Over Presidents’ Day weekend, I had the best time at Letters California Style, the member’s conference that takes place every year on that weekend, organized by Society for Calligraphy in Southern California. This year I was in Robbie Saslow‘s class, “Fabulous and Functional: The Art of Certificates and Scrolls,” along with nine other calligraphers from California, Texas, Nevada, and Washington State. We all enjoyed learning from Robbie who shared wonderful stories, knowledge, and great tips! He was such a fantastic instructor.
Robbie doing a class demo.
Our first class assignment was to create a certificate, picking one out of three choices with different criteria and styles. Most in the class opted for a certificate for the “Golden Poppy Society of Southern California” (a fictitious organization). We sketched drafts and worked on our designs with Robbie’s guidance for the first two days:
Snap shots from class: Robbie doing a demo and shared his beautiful work for the Los Angeles County; beautiful certificates done by Schin Loong, Diane Reiter, Kathy Barker, and Cindy Haller.
I ended up choosing a baby name certificate, which had the requirement of: baby name should be prominent, with a style that is casual, playful but clean, no pink, and must have three cats. I felt it was the most comfortable for me to dive into!
Rough draft of my certificate.
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with this one, using pointed pen styles, sketching cats, lettering with colored pencils and using green with FineTec gold!
On Sunday, we had two hours to have lunch and also do the classroom walk-through – an opportunity to check out other classes and fellow participants’ work. This is one of my favorite parts of the conference because I am always leave awed and inspired!
Carol Dubosch’s Neuland class
Yukimi Annand’s Fraktur class
Loredana Zega’s Brush Textures class
Marina Soria’s Weaving Calligraphy class
I was so busy running around shopping, doing class work, and catching up with friends and favorite teachers that I didn’t have time to visit the other classrooms! It was wonderful to meet new friends during the four days of the conference.
Sketch for my second certificate project – of course it has something to do with Harry Potter! :)
I started drafting my second certificate, but didn’t have enough time to finish. As a big Harry Potter fan, I have grand plans for this one. I hope I will have the time and patience to finally finish it. Big thanks to Robbie for all the encouragement!
This was my fourth time attending Letters California Style. I alway have a great time browsing and shopping for supplies at Paper and Ink Arts, Washi Arts, and of course the faculty and participants exhibits are wonderful to see. This year I got my act together and submitted two pieces for the participants exhibit!
My pieces framed for the Letters California Style participants exhibit.
I’m so thankful to Society for Calligraphy and all the wonderful organizers who put together such a great event every year. I look forward to going again in 2018!