Wednesday, June 27, 2018

JULY 2018 SCRIBNOTE


Comments from the Chairperson
It has been such a busy couple of months, I may have to retire from my retirement ! How did I ever work fulltime?


Can't say it is all work. I enjoy doing things and keeping busy.


At the end of April I went to a workshop sponsored by the Pen Dragons of Kalamazoo  featuring Amity Parks. Actually this was 2 workshops rolled into 1. The first 2 days we worked with graphite at the Parchment Library and the second 2 days we worked on collage and the beautiful home of Marijo Carney. It was a wonderful experience and I highly recommend that if anyone has a chance to go to a workshop with Amity Parks, GO! She is a wonderful teacher.






At the end of May our own guild sponsored Yukimi Annand, this too was a great experience and we worked with the folded pen. I received an email from Jean Ketcham as follows:
"As a novice calligrapher I was honored to be included in last week's Folded Pen Workshop by acclaimed calligrapher Yukimi Annand. Yukimi's thoughtfully organized workshop walked us through the use of the folded pen with attention to detail with each individual project. She patiently guided us to create a project using her beautifully imaginative aesthetic style with the wide and thin lines that the folded pen can produce, and added color. She showed us how to make a book with our worksheets simply and beautifully bound with black paper.
I share the hope of the other workshop participants that we will have another opportunity to work with and be inspired by Yukimi Annand."
This email really struck me, as so many new calligraphers shy away from taking a workshop; maybe they are intimidated by the experience or knowledge of their fellow workshop members. Please don't be as this letter attests!


Also I would like to thank Alicia Marquez for the wonderful photos she took. She was a visitor from the Chicago Guild and a welcome addition to our group.
Here is a link


https://photos.app.goo.gl/pYBjjgJDp7gW7N8U9


Alicia you are welcome to join us anytime!


Currently I am taking an online class in Gothicized Italic with Barry Morentz through Harvest Crittenden's Acorn Arts. I have taken several online classes through and with Harvest and they are always great. Keeping up with the assignments has been a challenge. There are the things you want to do and the things you should do and then the things that you do! It seems something always comes up to change any plans.


Ginny VanderHey has written two articles for the blog this quarter and I want to thank her, she is a true asset to this guild, we could not survive without her! Love you Ginny!



A Day with Julie Wildman

Angela Michielutti and I were invited to go to Julie Wildman's home in Highland, Indiana in early April and as the day got closer, we got more excited about it. I just knew that if the phone rang the morning of, someone was cancelling our day together.

I first met Julie when I went to a Chicago Calligraphy Collective Exhibit Reception at the Newberry Library that some members of our guild attend every year (except this one because they were renovating). Julie had a piece she had entered and the lettering was very free and only had about 3 words on it, which they were in Italian, so my eye immediately honed in on that piece. It said "Nienta Sensa Gioia" or Nothing Without Joy. I love Italian words, and these are the exact same words that I did several years ago when we did a quote exchange. Mine is hanging in Anna Schlemma's home and makes me very proud when I see that she would elect to have it on her walls. So, after meeting Julie in Chicago, I asked if she taught classes and she said yes she did. She had only taught in the Chicago area at that time and we were the first group to ask to do a workshop outside of her area and outside of her state. So we talked about dates, did lots of emailing and decided when she would come to teach us. Since then she has done 2 workshops for us at the MCG which was well attended. She is a very giving person and wants you to learn all that she has to share. Also, she stayed at my home twice and now we have become great friends so I consider myself blessed.

So on Wednesday morning, April 11, I drove to Angela's home in South Bend and we left from there to go to Julie's home in Illinois. It was almost 2 hours from Elkhart, but it was really a beautiful day and we only had one detour before finding her lovely home. The trip was made shorter by the good company Angela was and her being a good co-pilot. The first thing you notice when walking in the door is all the artwork that she has in her home and one wall were mostly originals from different instructors. Angela and I has to pick up our jaw that had fallen to the floor at that point.

Next we went downstairs to Julie's studio which is a huge part of her basement with two huge tables. Julie showed us some of the things she had learned on her trip to France last year so we played with marks on different kinds of paper. Walnut ink on watercolor paper or gold on black paper was so lovely also. We also made some flowers with our automatic pens and got to try out a few new pens that we hadn't seen before like Brody Neuenschwander pen and the Dreambug pen. We liked the Brody but didn't have much success with the Dreambug, but it was certainly fun to try new writing implements.


We really didn't have enough time together because of the time difference and the long ride back home, but we are hoping to have another get together in the near future and either we will go to Julie's again, or she will make the drive here. I couldn't wait to come home and make cards out of some of the marks I made. We really did have a wonderful few precious hours together just having an "art play day" with three friends.

