Triple Threat



As a mom and school director, I have probably been involved in 25 or 30 charity auctions for schools and sports teams. Over the years it has become painfully clear I have absolutely no sense of what will attract the interest of bidders. Once I copied an item (non-calligraphic) I had seen go for $600 a few years before...then watched it go for 60 bucks, probably less than it cost to make it. Another time I donated anonymously--still no dice. I've even bought back my own stuff to be sure it didn't get tossed! In other words, I am the Kiss of Death (KOD) for auction items.

But I'm giving it one more shot this year! I've chosen three verses that are special to the children and known to the parents at the school, and illuminated the heck out of them. Gold leaf, crystals, Spectralite, Finetec, the works! I figure even if these babies don't go for much, I sure had a great time making them. Each is a little less than 5"x5", and I popped them into 8" x 8" frames.



Please hold a good thought that the KOD curse has lifted, and that these find good homes and raise some golden coins for the magical Mountain School!




Update 3/29/15: There were bidding wars and these puppies raised well over $1K for the school! Yesss! The curse is lifted.

Update 5/15/15: Two families offered to match the top bids on their favorite piece, so now we're over $1900!


B is for...


I always leave the annual IAMPETH conference full of enthusiasm and fresh inspiration, ready to experiment and stretch my comfort zone, and this year is no exception. What a week! There is much to tell, but I'll start here: colored pencils! Bob Hurford taught a short evening session class on the topic and I've been playing around with illumination using Prismacolor Premier pencils. Definitely slower than gouache or watercolor, but for me, easier to control! The "B" is an outline by E. E. Marlatt; the gold is Finetec Inca.

The (Second Half of the) Year in Pictures


Some of my designs for Ultimat Vodka Holiday Campaign
One of five San Francisco venues for Ultimat events in November/December
Very special commission
Commission: walnut ink, watercolor and Finetec gold
Zig Posterman pen on chalkboard fabric
Chalk on display board

Tooled gold leaf
JJ Monogram, pen and ink
JLM monogram, pen and ink
CMS monogram, pencil sketch
Gouache, gold leaf, ink on hotpress watercolor
Piece done in Risa Gettler's Visigothic Versals class; ink,
watercolor pencil,  Finetec gold


Envie Envy

This was my entry to the Graceful Envelope Contest, which is co-sponsored by the Washington Calligraphers Guild and the National Association of Letter Carriers.  The theme was the letter "D", and the entries had to be mailable and postmarked.  It's mostly pen (G-tec, Slicci, Pitt) and pencil.  The texture of the paper did some cool things to the shading, completely serendipitously.  The "D" is Finetec gold, burnished and tooled.  Of course, this scan was pre-mailing so I have no idea how it looked by the time it arrived!

The results are out and my amazingly talented friend Ruth Korch won Best in Show!!!  No doubt you've seen some of her other winning envelopes online and on magazine covers, like this:

Ruth Korch

and this:
Ruth Korch

Ruth's, and the other winning envelopes will be posted here beginning August 8, and for those of you in the DC area, on display beginning in September in the lobby of the National Association of Letter Carriers building.  Can't wait to see the fantastic array of creativity this event elicits!  Congrats to all for postal awesomeness.

Sayonara Sylvia


A longtime colleague is departing at the end of this week, and it is bittersweet for her as well as for those of us staying on.  For some time, she has wanted to teach at the same school her children attend--which will significantly simplify her life, we hope--but she has been with us for many years and we all feel like family.

She loves orange, and wears it well.  I wanted to make a going-away card for her that expresses both her favorite hue and the fire within her that makes her so strong and ambitious!  Inktense pencils, lightly brushed with water, give a flame-like feeling.  For the ornamentation, I remembered learning from Harvest Crittenden how lovely it is to combine gold leaf and shell gold (see the halo in this post);  this is the "poor man's version" with gold leaf over Instacoll, and painted Finetec gold and silver.  I love the dimensional look it gives!

The shadows on the Sickels lettering are Zig gray suede (a heretofore under-appreciated brush pen that has patiently awaited attention in my studio) and HB graphite;  outlining is done with a fine-tip Pitt pen.  The paper is Crane's correspondence card, mounted on a piece of old greeting card (cut with deckle scissors), a piece of metallic gold (ditto), and a Fabriano Medioevalis card.  The final touch was a scattering of random crystals from Michaels, glued on.  Hope she likes it!