Flourishes

Cover Artist: Bill Waddington
says that this illustration is meant to show that
people at all levels of society have to make
the best of every day!

Dear Fellow Scribes and Artists,

February is here! This is a month known for chocolates, valentines and messages of love. Don’t forget to bring some treats to share with the Battered Women’s Shelter. Once again, Lynn Rothe will be collecting all of the goodies and taking them to the Shelter. I know packets of valentines for the children to take to school, handmade valentines, toiletries and of course chocolates will be greatly appreciated!

January was a seemingly quiet month after all of the holidays. I hope you found time for some art. I know Pauline Sager’s Saturday Special featuring Fantasy Flowers was a great success. If you attended, please bring a sample for the Share Table at our February Meeting.

Thanks to Dolores Schultz as well for leading an exciting mini-workshop on using pastels to highlight monoline Roman letters. These letters will be perfect for our valentines.

Leslie Winakur and I will attend the Southwest Calligraphy Conference in Tulsa the end of January. I will be reporting on the activities of the conference in the March Newsletter.

Thanks as well to Kaye Yarborough for organizing our envelope exchange. I’m looking forward to receiving some wonderful envelopes in my mailbox over the next few months.

Don’t forget your handmade valentines and book marks for exchanging at the February meeting. There will be envelopes available to place your valentine in. Remember, you bring one valentine and get one in exchange.

And, while you have your art materials out, don’t forget our annual Spring Show which will hang at Los Patios in April and May. Last year’s anniversary exhibit was wonderful and I know this year’s will be just as great.

Hugs,

Pam Thomas
SACG President

Thanks so much to Becky Hughes, Jan Gorman, and Rosemary Rodriguez for the delicious refreshments at the January meeting. There are still some spaces left for Hospitality this year, so if you are new and have not yet signed up, you may contact either Mary Bumstead or Carol Keith to put your name on the list to furnish food.

Bonnie Houser has asked us to remind everyone that we do have an active Mentoring program. If you are a new member and would like some assistance getting started with supplies, advice, etc., contact Bonnie and she will connect you with a mentor who will be happy to help you, answer your questions, and be a friend.

The Envelope Exchange has begun! Be sure to send out your first round of envelopes in January. And don't forget to save the ones you receive, since we will display them at the June Pot Luck. Twenty-eight people signed up to take part, so the display should be a feast for our artistic appetites.

Betty Lou Jordan has already begun the sign-up for the March 10, 2007, Saturday Special, which will be Brush Lettering with Bonnie Houser and Karen Veni. Both Bonnie and Karen do awesome brush lettering, so be sure to sign up soon. Class fee is $20, not including any supply fee. Contact Betty Lou for further information.

As of this printing, there are still 2 spaces left in the Color and Design Major Workshop with Maggie Gillikin and Leslie Winakur. Class fee, which includes the supply fee, is $80. Contact Jill Adams for further information. Supply list is in the January issue of Flourishes.
The Nominating Committee for the coming year has been formed. Jill Adams, Leslie Winakur, and Maggie Gillikin will serve on this committee. Nominations will be presented in the March newsletter.

Nominations for the Paul Freeman Awards are now being accepted by Lynn Rothe. The form was in your January newsletter. If you need another, you may contact Lynn. Nominations are due at the February meeting. They will be printed in the March newsletter. Voting will take place in April and the awards will be presented at the May meeting. Please remember that these awards are given to those who have served the guild in an exceptional way in the course of the past year.

February is Valentine Month. So remember to bring your Valentine Card to the February meeting for the exchange. Also please remember to bring some cards and gifts for the women and children at the Women's Shelter. If you make two cards, you can exchange one and give the other to the shelter. Keep in mind that there are children at the shelter too, and they have to attend school and bring their Valentines to exchange with their friends. Also, the shelter is in need of all sorts of donations, including gently used, clean clothing for the women and their children, who range in age and size from the smallest to the almost grown up. They are especially in need of shoes and all clothing items for the older teenage boys. Remember that Lynn Rothe is willing to collect, store and deliver all items that we donate.

We will be signing up again for the Secret Pal Summer Exchange program at the February 1st meeting. This is one way to stay involved with your SACG friends over the summer and have fun sending and receiving wonderful, creative things in the mail. We invite our new members to participate. The Secret Pal Committee will randomly assign you a pal, to whom you will send fun stuff during the summer. You will also receive lots of neat things, most likely not from the same person to whom you are sending. The only requirement is that you commit to sending three handmade items to your secret pal over the summer, and that you commit to being present at the September meeting for the Secret Pal Art Expo and the revealing of the names of the pals. This is one of the best displays of artwork we see all year, so don’t miss it. If you have any questions about the Secret Pal program, please contact Cheri Wolf or any other member of the committee.

Congratulations to the January Door Prize Winners: Rudy Gonzalez, Mari Frishmuth, Helen Rasplicka, Joan Cornell, Becky Hughes, Constance LaMarche, and Mary Bumstead. The prizes were donated by Bill Waddington, Edith Asher, Anita Hyman, Eleanor Russell and Nancy Meier and friends. A reminder - if you are making something cool, make two and donate the extra to Sylvia Stanley, keeper of the Door Prize stash.

