Michiana Calligraphy Guild: January 2018

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COMMENTS FROM OUR CHAIRPERSON

It is November and if you live in the Midwest, you will find that we go from summer and shorts one day to wearing winter coats and gloves the next. There is no transition period! My hands and lips are dry the heat being on and going out into the cold. I just cut down all my tomatoes to be mulched behind the house and luckily there are still a few to eat now and some that are green and will ripen in a few days. I am not a winter person at all!

Thanks to Sharon Esmont for demonstrating Celtic knots in October. I was not able to be there, but instead spent three days at Fernwood with Jacqueline Gnott and learning watercolor techniques along with Pat West and Maureen Trubac. It was a beautiful three days and hopefully I can keep working on my watercolors as well as calligraphy, sewing, making books, etc. What did I do when I worked every day till 4 pm!

November 4 was the last MCG meeting that Sharon Esmont and I presided over. Renee Tuveson will begin her journey as President and Marty Mitchell will be Vice President for the coming year or two, or whatever they wish to do. Sharon and I have held our positions for at least 15 years or more and it was time to hand over the reins. I will be in Florida from November till February so I won't be here to conduct meetings. This does not mean that I won't be a part of the guild, but just that I won't be here for a few months every year. Anna Schlemma and I will be workshop chairpersons for now since we have Yukimi Annand, Barbara Mann and Heather Held in the wings for future workshops. I know that Renee and Marty will continue to keep the guild growing.

The MCG Board held a meeting in November and Marty suggested a Year of the Handmade Book. At our November meeting we had several people volunteer to demonstrate handmade books at our monthly meetings. Renee will be doing a Spotlight (a la Kalamazoo) with her book she did for the august 2017 exchange. We will have our regular meeting and then pack a lunch and make a book in the afternoon. Angie West has volunteered to do another Spotlight in June. More information about this will be forthcoming in other emails.

Also at our November meeting, we held a Calligraflea so members could either sell their treasures that are no longer used or could give away free anything they just didn't have use for anymore. Maureen Trubac brought a suitcase full of books and lots of them were scooped up.

We've had a great year of demonstrations and hopefully that will continue throughout the future meetings. That old saying "It Takes A Village" rings true even with calligraphy guilds. Without everyone working together all year, we wouldn't have the marvelous cohesiveness that we have had for many years. Let's continue to keep the Michiana Calligraphy Group strong by continuing to promote the beautiful art of Calligraphy.

Thanks again everyone for your love and support and I look forward to seeing everyone again in March.

Ginny VanderHey
Ex - MCG President

Deep breath and on to 2018!

My deep thanks to Ginny VanderHey and Sharon Esmont for their years of hard work as President and Vice President of MCG.

I cannot begin to imagine what it is like to guide our guild into becoming a strong and more well known entity in our community. As Ginny said earlier in this post, "It Takes A Village". We all need to pitch in and give a hand. Work toward encouraging our fellow artisans in all of their endeavors . There are so many things going on out there and nothing is more discouraging then finding out something wonderful happened last week that we would have loved to be a part of. I am asking all of you, if you hear of a show, class,event, etc. send a message to me or any of our board members and we will make sure the news gets out.

In my calligraphic life I have been taking classes through Acornarts. Harvest Crittenden has added some artists to her studio and I have taken 2 classes with F. Phyllis Macaluso using the wedge brush that most of us have worked with before. Also a class with Bailey Amon Rivera who taught "Script Design from Traditional to Modern". Starting January 3 I will be taking a class with Michael Ward in Spencerian Design. All have been 4 week classes with a lot of handouts and great instruction. I have enjoyed them very much and encourage everyone to look into the classed available at Acornarts.

Requesting that everyone think about submitting an article for the blog. It can be about a certain artist that you enjoy, a technique, a teacher, a fellow member or even yourself! I expect to be flooded with articles!

Renee Tuveson

September Meeting

Our September meeting was all about Zentangle which Renee Tuveson guided us through some beauties. Renee has been doing a Zentangle a day as often as she can and printed out some new ones for us to try. It was enjoyable to see our shapes come to life with some micron pen strokes. Thanks Renee for showing us some new Zentangles that we can try and the websites so that we can continue to experiment.

