Neuland Workshop in New Orleans

The workshop in New Orleans was great! It was so good to see everyone again. Here are some of the beautiful lettering samples they came up with in only two days:

New Work

Here are two new books I just finished for the advanced calligraphy class. If you want to see more photos of these, I put them on the Reggie Year blog. Thanks for looking!

Front cover of book, about 4 X 5"

Detail of front cover, showing silver foil and cut out opening:

Detail of inside front cover:

This book is 4.5" X 10". The text is from Annie Dillard's book, The Writing Life, which was brought back to my attention by my favorite writer and pal, Brent Diggs. Dillard's comments about writing are always relevant and so appropriate for calligraphy, even though that's not what she was really writing about. Here are a few photos:

Front cover of book:

Detail of text, actual size, Dr. Martin's BleedProof White on Paste Paper:

Gesso Transfers

After hearing about this method on the inkjet transfer Yahoo Group, I decided to try it. My experiments have turned out really well and I am very excited about this new possibility. The gesso "takes" the transfer so well. Because it is white, it can be used to cover up a previous layer of writing, or background that you don't like or need. Here are some of the transfers that I have tried:


Above: Ink jet transfer using Apollo transparancies, Golden gesso onto Fabriano 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper. The actual size of the image transferred is 4" X 8".

Above: a detail of the first image, showing the texture of the gesso.

The substrate on this one (above) is Arches Text Wove, which seems to be one of the only texutred papers that work well for transfers. Original size -- 2" X 3".

Above: A smaller image transferred onto the same Fabriano paper.

Below: this is a close-up detail showing the gesso's texture.

Above: This is an even smaller image transferred onto Fabriano black paper. It is only about 1.5" X 1.75. I love the way the gesso looks on the black background.