Calligraphy and Manuscript Course at North Bennet Street School

2009-12-06T07:21:00.002-05:00

More photos of the manuscripts as they are being worked on. They are beautiful!!

2009-12-06T07:13:00.003-05:00

As part of the manuscript course, Jeff (the bookbinding instructor) and I swapped classes for a few days. He's shown in an earlier post giving us a demo of one of the bookbinding styles. Here are some photos of his students having a few lessons in calligraphy and gilding.

2009-11-24T18:45:00.003-05:00

A partially completed page of Teddy's manuscript. Look at the beautiful calligraphy!

2009-11-24T18:40:00.005-05:00

A lesson in bookbinding from Jeff

2009-11-10T10:10:00.003-05:00

Jillian's portraits - fanciful and fun

2009-11-10T10:04:00.001-05:00

and here's the finished product

2009-11-10T10:00:00.003-05:00

then he decided to stitch a border around the monogram

2009-11-10T09:59:00.002-05:00

Sam created this very lovely monogram using gold leaf

2009-11-10T09:56:00.002-05:00

work in progress

2009-11-10T09:55:00.000-05:00

I love this quote Rie used in her bird illustration.

2009-11-10T09:52:00.002-05:00

An example of what a page looks like after the scribe has penciled in all the text and decoration. Next comes the fun part of inking in the text, and then adding the decoration.

2009-11-10T09:50:00.001-05:00

A sampler of Teddy's work

2009-11-10T09:47:00.002-05:00

Teddy's decorated initials are incredible . . . don't miss the snail on top of the M

Early draft of illuminated page

2009-10-29T00:15:00.003-04:00

This is an early draft page for my manuscript, which will be Arthur Rimbaud's collection "Illuminations". The "Y" is illuminated with 23K gold leaf, and the touches of gold here and there are done in shell gold. I'm using iron gall ink for the body of the text (an old world ink) and gouache paints for the poem headings and versal caps. Page size is 9"x12", and off the cuff the completed manuscript will run just over 100 pages. I've chosen to use a Carolingian minuscule hand. Here's the detail of the title:

I'd be very grateful for any feedback, thoughts, or ideas you might have, so please comment on my work if you'd like to.

Take care,
Samuel

2009-10-24T18:22:00.001-04:00

A few of the beautiful manuscripts we saw at the bpl.

2009-10-24T18:13:00.000-04:00

A highlight of the course . . . a visit to the Rare Books room at the Boston Public Library. What a treat! We spent three hours there studying a few of the 300 illuminated manuscripts in the collection at the BPL. (thanks, Jillian, for the photo!)

2009-10-24T18:10:00.000-04:00

An added bonus . . . we are fortunate to have a participant in our class who is from Tokyo. So one day, we all received a lesson in Japanese calligraphy. Thanks, Rie!

2009-10-24T18:03:00.000-04:00

Wow! Look at the work that is being turned out just three weeks into the course . . . and it's getting better everyday!

In the beginning . . .

2009-10-24T17:30:00.002-04:00

Hard at work . . . two of the participants in the manuscript course are practicing their lettering skills. The Scribes-In-Training learn a new "hand" or lettering style each week. Our text book is "Calligraphy: A Course in Hand Lettering." Weekly projects are assigned . . . they're in training for a "marathon" at the end of the course - creating their own hand-lettered manuscript.