and printing your own letter form or design embellishment from reusable soft carving blocks. Even one block offers an array of design options. Caution: you’ll want to make so many more!
Tools:
- Soft carving block such as Speedball Speedy Carve (pink stuff)
- Carving tool: Speedball straight nib holder and a #1 or #2 cutting blade, OR a Speedball linoleum handle with a cutting blade.
- X-acto knife with a new blade
- HB or B pencil & an old credit card/gift card
- Small bit of tracing paper and a piece of tape (washi tape works well)
- Stamp pad such as VersaFine Clair pigment ink which dries quickly and holds details, but try anything you might have around will work OR use water-based markers (ie, Crayola markers)
- Copy paper for practice & smooth cardstock or envelopes for a finished design
- Cutting mat and paper to protect your desk
- Damp towel or sponge
Michal Sommers is an Escribiente member and visual artist living in the high desert under the big turquoise skies of New Mexico. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited and collected across the United States. After retiring from teaching at an independent school, she has been enjoying more time in her studio and with her family.
April 20, 2024
In-person Program (no recording)
Writing on Glass
Presentations by members
Our third Saturday meet-up will be jam packed with multiple presentations showing how to apply your calligraphic skills to glass. There will be five hands-on play stations for writing on glass:
- Bill Kemp will demonstrate writing with an engraver tool and let you test drive the engraver.
- Trish Meyer will give you the opportunity to experience etching with Etchall Creme.
- Evelyn Costello will let you test write seven different removable markers for glass: acrylic paint, oil based, chalk based or resin!
- Beth House will share writing with Neuland markers which are available from Heather Martinez.
- Elizabeth McKee will have her supply of Pebeo/Vitrea glass paint and markers for members to play with. Once baked this can go through the dishwasher.
If you would like to play along, bring some glass objects or bottles (thrift stores often have glass vases or candle holders with flat sides that are easier to letter on than round bottles). Some of us will have glass on hand to share too.
One suggestion: You could make a sampler of all the different methods on one piece of glass using an old picture frame with glass from a thrift shop if you don’t have one stashed in a closet.
Business Meeting: April 3, 2024 * Online via Zoom
The April 3rd Zoom meeting was a business program only. The replay video is available to members.
March 6, 2024
Adding a Graphic Element to Calligraphy
Presentation by Sue Greenseth
In traditional calligraphy, an emotional message can be conveyed without using a graphic element by choosing an appropriate hand, a pleasing layout, the right inks, tools, papers, and creating powerful contrasts. However, there are times when adding a graphic element can make a piece stronger. Sue Greenseth will share her 18 different methods for successfully adding a graphic element to a calligraphic piece. After the presentation, participants can use what they’ve learned to create their own art by combining lettering and an image.
Sue Greenseth is a calligrapher and lettering artist in Portland, Oregon. She fell in love with calligraphy in the 1970s, and began a successful freelance lettering career with commercial clients in the 1990s. Sue has many creative pursuits. These days Sue enjoys teaching calligraphy as well practicing as a fulltime artist. She loves breathing life into letterforms and animating words with a pen. Visit Sue’s website.
Supply List:
- Postage stamps (cancelled stamps are fine)
- Paper
- Writing tools – pens, markers, pencil, whatever the participant chooses
- Glue (only a tiny amount is needed)
February 7, 2024
Envelope Art
Presentation by Carol DuBosch
Join us for the fun as Carol DuBosch presents the many possibilities for using your art and calligraphy to make unique envelopes for your everyday mail! Carol regularly enters and wins awards in the annual Graceful Envelope Contest sponsored by the Washington DC Calligraphy Guild and the National Assn. of Letter Carriers. Next year’s entries are due in March. Carol will present slides of her past entries, with sketches and drafts to show the design process as she encourages you to enter the contest. Carol will also teach us how to make a simple book that can be used to store beautiful envelopes.
Download Instructions (PDF) for Flat-Style Australian Reverse Piano Hinge.
