Building a new alphabet and the sale

Early in the time of our last visit to Scotland, I made some marks and made some books.  

At the heart of these books  was mark-making, building on an old calligraphic challenge of creating an alphabet from within a square.

I am sure on investigation, that this exercise has it genesis in the Berber alphabet, but I remember it as an exploration and a creative exercise.

This is how I went about it.

I recalled the notion of a square, with an X within it.

And so I went about trying to see what shapes you could pull out of these two marks.

I took the nextstep and added circle and a vertical cross which offered way more character type options.

I also recalled we could add dots.

I selected some favourites, and drafted a bit of an alphabet from those.

I came up with what I thought was my final alphabet and wrote a couple of  words using it at the bottom the page. And I thought I was done.

Through the week I looked back at it and wondered if it could be refined/improved in any way. I wondered why I had made all the vowels based on the circle, and then done the same for the S? I also decided I didn't like the dot in the middle of the circle for A - looked a bit too much like a cartoon boob. For both K and W I decided I didn't want them to look like a recognisable E, even tho they were upside down or backwards, to me they still referenced an E too much.

Don't ask me why, but the V shape started to annoy me, so it had to go! Replacing K and W, I went for complete rectangles with bits in them; but after a while decided no, all the other letters were 'open' except for the vowels, so I had to have another look and find a form/shape that would work better.

And then the Z looked too easily mistaken for the R, so it was off to find another shape for that as well.

Sometimes my decision making process is a mystery to me; but this is where I landed.

It's all pretty funny really, given that I mainly intend to use the letters in ways that are illegible, so all of this consideration may mean nothing; but at least I will know that the forms to begin with had been well-considered and had some sense of purpose and reason behind them.

My next job is to find some time to write with them and see how they work...

We hosted our BIG studio-grade sale on Saturday and it was an amazing success. It was such a joy to see so many artists finding things that meant something to them; that they could use; or could afford to experiment with. it was such a delight and we were left with not too many things by the end of it, for which we are grateful.

The great down-sizing has begun in earnest! Here are some before shots that B took; I failed to take any and certainly by the end of the day I had no energy to take any after shots...

I think half the books went.

Every single frame, mat and perspex stand went!!!

Not much is left from this table - the marbling kit is still there as is the paint mixer and the small packet of coloured inks.

Some paralles pens remain, as do some lino cutting tools and some paper embossing tools. Otherwise, all gone!

Such a good day. With gratitude to all who came and visited and who bought things.