Examples of zentangles done at our September Meeting

Ginny

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS:

Future Workshops - It seems that instructors are booking their workshops way, way out in the future and we have secured two really good calligraphers for our future workshops. Please mark your calendars for May 22 and 23, 2018 (a Tuesday and Wednesday) when Yukimi Annand will be in South Bend for a workshop for the MCG and also Heather Victoria Held for the weekend of April 6, 2019. Both of these ladies are booked solid and these were their first available dates. Save the dates and save your pennies because these workshops will cost a bit more since we have to fly them from Canada and California. Luckily for us, we will piggy back onto the Chicago Guild's dates for Yukimi Annand so we won't have to pay the whole airline fee. Another guild will be looking at Heather Held's dates to see if they can piggy back onto ours and we can share that cost. I have said many times that we try to keep our fees as low as possible, but when an instructor comes from a distance away, they charge us more for travel and baggage and we pass that on to you. You won't want to miss either of these workshops!

http://www.yukimiannand.com/yukimia/galleries.html
http://heathervivtoriaheld.com/
http://gallery.jacquelinesullivan.com/main.php

http://www.letterist.com/WorkshopPDFs/Calligraphy-PDFs/Duet.pdf.

Jacqueline Sullivan - Jacqueline Sullivan, who was in South Bend in late September 2017, has a website that she posts art tips and upcoming workshops she will be conducting. If you are interested, send in a request to Jacqueline. Go to http://blog.jacquelinesullivan.com/workshops/ and click on mailing list.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR MEETINGS FOR OCTOBER

Piece owned by Sharon Esmont done by Gwen Weaver

Beautifully done by Anna Schlemma

Anna Schlemma

HIGHLIGHTS OF NOVEMBER MEETING

November "Calligraflea"

Poured paint by Anna Schlemma

Anna Schlemma

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR DECEMBER MEETING

Christmas Luncheon

Watercolor Cards by Barbara Walsh

Christmas Exchange

NON CALLIGRAPHY ADD ON

I know that many of our members are bird lovers. My son's hobby is nature photography and he has taken many beautiful bird pictures and here I will share a few of my favorites. He is on instagram if you are interested as 2vguitar.

POLICY FOR MCG

Our workshops seem to have people sign up and then decide not to attend. We have been very generous in returning monies paid for the workshop if someone decides not to attend at the last minute, but we are going to have a change in this policy. There will be a nominal fee if you drop out of the workshop. If there would be an emergency, for instance, a birth of a child or grandchild, illness, etc, then the board will take this under advisement to decide on a course of action regarding a refund. Also, if the workshop is filled and there is someone to take your place, that would also qualify for a refund. So please, if you want to sign up for a workshop, make sure that you put that date on your calendar as a commitment. We have a small calligraphy group and we struggle to fill workshops at times. We need all of you to attend as many as possible so that we can continue to have quality instructors.

Are you on Facebook? If so, look up your favorite calligraphers because they are on Facebook also. I like to look at Barbara Close, Reggie Ezell, Julian Waters, John Stevens, Rachel Yallop, Pendragons, Capital City Scribes, Yukimi Annand, etc.. There is a lot of beautiful calligraphy on these pages that will get you inspired. Also look at Joanne Fink and Barbara Lever's Facebook page, and then, there is always Pinterest. Oh my, so many places to be inspired!

PO BOX in SOUTH BEND - Due to lack of much mail at our Post Office box in South Bend, we have suspended any mail sent to that address. If you have anything to send to the MCG, please send to Laurie Heyden, 18292 Courtland Drive, South Bend, IN 46637 or Renee Tuveson, 928 Finch Drive, South Bend, IN 46614. When monies are due for a workshop dues, they will now go to one of these addresses.

MCG MEETINGS FOR 2018

January - NO MEETING
February 3 - St. Johns's Bible Samples & Explanations by Sharon Esmont
March 3 - Renee Tuveson Spotlight - Handmade Book
April 7 - Ginny VanderHey (?)
May 5 - Marty Mitchell - Button Hole Stitch Book
May 22 - 23 - Yukimi Annand Workshop more details to be announced
June 2 - Angie West Spotlight - Thomas Ingmire Book
July 7 - Linda Bigger
August 4 - Annual Summer Picnic
September 1 - Laurie Heyden
September 22 - Barbara Mann Workshop
October 6 - Lauren Matacio
November 3 - Anna Schlemma
December 1 - Christmas Potluck and Exchange

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
Annual dues of $15 are due at the July meeting. Our annual dues have not changes in many years and are put to good use for supplies for our make it/take it meetings, annual raffle in August, and at the end of the year, we give to local charities. Please remember to bring your sues to the July meeting or sent it to Laurie Heyden.

OFFICERS

Renee Tuveson, President 574-291-3621 rtuveson@hotmail.com

Marty Mitchell, Vice President martimm@gmail.com

Laurie Heden, Treasurer, silverbird323@yahoo.com

Pat West, Secretary 574-612-9328 pwpatwest@gmail.com

Jo McPherson, Study Group Chairperson, jobakestwo@aol.com

Renee Tuveson and Laurie Heyden - Blog Coordinators

If ever you would like to add to the newsletter/blog contact one of the officers, Something you have done or have seen would be welcomed into our information.

Sunday, December 31, 2017

January 2018