Long Village Studio

It is time to get this BLOG back on track . . . CALLIGRAPHY!   Letters! Words! Poetry! Envelopes! So, my New Year's resolution is to divide up my interests into 2 blogs. Long Village Lettering is a studio for calligraphy. I am scribe wanting to help brides, MOB, grooms, clients, corporate clients and any one in need of a good impression when they put it in writing! If you enjoyed seeing my Zentangles - please follow my other blog as well: http://alphabeetangles.blogspot.com 

star Originally uploaded by long village lettering Star of wonder . . . wishing you all a night full of wonder and peace! Merry Christmas!

3 ornaments Originally uploaded by long village lettering After viewing a post on Maria's zentangle blog I was excited to design some ornaments. After drawing the one, I realized these would make nice ornaments for a real tree. So, I cut the ornament out and put on a heavy layer of gloss. It is hard to tell from the scan, but they are separate pieces. They are so fun to make. Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to share a little

This is something I'm very excited about and so pleased with the results. Our local Bridal Consultants Association is having its gathering at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. This has to be one of the top rated Inns in America. Absolutely gorgeous! So, in my continual attempts to break into the wedding industry, I volunteered to make place cards for the 20 some attendees. With only two days to work on this, I was thrilled to come up with a simple design that I think will be remembered. I cut the trees out with one of those scrapbookers machines, painted the gold stars and hand flourished the names and some detail work. I can not wait to see these at a formal table at the GPI and get some photos for my portfolio.

After viewing a wonderful blog entry by Martha Lever ( a modern versal with a tangle )- I took a little time to play with the idea. What great fun. Two of my favorite things! 1) Versals taught by Sherri Keisel and 2) Zentangling taught by Maria & Rick  .

This job was . . . challenging to say the least. I first meet the client and she presented me with a certificate that was 8" x 10". So? you might ask.  Well that means I had a 5" line for : The Monterey Plaza in Monterey, California. and a 2" line for: Hendersonville, NC. Also, this wedding had already taken place and was signed by the witnesses - so there was no second chance and no practice paper to test inks. BUT . . . I still took it on, what was I thinking??? I suggested we find a good copy shop and enlarge the certificate to give me more room to work and a second chance.  Well, three weeks later it is behind me. Hopefully the client will be happy.  And the daughter will be thrilled when this is given to her as a Christmas present. So, can I just say - what was the artist/printer thinking when they made this fill-in-the-blank? Did any one try to fill it in with the information? And it is not just this one, it is usually most of the fill-in-the-blank certi...

Oh Autumn . . . warm colors, cool air , crisp leaves , and . . . germs. The creative juices have turned to mucus. Hopefully on the tail end of 16 days of illness.

While I had all the colors out . . .

Making up for not posting . . .

Calligraphy Exchange Yahoo!Group A small bit of Zentangle for an exchange.

Close up of a very large project that I worked on for a local camp to honor those who have given gifts through their wills to this camp. The gold cross indicates the donor has died. This will be an on going process - adding names and  crosses on a yearly basises. Because of continual changes, I designed the piece in panels so I can remove just a portion from the frame to work. (I don't know why blogger won't let this be a vertical shot, guess you just need to turn your head :) If you would like to see more of this project, go to my flicker site.

About time I get back to the studio of Long Village Lettering so here is my first wedding job . . . these envelopes are 11" x 16" (that is not a typo) and made of heavy brown craft board. As far as calligraphy - there were not many options I wanted to offer due to the product and that it was a rush job. So I suggested monoline Roman caps in brown ink. FYI - I cut a template from heavy plastic and used white charcoal pencil to draw lines.                 This couple will be making a wonderful impression upon their invited guests that this celebration is a BIG event! I understand the invite is a poster that goes in unfolded. I'm guessing the response card must match the theme on the poster of owls and branches.With that done, it is time to create something for fun . . . but what?                         ...

