Here are some observations from a few of our past workshops.
NOTAN - a workshop with Gwyneth Hibbett on Saturday 9th March, 2024.
‘Notan’ is a Japanese term that means “light-dark harmony”. It is a design concept that explores the relationship between flat areas of dark and light in an image, and how to arrange them in a pleasing way. In this workshop we will be using Notan with both lettering and designs, with a view to thinking about positive and negative space, and creating eye-catching calligraphic compositions.
The SLLA booked a session making Marbled paper with 'Marmor paperie'. We gathered in the Cockpits Arts Centre in Deptford, a lovely newly furnished space.
This was a partly subsidized session for members with Lucy, one of the few experienced experts offering training in the country. We had great fun learning about the history of marbling and techniques to create different coloured swirling designs. We all came away wishing we could do more.
On 25th November 2023 several lucky people enjoyed a workshop on how to bookbind a simple stab-bound sketchbook usner the guidance of Sharon Shaw.
We learned how to bind single sheets together for a collection of sketches and colour trials. We began with a simple four-hole Japanese style binding and then adapted the method to create more elaborate sewing patterns.
Now into our third lockdown, and I am sure everyone is as fed up with it as I am, but there are still things going on at SLLA.
Dressed in her trademark colours of red, white and black, Rachel gave SLLA members a one day workshop on abstract designs and large letters using a flat brush. Starting with examples of her wonderful abstract designs, Rachel explained to participants how they would be using a minimal palette to create maximum effect in a piece of work.
I have often looked at a piece of work where someone has cleverly fitted together pictures and different styles, weights and colours of text and wondered how it’s done. Our workshop on Saturday 26 January 2019 with Josie Brown was designed to explain and unravel the mysteries.
The last SLLA workshop of 2018 was Monoline Lettering with Mark L’Argent. Mark gave us a demonstration in examples of basic Monoline compressed capitals. He explained how to achieve harmony in groups of letters and how to change the emphasis by moving crosslines on letters.
It takes more than the thought of temperatures rising to the high 20’s to discourage intrepid SLLA members and we had a full house for Nicola’s workshop on Saturday. The instructions said bring a plastic sheet to cover the table and an apron to cover yourself – sounded messy – just the thing for a hot, sticky Saturday.
What a great workshop we had with Viva Lloyd. She began with a brief history of the Cnut Hand, which dates from the Cnut Charter of 1018 written by Eadvius Basan. Viva also provided us with copies of some early examples from The Ramsey Psalter and The Arundel Psalter.
We all have lots of finished or part finished pieces of work at home that would look so much better if they were mounted. This workshop was designed to show members how to do just that. Joy took everyone through the processes involved, from choosing the right colour card, gauging the correct amount of space to leave around an image, then how to cut out the aperture.