Letters

I’ve been focusing on letters this week.

Last summer my four year old grandson gave me a book that he had drawn. As he was explaining it he said ”and that is the fish that ate my words”. I thought that was a great idea for a book or print and I’ve been looking for the words ever since. He came to stay in November. He had been learning about the centenary of the end of WW1 at school and he chanted himself to sleep. “No more war, war is bad, we want peace, peace is good”. I’d found his words.

Some experiments in letterpress with wooden type

and metal type

I’ve also been trying to push the asemic writing book further on. The inks that I was playing aren’t drying and I’ve come to the conclusion that my freehand writing skills leave a lot to be desired.

So I started to look at constructing single letterforms that looked convincing.

I tried them on pages (boring)

And as cut outs (too geometric)

And more cut outs. I liked this one but it is only 7 cm high and when its enlarged it’s too crude

So I’m trying adding more letters.

Finally finished

I now have an edition of 4 and an Artists Proof copy of "Was she the one who...?".

It needs photographing properly but today it is grey and dull. I’ll wait for sunshine.

I’ve also been working on the next set of letters for ALAW. These have to give a sense of  ‘place’.

When I was small I had several books that had fancy capital letters. They fascinated me. I want to draw on this and create a book that will have the feel of a fairy tale both in the text (creating a fantasy place) and in the presentation. Something unashamedly pretty I think, with gold (or at least gold paint).

So far I've only got experiments and an outline text. I'll need to do 2 letters a week to catch up

I’m not a writer but I’ve found that the constraint of having to use the letters of the alphabet in order and having to produce text that fits into the space has helped.

Holidays

We’ve just come back from a wonderful week in Skye.

I collected tiny shells on one of the beaches.I want to use them in a book.

I found an Old English riddle from The Exeter Book (I’m already using part of The Ruin from the same source for the Artists Books 3.0 swop). Although it’s really about a conch shell some of the words seemed appropriate to go with my collection.

Exploring lettering (it’s a long time since I did any serious calligraphy), materials and a palette suggested by the shells and the beach.