This portrait was drawn by my mother (who died in 1999) of my father. My father passed away September 1, 2010 at the grand age of 90. I can thank both of my parents for passing along the creative gene and artistic desire to create. How heart-warming to know they are finally back together and in God's hands.

LOOK CLOSELY! Yes, each pencil has one letter of the alphabet carved into the lead!  Amazing! Not mine, but so worth sharing!  Came on an email with no credit to the incredible artist who was able to create these tiny letters.

and now for something completely different . . . Another bride, another challenge. A very beautiful invitation, a very challenging envelope. The paper has some natural fibers, possibly bamboo. The envelopes are lined with dark green rice paper - glued very well. So how to address? and quickly? Luckily the bride wanted this italic style, so I am using a broad edge nib - it won't pick up the fibers as much as a pointed pen would. Mixing a black gouache with Higgins Eternal - able to scrap off any small mistakes and burnish paper to then make corrections. Despite these aspects, they are moving along well. Back to my art board, just 60 more to go!

I guess I am a soft touch when it comes to a young bride in distress. This was a very rush job. An out-of-town bride had some difficulties with the printers and wound up in Asheville three days before the wedding with blank table cards and place cards. I'm guessing she had arranged for these to be done by someone back home, weeks before arriving to her destination wedding, but . . . well, I did not ask for details, just no time for that. So, I pulled two long days (just like being back at college, staying up til 2:00am) completing place cards for 120 guests and 90 table cards. It was a whirlwind - but such a lovely lady. She was so appreciative and delighted to have this important detail taken care of for her. I must share my appreciation to Baggie Goose for giving out my name! I'm guessing her wedding at the Biltmore went smoothly with Melissa Porter ( http://www.ashevilleeventco.com/about_us.php ) of Asheville Events directing the festivities.

  It has been a busy few days in the NC Mountains. I thought the wedding season was slowing down, but I've been getting calls, much to my surprise. I've been able to take on a few jobs even with my twins on summer vacation. The most recent was 140 envelopes. Beautiful Crane paper with a classic invitation. The report from the post office was very encouraging - many inquires for my name. It was a pleasure to complete this project on time for the mother-of-the-bride.  

     I enjoy joining exchanges - make one get one through the mail. The above piece is a pencil work that I continue to add to. One of my current exchanges is an altoid tin exchange with inspirational cards inside. My inspirational cards are copied images from this piece, mounted on card stock. The altoid tin was to be altered to dress it up. The deadline is July 15th, then probably several weeks before I get my new tin with 9 cards inside. I'll post when available.     For anyone who might be interested, the group this exchange is sponsored by is a yahoo!group called Christian Paper Artists. Here is their statement:      A paper artist is one who uses paper in whatever they create…stamp artists, paper crafters, calligraphers, book binders, collagist…etc. The group has expressed a desire for our focus to include all types of paper art, while always developing our ability to express our faith in the Lord. This group will pro...

I grabbed the opportunity to take a workshop at Random Arts in Saluda, NC. This group of artists use a lot of fun techniques to alter stuff, collage and go wild. It has been sometime since I've had time to play around with this type of artwork, but I do love it! I always find it a creative design puzzle. Playing around with color, placement, texture and meaning. My piece will be a gift for my husband - shhhh! Hopefully a surprise for Christmas - not sure who will be more surprised (probably me that I completed it!) Any who, the workshop was a great day to get into a different place. Thanks to the instructor Carol Sloan .  Thanks to the host with the most, Jane at Random Arts ! A little bit of info on the piece: it is a memory quilt of my husband's years in the Lutheran ministry. There are four spaces with photos from the four churches he has served. The center contains a cross from his grandmother's bible. Each square has a touch of red, Christ's blood. The top right ...

Finally had the chance to get away for two nights! Enjoyed a little R n R with the husband :) Here is my most recent mandala. and here is a little research on mandalas: Mandalas are most well known as the intricate, meditation circles made by Tibetan Monks. I've always thought that calligraphy is meditative and wonderfully relaxing when ink is flowing nicely on quality paper. So now I have stumbled across a design that is a match for the art.

