D, Vine

The classroom was bright. Valerie had made each of us a place card for our tables. Aren't they cute? They reminded me of Howard Pyle's illustrations of Robin Hood. We had plenty of room to spread out, and each table had its own Ott light.

What a value Manuscript Illumination and Gilding is at St. Michael's Institute for Sacred Art. Room, linens, 5 days of instruction, 3 meals per day, 24 hr. coffee and tea available, and all the art supplies are provided. Yup, all the supplies. Paints, 23 karat patent gold, 23 karat loose gold, brushes, Instacoll, ink, drawing nibs, Pigma pens, rulers, pencils, erasers, embossing tools, agate burnishers, acetate, light boxes, and visors for those of us that have difficulty seeing fine, detail work. When you go home, you get to take a brush, two 6 well palettes of the paints you used, a sample of Instacoll, and a sample of shell gold. Along with all the handouts and worksheets.

Our first exercise was to illuminate a vine border and the letter "D" with a vine.

Valerie handed out printed worksheets with the letter and vines. The worksheets are coloring pages for grown-ups.  No worry, no stress. Just fun.

I did this exercise with Valerie many years ago when she came to teach part of this workshop to Masscribes, the Massachusetts and Rhode Island calligraphers guild. Though I had done the exercise before, it never hurts to review.

Valerie takes complicated designs and breaks them down into easy to follow, basic steps. Each student comes away with work they can be proud of, and notes and steps to follow to create their own illuminated vines and letters.

Goucahe (opaque watercolor), Gold Winsor Newton ink, Gansi White on Diploma Parchment.