Beginning a commission

 I have been asked to think about designing a Title for the cover of a book of poetry. I have done calligraphic work for this series of works before, but there are three books to come and I am trying to settle into the rhythm again after quite a big break.

The Title is "Rough Sleepers" and I have been thinking about styles in those wide-awake-at-night moments. So on Friday aI sat down, gathered my thoughts, some paper, some ink and some pens and took the first steps. Oh, and a cup of tea too!

I wanted to test and trial some of my ruling pens; some moth pens and anything else that might look scratchy. There were 7 tools in the end that I thought would be worth a go.

So I used each of them to write the title out and it came down to two that had possibilities.

So I played around with them for a bit - changing the style of E; doing the words in lower case; then upper case; and combinations.

And ended up with 5 options to send to the client to check if I am anywhere close to being on track!

 

To take my mind off the serious work of commissions, I set about to make a few more 'congratulations on your new home' cards for a friend who is a real estate agent.

I used some handmade paper made approximately 15 years ago or more (trying hard to use up stocks in the studio) and glued the test and trial prints I did over here on the front after trimming them down a bit. Then I cut a piece of inner paper and stitched it through the soft handmade paper and wrote a few words inside. 

As ever, a bit of mix and match at play in the studio!