This mandala was a great way to get some practice and create a little piece.

Just finished participating in an envelope exchange - always such fun to receive and I like the motivation to meet a deadline. Here are the two I sent out.

  After admiring Jane Farr's mandala work, I finally sat down to give it a go. Jane's work is stunning! I spend time on her blog and especially her  flicker page. (If you click on the title of this post you will go to her blog - but maybe you already know this.) Recently, she posted instructions on making a mandala on her flicker - just the motivation I needed to get to play. What a great way to work on flourishing. Being my first, I'm not too pleased with it - but distance does improve it - so don't click to enlarge, you will be able to see way too many flaws. Perhaps I'll do one a week . . .

My power point presentation went well. There was a group of 40 lovely ladies who indulged me to talk about my calligraphic passion. I did share one personal story that I thought I would pass along. So how important are letters to me? Well, my main consideration while determining our twins' names was . . . their monograms! Really. Since our last name is an open letter L, I wanted to be sure that the first and middle names helped to balance the monogram. So, I limited name choices to narrow or 3/4 letters - Roman cap proportions. My son was actually easy, we used Evan (which is welch for John, his grandpa) and Vance (his other grandpa). My daughter was difficult. So, we turned to the intern to find names that started with N. And we got Nadine Heather. Now, what really makes me chuckle is that at the age of 11+, I have yet to design a monogram or even have anything engraved with their initials! Also, my daughters first letters are NHL - yes, National Hockey League! Perhaps when I...

The ladies group at church has asked me to talk about calligraphy at their meeting this Saturday. Cover calligraphy in about 20 minutes was the only guidelines - and what got me interested in the art. 20 minutes!   I decided to take this opportunity to create my first power point - my 11 year olds are teaching me how to use the software! So I have 32 slides.  20 minutes? Oh, they also thought it would be great if I demonstrated a bit . . . really? 20 minutes? Such a wonderful challenge! Since I'm also looking forward to teaching at the community college, I've made it usable there too.  I also volunteered to create the name tags for the ladies attending . . . so here are a few. I finally opened up my Parallel Pens - not even sure how long ago I purchased them. They were a lot of fun to use, especially mixing the ink colors by touching the pens to one another! So, wish me luck . . . still need to decide what I'm going to say during the slides :) What a great name!

I delivered this piece yesterday. Customer pleased. Framer had great suggestions for mats and format. This one had me doing some research at the library on Chinese brush work. I wanted the flowers very soft. The client wanted it simple - thus the choice of layout, lettering and grayish flowers. The client will be adding a photo of the couple at the top. My photos aren't great, hopefully you can see past that. 

My last post was about not getting a job, but then getting several leads. To my excitement, two jobs came about at the same time with a similar deadline. Both jobs were wedding quotes for a spouse as an anniversary gift. How incredibly thoughtful. What a joy to be a part of the process. Let me start with the job I completed first. The image on the left is of my layout piece on the computer - made this job go much faster than hand lettering various drafts! The customer approved the piece based on this layout and then a sample of my lettering. And here is the final piece: I was so glad to get this off in the mail right on time! This is an interesting quote - it was read at their wedding. I hope I will hear back from the husband as to how pleased his wife was to get such a thoughtful gift! What a guy!

Well, for a few days I was very excited to have my first wedding calligraphy job through  Lisa G. McMillan, owner and founder of Exquisite Events & Consulting. So I worked up several examples, bought the paper and mixed some ink. Unfortunately, the bride went another way - a friend. Disappointing, but some how things all work out the way they are supposed to. I now have two more jobs coming down the pipe. And in the mean time, I've made more samples to show brides and other wedding vendors.

It might be nice if I gave my store address . . . You can find my Etsy shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/88catherine or you can simply click on left the etsy icon. Please visit :)