Our thoughts are with Vera Irby and her husband Barton, who is recovering from a recent stroke.

Would the person who had bought the set of Mary Worthington's books (orange soft covers) at our Calligraphy Exchange please contact me. There is a packet of templates that should have gone with the books. Pauline Sager, 494-1881.

MAJOR WORKSHOP
COLOR AND DESIGN
Maggie Gillikin and Leslie Winakur
Saturday and Sunday, February 3-4, 2007, 9:00 - 4:30, Discovery School

Have you ever blended two colors together, only to come out with a very different result than you anticipated? Well, this workshop is designed to take the mystery out of the challenges of color…all while you have a good time! And it’s engineered to put those new lessons into practice with the design portion of the workshop. Some very handy tools will also be given to each participant – we love great gadgets! Watercolors will be the medium highlighted in the workshop, but other media are also welcome.

First we will explore the properties of color and value. You will learn how to create predictable colors by mixing them, and you will also learn to make things “pop” or recede as desired, making use of the loveliest of colors and the loveliest of grays and browns. These exercises will become beautiful watercolor cards, individual little works of art in themselves, complete with customized envelopes. We will also explore the use of color in calligraphy by painting the internal and external counter spaces of a monocline letterform.

We will continue with basic design skeletons presented in a sampler book, accordion style, with hard covers. We will experiment with a variety of ways to approach design, through collage, weaving, layering, and the use of unusual tools. We will use layouts in some classic designs, such as cruciform, tic-tac-toe, golden mean, box within a box, bands, and grids. We will also explore horizontal and vertical, square, and curved formats.

If time permits, we will begin to create a piece of art in which the letterforms, the color, and the other design elements are united in a single effect, and in which no one element fails to contribute to the whole.

Supply List:

NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT SPEND AN EXORBITANT AMOUNT ON SUPPLIES YOU DO NOT ALREADY OWN. WE WILL SHARE!

Since watercolors are transparent, the effects of mixing colors are more easily discerned, so we would like everyone to work in watercolor for this class. You will definitely need the following colors:
Aureolin yellow, Cadmium yellow
Cadmium red, Alizarin crimson
Phthalo or Winsor blue (green shade), Ultramarine blue – French ultramarine is the truest color)
Phthalo or Winsor green (blue shade)
Indian red, Light red
Any other color you would like to try out
Best brands of watercolor to buy: Winsor-Newton, Grumbacher, Schmincke, Holbein, Rembrandt, DaVinci (Do NOT buy Van Gogh, Cottman, Academy)
Old letterform practice sheets – the crummy ones – we’re serious! We will have some of ours to share.
Small bottle of acrylic matte medium (we like Golden)
Cheap bristle brush, small, for use with matte medium, ½” – 1”
One palette for watercolor – can be a white china or plastic plate
A rag or two, or tissues, or paper towels
Pencil
Ruler, 12” metal
Eraser, Magic Rub or kneaded
2 water containers, margarine tub size or larger
Masking tape
Watercolor brushes, round, sizes 4, 8, 12
Watercolor brush, flat, 1” wide (we have a lot of brushes for you to try during class)
Decorative ribbon, 28” long for book closure, optional
Please bring a quote that matters to you
Usual calligraphy supplies, optional

Class fee is $80, and this includes your $20 supply fee. Contact Jill Adams, 826-8214, to sign up.

Paul Freeman Award Nominations

The Paul Freeman Awards, “ABCdarian” and the “New Spencerian” framed works are presented each year to members voted by the membership as dedicated members who have contributed the most effort to benefit the Guild during the past year. Award winners may hang the framed works of art for one year.

Nominations are now due for the 2007 awards. Nominations are due no later than the February SACG meeting. Nominations will appear in the March Flourishes as well as the April Flourishes and will be announced at the March SACG meeting. Balloting will take place at the April SACG meeting and awards will be presented at the May SACG meeting.

The nomination form is in this issue of Flourishes. Forms will also be available at the January SACG meeting. Please return the completed nomination forms to:

Lynn Rothe
8775 Tradewind
San Antonio, TX 78239

lrothe@satx.rr.co

The Graceful Envelope Contest was created in 1995 by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum, which administered it until delegating responsibility to the Washington Calligraphers’ Guild in 2001. Beginning in 2003 the National Association of Letter Carriers agreed to partner with the Washington Calligraphers’ Guild to sponsor the contest and exhibit the winners.

Calligraphers and artists from around the world are invited to participate in the 13th Annual Graceful Envelope Contest. This year’s theme is A Mailable Feast. Nurture your creativity by designing an envelope with a culinary theme. Your epicurean epistle could feature an individual edible or an entire banquet of food, glorious food! So cook up an artistic recipe that will turn a piece of mail into a feast for the eyes, and address it artistically to:
The Graceful Envelope Contest
Washington Calligraphers’ Guild
PO Box 3688
Merrifield, VA 22116
Envelopes must be postmarked by Monday, April 30, 2007.

For further information and contest rules, contact the WCG at the above address or at
http://calligraphersguild.org/envelope.html

Feb 2007 Flourishes' Web Page is proudly sponsored by
www.Renshirts.com in Seguin, TX USA

February 07