Carol DuBosch has been a calligrapher in Portland, Oregon since she was first introduced to nibs and ink in the 1960’s. In the years since, she gained a degree in Graphic Design and studied with every major calligrapher in the US and Europe. Carol taught college level and private classes in the Northwest for 30 years, along with workshops throughout the United States and in Italy. Carol has directed three International Calligraphy Conferences in Portland, bringing 500+ scribes together for a week of study and sharing. Carol is interested in every aspect of the field of calligraphy, from the formal invitations and expressive broadsides to writing on walls. Most recently, she is focused on calligraphic artist books. As a life-long learner, Carol DuBosch is always looking forward to the next new thing. Learn more about Carol on her website.
Member Holiday Party:
Saturday, December 2, 2023, 1–3pm
Bring a calligraphic gift for the gift exchange (optional) along with a sweet or savory dish for our potluck luncheon. Feel free to dress in the Christmas spirit too!
Program: November 1, 2023
A Book, a Tool, and a Technique
Presentation by Cora Pearl
During most calligraphy workshops, inevitably certain questions get asked, such as, What kind of brush is that? What kind of paper are you using? and Can you write down the name of that book you just mentioned?
The answers to these questions often lead to sharing of purchasing resources, and additional similar books and tools. Sometimes there isn’t enough time to share every variation and technique being taught in a workshop, even though there is great interest from students. This presentation will highlight a handful of those juicy bits of knowledge and resources as the featured elements all on their own. In this presentation, Cora Pearl will share a book, a tool, and a technique to enhance and add to your art making repertoire.
Cora will be teaching Hand Lettering with the Folded Pen workshop for Escribiente in March 2024. More details on our Workshops page.
Cora Pearl started studying calligraphy at age 11 and has been doing calligraphy and hand lettering ever since. She has a BA in Art and Art History from Oberlin College. Cora works as a full-time calligrapher and teacher of lettering arts—she teaches full credit calligraphy and hand lettering courses in the art department at Portland Community College, and teaches independent workshops, classes, and private sessions, both in person and online. Cora has taught almost 2000 hours on Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic.
Program: October 4, 2023
Cut Letters and Two Ways to Emboss
Presentation by Elizabeth McKee
In 2010 Elizabeth made a book with letters cut from paper. About halfway through the process she realized that with a bit of double-sided tape she could have made two books at the same time if she had only planned it well and saved the negative space from the first book. In 2013 she figured out how to make two books this way.
Recently it was pointed out to her that her method could also be used for embossing and debossing.
For years she had happily been embossing using matt board.
There are many ways to emboss and deboss. This is a hands-on program demonstrating the two different methods that Elizbeth uses.
A supply list was sent to Escribiente members.
Elizabeth McKee’s nomad’s life has carried her from New Guinea to Australia, Iowa, Japan, Zambia, Canada, Malaysia, Florida, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Maryland, Russia and Albuquerque. She moved to Albuquerque in 2015. She discovered calligraphy in Japan in 1970. Was happy to rediscover it in English in 1980. In 1984, she helped establish the Calligraphy Society of Ottawa. In 1987, Elizabeth became a Portfolio Member of the Colleagues of Calligraphy in Minnesota. She received an intensive education in color theory while running a marbling studio in Nairobi, Kenya from 1994 to 1998. Her work has been widely published (including in Letter Arts Review and Bound and Lettered magazines), and her books are included in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Harvard's Houghton Library, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art as well as in private collections around the world.
September 6, 2023
Kemp’s Script Workshop Preview
Presented by Bill Kemp
Download Workshop Preview PDF
Kemp’s Script, a pointed pen style developed by Master Calligrapher, Bill Kemp, will be presented in a two-day, in-person Escribiente workshop on November 11–12, 2023.
Bill developed this script when a client gave him just an invitation card for a wedding, and there were only the names of the bride and groom in that font. All the lettering on the invitation was in lower case, with no capitals (only twelve letters to work with). After much research, Bill found a similar font and from that he developed a pointed pen version to fit the clients' needs. He had to address envelopes and place cards for the wedding to make them look very similar to the invitation.
Bill has since used this script to write several poems and short quotes over the years and now wants to share it with others. It is a very vertical script and can be written with an oblique or straight penholder.