Paper, Scissors, Rock - Calligraphy Exhibition - Gallery on Track Goulburn

 Dear Followers,

Come join us for our October 2025 exhibition and various workshops.

Opening 1pm Saturday 4th October 2025

 Uncial with Cathy Sayer – Saturday 4 October - 10am to 3pm

Bookings close – 27 September 2025 – Minimum of 6 people for the class to run.

 Uncial is a great hand to have in your skill set as the opportunities to use Uncial are endless, cards,   wrapping paper, etc. 

Participants in this class, will need blank paper (computer paper or a bleed-proof   A4 pad), ruler, pencil, eraser, coloured pencils, and a couple of sheets of tracing paper.

Most importantly an Artline Calligraphy Pen 3.0mm (available from Officeworks https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/artline-241-calligraphy-pen-3-0mm-black-pe124301

Weaver Style Writing workshop with Glenis Sheather - Sunday 5 October - 10am to 3pm

Bookings close – 28 September 2025 – Minimum of 6 people for the class to run.

This lettering is my monoline variation of Weaver Script, which is based on the script designed by American calligrapher, the late Gwen Weaver.  There are only 26 letters in this script (no capitals) so can be easily learnt in a four-hour workshop and is suitable for all skill levels.  The aim of the workshop is to have fun playing with some interesting letters, which can then be used to create a small piece of work.

Participants should bring with them the following:

Fine liner/s, such as Staedtler pigment liner, Stabilo point, Unipin, etc. in sizes between 0.1 - 0.5.

A4 layout pad or A4 computer paper

A sheet of tracing paper

HB pencil

Plastic ruler

Coloured pencils (optional)

Vivacious Versals Workshop with Valerie Keevers - Saturday 25 October - 10am to 4pm

Bookings close – 17 October 2025 – Minimum of 6 people for the class to run.

Versals are the capital letters that were used to begin a new chapter or paragraph in manuscripts.  This workshop will show you how to modernise capitals for our time.  They can be vibrant, colourful, and fun to do.  Come and see where your imagination will take you as we look at many different ways of drawing letters.  Class suitable for every skill level, from people who have never drawn a letter to those who have great experience.

Please bring: An A4 plain paper pad OR some A4 Computer paper.

Alternatively bring some A5 size pieces of watercolour type paper.

HB Pencil, eraser and ruler.

Coloured pencils OR watercolour paints.

If using watercolour paints you will need a small pointed brush, mixing brush and water jar.

Black outliner pen.

Back to Basics Tutoring Gig

 Dear Followers,

Having taught Neuland at the beginning of the year for Calligraphy Southscribes, Inc. they have asked me back again to tutor or teach a Back to Basics afternoon. So, if you are in the Sydney region and you would like to dip your toes in calligraphy ink, so to speak, come along and join me and the society for a relaxed but informative afternoon.

This workshop is aimed at our newer members and those wanting to remind themselves of good calligraphic practices.

While we learn a hand or technique each month, many of us have not covered the basics of calligraphy or may like a refresher, so we will be looking at calligraphic terms and what they mean in a practical sense, how to use our pens and inks and everything in-between. We really will be getting back to basics, so think of this as Calligraphy 101. We will also work through a series of exercises to help you understand more about this art form and its associated terms.

It was suggested at our Meeting last month that if any Member who wishes to come on the 12th but do their own Calligraphy work on the day instead of the Back to Basics, catch up with other members and a cup or two of tea/coffee that a fee of $10 to help cover Hall Hire costs would be charged instead of the $20 for this Session.

Materials List:

·        Pen holders

·        A variety of sizes of nibs – small to large (if possible one brand, if you don’t have one brand, don’t worry but you must have a range of sizes, 5 different size nibs is excellent)

·        Ink or gouache – different colours

·        Gouache – bring a form of palate to mix them on

·        Ink – bring small container/s to decant your ink into

·        Water containers

·        Brushes to load your gouache with (if you are using gouache)

·        Ruler

·        Eraser

·        Graphite pencil

·        Layout pad

·        Notebook & Pen to take notes

·        1 quote that means something to you, as you’ll be using it a lot

·        If using Artline Calligraphy felt-tip pens please bring a range of sizes

 

 Date:                 Saturday, 12 August 2023

Time:               1.00pm – 4.00pm

Cost:                $20.00 – Members, $25.00 – Non-Members

Place:              Sylvania Community Centre - Canberra Road, Sylvania   (Near Southgate Shopping Centre)

Bookings Essential: southscribes@yahoo.com.au

End of Year Calligraphic Party

Wow, where has 2019 gone to?

I know I have had a few mishaps along the way which took time away from calligraphic pursuits but behind the scenes I have been learning lots about social media, tutoring and participating in Wendy Cowley's envelope exchange.

I was voted in as my calligraphy group's workshop organiser plus their social media co-ordinator, this has meant learning Instagram in a hurry which I have now also added to my own account. Their account is Calligraphy Southscribes alternatively southscribes while mine is inkdontdrink.

Next year is looking very busy, I have three exhibitions on one in July with a photographer and a painter then two with our calligraphic group in November/December. Truly, who has time to work. Just joking I need to work to pay for the calligraphy gear I buy and the occasional workshop.

This time last year I was madly packing and getting organised to do a five day workshop with Gemma Black in Mittagong NSW and another great friend and calligrapher. Unfortunately this year there is no calligraphy so it is back to work for the New Year.

I have promised myself three resolutions in 2020, more calligraphy, more writing here and less stress. Hopefully one and two will lead to three.