Ginny VanderHey


FOLDED PEN WORKSHOP WITH YUKIMI ANNAND

My initial contact with Yukimi Annand began almost two years ago when I saw her work on Pinterest and loved it! I emailed Yukimi for a proposal for a workshop in South Bend and she emailed me with future dates that were available and all the particulars that go along with it. The MCG Board decided on May 22 and 23, 2018 and I had to be patient knowing that time would pass quickly enough and she would be here to teach Folded Pen Letters. Also, she taught Text and Texture in Chicago on May 19 and 20 so we were able to share the cost of bringing her to South Bend with the Chicago Calligraphy Collective whose workshop sold out in 9 minutes! Our workshop was sold out in two days and we had a waiting list. Finally on Monday, May 21, Pat West and I drove to the SB Airport where Yukimi was coming in on the train, or so we thought. Turns out the train only went to Carroll Street that week, so they put her on a bus for the rest of the way to South Bend. Thank Goodness for cell phones so that she could text us and let us know that she was let off at the train station end of the airport and not at the bus station. So Pat and I traipsed over to the other end and found her outside. Also Thank Goodness for Facebook so that I knew what she looked like. We took her back to Pat's house where she stayed for three nights and made a wonderful dinner of quiche, salad, fruit and muffins together in Pat's dining room. Yukimi spent some time outside in Pat's beautiful yard taking pictures of the beautiful foliage and fauna.

After coming back home, two of my dear calligraphy friends, Tina Cronkite and Linda Bravada, arrived in Elkhart to stay with my husband and I for two nights. They are both delightful company and we shared lots of talk about books and calligraphy. On Tuesday morning we left the house at 8 am and headed to Battlell Center in Mishawaka where they had a great room for us to have a workshop. Eighteen of us gathered, two to a table, to start our Yukimi Folded Pen journey. Yukimi had some folded pens listed on her supply list, but I wanted to try them before I purchased one. Yukimi had some Horizon folded nibs for sale and I have been using that one during class and here at home to practice.

We worked on Strathmore 300 series Charcoal Paper which was very smooth and also used pencils and then sumi ink to start making marks and then letters. We were given many pages of handouts to work with and many styles of "A's" so that we could come up with a lettering style all our own. The MCG provided a piece of Arches and two pieces of Ingres that were lovely to work on also. Yukimi was very patient and spent time with each and every one of us at our seats to help "see" how the letters need to weave in together. We all had a quote to work on that we brought with us and I am so glad that mine was not a long one! The second day we worked on doing a final piece or working towards a final piece. We then mixed some FW Acrylic colors to make a trio of hues to write and loved the look of the letters with color. Yukimi also did many demonstrations to help us achieve success in working with our letters and pens.

Pat, Angie and I have now ordered a "Tim's Pen" from Tim Leigh in Portland, Oregon. John Neal was out of the ones we wanted (I think Anna bought the last one!) so we went to the source. He is in the process of making 200 pens for the calligraphy conference in Seattle this year, so ours may take a few weeks to get here. In the meantime, we will practice with what we have which is the Horizon Folded Nib which has been working pretty well also.

I loved Yukimi and her work. She is a very soft-spoken person so everyone has to be very quiet to hear her. My ears don't work as well as they used to, so it was hard to hear her all she had to tell us. But, all went well and we did as she directed. I am hoping that in the future, we can learn under Yukimi's tutieledge  possibly in Kalamazoo. Our participants consisted of 8 MCG members, also one from Wisconsin, one from Chicago,  one from Valpo, one from Fishers, one from Lansing, one from Grand Rapids, 2 from Kalamazoo, one for Alto, Michigan and one from Richland, Michigan. So, as you can see, many have been waiting for Yukimi Annand to come to this area.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in to set up, clean up, order supplies, bring snacks to share, make coffee and to Alicia Marquez who took many wonderful pictures that Yukimi has shared on her Facebook and Instagram page. https://photos.app.goo.gl/pYBjjgJDp7gW7N8U9

Next up....Barbara Mann in September for a one-day workshop.

Ginny VanderHey

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

Barbara Mann - September 22



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 a workshop. If there would be an emergency, for instance, the birth of a child or grandchild, illness, etc., then the boards 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 the 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 your 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 a 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 Ginny VanderHey, 51854 Stoney Creek Drive, Elkhart, IN 46514. When monies are due for a workshop or dues, they will now go to one of these addresses. 
American Frame – Just a reminder that if you order from American Frame, please mention MCG, and they will give us a small stipend.
MCG Meetings for Year
July 7 - Make and Take Accordian Books, Ginny VanderHey and Renee Tuveson
August – Annual Picnic
September 1 - Laurie Heyden
October 6 -
November 3 - Anna Schlemma
December 1 - Annual Christmas party at Christ the King Church
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
Annual dues of $15 are due at the July meeting. Our annual dues have not changed 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 dues to the July meeting or send it to Laurie Heyden, our treasurer.

Laurie Heyden, Treasurer, silverbird323@yahoo.com 
Pat West, Secretary 574-612-9328 pwpatwest@gmail.com
Jo McPherson, Study Group Chairperson, jobakestwo@centurylink.net
Renee Tuveson – Blog Coordinator




If ever you would like to add to the newsletter/blog, please contact one of the officers, and we will get that information to Renee Tuveson. Something you have done or have seen would be welcomed into our information.
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