Thank you Ann. I was just about to contact you about finding a local calligraphy group in Portland. So now I know who might be interested in all my calligraphy stuff that I’m ready to sell. We live very near Reed College, in the Woodstock neighborhood. I still have a few of the Weathergrams I made using brown grocery bag paper, that survived over 10 years outdoors in Mountain View, CA, and still look good. The weather there just didn’t deteriorate the paper, proving it’s much more arid there, than here in the Pacific Northwest. All our garden stone buddhas that we moved here to Portland from the Bay Area are now green, mossy, and ancient looking in just 6 years from sitting outside!
If Ann doesn't mind, I'll jump in as a current board member of the Portland Society for Calligraphy. We'd love for you to join us if you want a group to participate in! You can check out our website here: https://www.portlandsocietyforcalligraphy.org/.
If you're looking for a home for things, depending on what you're looking to sell, it might be best to reach out to our Membership Chair (see the contact page). If it's about books, copy me at library AT portlandsocietyforcalligraphy DOT org. Calligraphy libraries are right up my alley!
Ann, thank you so much for highlighting weathergrams! I hadn't considered the Shinto connection before, and it adds a whole new dimension.
Hi Anne. Thanks for jumping in! It helps word get around in a good way. I wish for more discussion on our favorite topics. Books and writing. We go from collecting treasures to bestowing them!
Glad you enjoyed the Shinto connection! The gods will be happy!
" Lloyd's italic hand" is, I'm sure, an unexceptionable way of describing what you show us, but it strikes me as a bit of an understatement. I doubt that he used this "hand" for routine purposes. It can be seen as the product of a highly refined craft or - my preference - a work of art. The time invested in such calligraphy must be prodigious. Had Lloyd sent me a thank you note, I think his "hand" would have been somewhat less imposing!
Calligraphers tend to refer to particular scripts as a “hand” and sometimes the two words are interchangeable. For instance, I would say that it would be good to teach children the basics of an Italic script, referring to that basic style of formal writing. I could also say that Lloyd’s Italic hand was unsurpassed or use another suitable adjective. This would mean that Lloyd’s version of Italic was his distinctive recognizable and personal rendering of the formal script, with no conditions or value judgments as to quality or accuracy. A script possesses an agreed set of design factors (slanted axis, pen angle, x-height, etc). A hand has characteristics of the individual who wrote it. It would still have all the factors of the basic style template along with voluminous amounts of character and invention and cleverness that are personal and individual.
Anyway, that’s how I understand it. Anyone can write in Italic, but to develop a fluent hand takes the years of experience you are talking about.
Thank you Ann. I was just about to contact you about finding a local calligraphy group in Portland. So now I know who might be interested in all my calligraphy stuff that I’m ready to sell. We live very near Reed College, in the Woodstock neighborhood. I still have a few of the Weathergrams I made using brown grocery bag paper, that survived over 10 years outdoors in Mountain View, CA, and still look good. The weather there just didn’t deteriorate the paper, proving it’s much more arid there, than here in the Pacific Northwest. All our garden stone buddhas that we moved here to Portland from the Bay Area are now green, mossy, and ancient looking in just 6 years from sitting outside!
Hi Karen. You would enjoy the Portland guild! Shake a leg, get over there and see what happens. See Anne D’s links.
The northwest is definitely mossy.
If Ann doesn't mind, I'll jump in as a current board member of the Portland Society for Calligraphy. We'd love for you to join us if you want a group to participate in! You can check out our website here: https://www.portlandsocietyforcalligraphy.org/.
If you're looking for a home for things, depending on what you're looking to sell, it might be best to reach out to our Membership Chair (see the contact page). If it's about books, copy me at library AT portlandsocietyforcalligraphy DOT org. Calligraphy libraries are right up my alley!
Ann, thank you so much for highlighting weathergrams! I hadn't considered the Shinto connection before, and it adds a whole new dimension.
Hi Anne. Thanks for jumping in! It helps word get around in a good way. I wish for more discussion on our favorite topics. Books and writing. We go from collecting treasures to bestowing them!
Glad you enjoyed the Shinto connection! The gods will be happy!
" Lloyd's italic hand" is, I'm sure, an unexceptionable way of describing what you show us, but it strikes me as a bit of an understatement. I doubt that he used this "hand" for routine purposes. It can be seen as the product of a highly refined craft or - my preference - a work of art. The time invested in such calligraphy must be prodigious. Had Lloyd sent me a thank you note, I think his "hand" would have been somewhat less imposing!
Hi Marcus,
Calligraphers tend to refer to particular scripts as a “hand” and sometimes the two words are interchangeable. For instance, I would say that it would be good to teach children the basics of an Italic script, referring to that basic style of formal writing. I could also say that Lloyd’s Italic hand was unsurpassed or use another suitable adjective. This would mean that Lloyd’s version of Italic was his distinctive recognizable and personal rendering of the formal script, with no conditions or value judgments as to quality or accuracy. A script possesses an agreed set of design factors (slanted axis, pen angle, x-height, etc). A hand has characteristics of the individual who wrote it. It would still have all the factors of the basic style template along with voluminous amounts of character and invention and cleverness that are personal and individual.
Anyway, that’s how I understand it. Anyone can write in Italic, but to develop a fluent hand takes the years of experience you are talking about.