South London Letter Association regularly hosts events for its members. From social events, exhibitions, and other outings, to workshops and courses our events are a great opportunity to get together and share creative ideas about lettering. Most events are free for members, so join SLLA today.

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May 2020
Large Italic using Automatic Pens with Rachel Yallop: Moved to next year
Italic, automatic pen
Find out more »June 2020
Paper Cut letters with Sharon Shaw C A N C E L L E D
The social evening has been cancelled due to spread of corona virus. Discover how to incorporate calligraphy into the beautiful craft of paper cutting. In this workshop you will learn how to • embed a letter or a word or a piece of text within a cut paper design • create a piece of work from a sketch to a final design. We will also look at the history of paper cutting and the work of contemporary paper cutting…
Find out more »August 2020
Simple book structures and useful accessories – with Donna Foster
Join us for a relaxing day of making useful things from spare packaging! We will be using corrugated cardboard to make a nib organiser, paper bags to make notebooks, envelopes to make a piano-hinge display book, and (time permitting) seeing how many different book structures we can make which use just one sheet of A4. Re-use, recycle, and . . . relax! Workshop Fee £25: SLLA members £30: non-members How to Enrol Please email Nicola Dunn, our events coordinator,…
Find out more »September 2020
Pen Patterned Shapes with Joy Daniels
Our workshop with Joy Daniels on 26th September will go ahead as a ZOOM CLASS instead of meeting together at Aspire, as originally planned. The class will start with a 1.5 - 2 hour zoom session and then break for 2 hours to work on your own projects, then re-convene via ZOOM , for a further 1.5 - 2 hours to summarise, ask questions and show work. Joy is experienced in teaching via zoom and thinks that this topic…
Find out more »November 2020
Manuscript Book Design with Josie Brown
This workshop will begin with a short overview of historical MS page design and then examine a range of contemporary hand-written books in terms of the bindings as well as what they have inside – to open up the box of possibilities. This will be followed by a couple of small group activities to enlarge on the working process of designing MS books and then explore a range of stress-free processes suitable for use within already-bound books, since many of…
Find out more »June 2021
The Art of Illumination with Toni Watts
This is a repeat of the 2 day workshop with Toni in 2020, to accommodate those who could not get a place on the course, first time round. It is full again, but you can add your name to the reserve list. During this two day workshop we will explore a variety of ways of adding gold leaf to a design, using both simple and more challenging techniques. Starting with the application of gold leaf flat to the page using…
Find out more »Large Italic using Automatic Pens with Rachel Yallop (via ZOOM)
This workshop will be a zoom class with 2 two hour sessions beginning at 10am and breaking for lunch. Writing letters at a large size increases calligraphic confidence and enhances hand skills. Using the larger sizes of Automatic pens is a great way to achieve this. In this class we will: Practice a rhythmic texture of lines as a way into making letters. Look at pen manipulation and how to make an easy transition between thick and thin strokes. Develop…
Find out more »November 2021
Paper Cut Christmas Cards with Sharon Shaw
Discover how to create a calligraphic cut paper Christmas card. In this workshop you will learn how to embed a letter or a word within a cut paper design create a Christmas card from a sketch to a final design. Workshop Fee £30: SLLA members £35: non-members We welcome everyone to join our workshops, but offer priority booking for our members until 8 weeks prior to the event. If you are a non-member, you can register your interest for the…
Find out more »February 2022
Pencil Gothics with Gwyneth Hibbett
This workshop takes a familiar tool – the pencil – to practice and create gothic lettershapes and use them in combination with a variety of different artistic effects. The versatility of pencils and their range of “hardnesses” give the calligrapher scope for shading and many different textures, which can take your lettering in different directions. Soft graphite greys give a subtlety that the sometimes the harsh black ink of ‘blackletter’ doesn’t, and the ease of adding some pencil embellishment can…
Find out more »March 2022
Pointed Pen Uncials with Joy Daniels
A chance to explore the Uncial alphabet written with a pointed nib, giving a light, modern and elegant twist to the hand. The basic uncial alphabet is changed in appearance when written with a flexible pointed nib and the resulting open and delicate texture will add a further option to your calligraphy skill-set. Joy will cover the key strokes in the first session – the different angles of the pen and how the letters are constructed with some simple words.…
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