In the spring of 2016, I was asked to donate a piece of
calligraphy to a fall bazaar benefiting a women's guild
at my old church. I was happy to do that but asked if
there was a particular Bible verse they wanted me to
work on. I was given Romans 8:38 - 39.
It took me until our 5th
Reggie weekend to find the perfect lettering style for
this piece. Earlier in the year, Reggie showed us a
piece of his calligraphy on a fig bark paper and I just
loved the colors and texture of it so I ordered some
samples. It was stored in my flat file for a few months
and I couldn't find the right project to use it for.
So when I started planning
the layout of the donation piece, I pulled it out and it
inspired me. I thought to mix the coffee color paper
with purple and gold. I started with layout on a grid
paper. I made about 7 different designs and then found
the one I like the best. I didn't line the paper because
it was difficult to erase. Instead, I used a table light
on the back of my slant board (Used it as a light box)
with a lined sheet of paper under the fig bark paper. I
spray fixed the paper and mixed a purple gouache and
decided to gild the word GOD with 23 k gold. |
About two lines into the project I realized how
difficult the paper was to write on because of the
individual bark fibers but I was determined to finish
it. I lettered everything to the word GOD and then
traced that word in next and then finished the verse.
Once all the gouache was dry, I applied Instacoll. One
letter background was more porous than the rest of the
area so it took 12 layers of Instacoll to make it look a
bit raised. Then I gilded it one letter at a time. I
also applied some dry pigment to the finished piece in a
partial shape of a cross. (see attached) When it was all
set and done I was happy with the final piece but I
realized I missed one line of the verse. It was
imperfect but I turned it in anyways. A few weeks after
the bazaar, I went to visit our old church and there it
was, framed in the hallway. One of the ladies bought it
and donated it back to the church. I liked the outcome
so I decided to duplicate the piece as one of my
homework pieces.
The process was much easier because it was a repeat of
the first one and I already knew what I was doing and
made a few changes to the process and added the missing
line.
Thank you, Reggie, for pushing me to try new surfaces,
tools and techniques |