Have a great New Year! Cathy

Copyrighted Cathy Sayer

Double Pencils in February

Dear Followers,

Life to seems to take over at times and while I have been busy calligraphically, I haven't seemed to be able to find time to write about it. So to remedy that, I am going to copy my posts from Calligraphy Southscribes blog http://calligraphysouthscribes.blogspot.com/ to my own blog as it is still my own writing. So here goes.

The first Calliarts at Southscribes, for the year was Double Pencils with Gloria. Personally I am always perplexed with double pencils as I can never seem able to join the lines together to create that three dimensional affect that you are looking for but judging by the number of people who attended the afternoon it is a popular lettering form. Gloria started the afternoon by explaining the basic knowledge required to create a successful piece of lettering with double pencils; this included how to join the two pencils together, the correct position to hold the pencils in and what techniques to use to enable the creation of larger or smaller letters.

 
After a quick coffee break it was back to work, at which time Gloria supplied an exemplar of a style of gothic lettering created using double pencils. We worked our way through the alphabet and then some of us chose one letter to work on, allowing us to create a finished piece. I had chosen an ‘M’ to use as a decoration for a card I had created. Gloria had kindly brought in lots of wrapping and handmade paper that was at our disposal to draw our letters onto and some excellent results ensued. What I imagined to be an afternoon of double trouble turned out to be double the fun.

Alive and Kicking

Well you would think that I hadn't anything to write about or been doing nothing to interest anyone when in fact the reverse is the truth.
May was interesting with a workshop completed on Modern Calligraphy. The local community college ran a workshop on Modern Calligraphy which seems to be all the craze. Our calligraphy group is always being asked to run workshops on it or is there anyone who will do commissioned work in Calligraphy but they mean Modern Calligraphy. Thus with this in mind I decided to take myself off to the course. Of course being a classically trained calligrapher I would say that the calligraphy was more lettering than calligraphy and because of my training found it difficult to forget all the rules I had learnt. No 'x' height, no interlinear space, no pen angles, etc. which took some getting use to but by the end of the afternoon I was getting use to the concepts. I wouldn't say it was easy and thought it more brush lettering than calligraphy. Lots more practice needed from this calligrapher!

Later in the month a friend and I were off to Menai Library to promote the Art of Calligraphy. The library is keen to promote different types of arts and contacted our group Calligraphy Southscribes to see if anyone was interested in coming along to do hold an informal class. It class was a mixture of ages and there was a great turn out with about twenty people.

Retro Art Deco Workshop - Saturday

The long weekend in October was spent at my calligraphy society's hall participating in a two day workshop run by Gemma Black called 'Retro Deco'.
We started on the Saturday with a short history of the period and Charles Rennie Mackintosh before Gemma did a demonstration of the lettering inspired by the period and Charles. We were then let loose on pencil and paper so we could learn the bones of the letters and how to build them up. Finally it was on to paper and ink.
After lunch we chose a short piece of writing that we had brought along, sourced from the period, mine was five words in length and from the Australian artist Hilda Rix Nicholas - "We are really truly here". We had to stack the words on top of each other. I did a practice run and then did the real thing on a pieces of rough watercolour paper. Once we were happy with the finished lettering, we then had to do some artwork to match the words.

August Is a Calligraphy Month for Me.

Don't you love it when your month is going to be busy with calligraphic days?

August looks like is going to be one for me, I am off to two workshops and am also having a group of ladies over for my monthly calligraphy get together.

Calligraphy Southscribes, Inc. are presenting the two workshops so I'm sure if you are interested they could squeeze you in. http://calligraphysouthscribes.blogspot.com.au/

The first is Ruling Pens:

Ruling pens are wonderful calligraphic tools to experiment with, this afternoon we will be exploring the various lines and letter forms that be achieved in contemporary calligraphy.
Cost $10.00 with Helen Warren on 12 August 2017.

 The second one is Ronde with Pointed Pen:

Ronde, sometimes referred to as French Ronde, was used in France in the 17^th Century. 

We will commence the workshop using a traditional broad-edged nib. It is also planned that participants will make a small box, or at least start one, which will be decorated with the script.  $45.00 with  Glenis Sheather.

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to these workshops is because I'm not the tutor, I can sit back and just enjoy pen on paper and creating beautiful letters. I hope.

Coloured Pencils Afternoon Workshop

Well, I have been busy doing alot of things some calligraphic some not but one of the calligraphic items is getting ready for an afternoon workshop I am taking. The workshop is based on how to use coloured pencils and all their permutations in calligraphy.
I have created ten exercises based on coloured pencils, water colour pencils, and other variations that can be used. It has taken a little while to come up with the exercises but I think the participants should find them interesting. My main aim is to show that the humble coloured pencil can be a great calligraphic tool and can be used in many different ways.

April - It's Art Exhibitions and Art Festivals

April for me is looking like it will be a busy month, starting off with an exhibition I am involved in and an Arts Festival.

The Arts Festival run by Rockdale City Council - stART is a great way to start a month long celebration of art in the area.

Come along and say hello!

http://www.rockdale.nsw.gov.au/pages/RAF.aspx#rogap

While the exhibition is being held at the Dragon's Lair Gallery in Hurstville Museum& Gallery.

Exhibition - Calligraphy Southscribes - World War 1 in Pen & Brush

I belong to a local calligraphy group called Calligraphy Southscribes, Inc. and we are holding an exhibition in April.

All the details are

Neuland and Tutoring

I belong to a small calligraphy group that meets on the second Saturday of the month for its committee meeting and then in the afternoon for calligraphy for three hours, from 1pm to 4pm. Now these three hours may be calligraphy, like it was this month, or like last month, it can be a Japanese card. For August the committee had decided to ask myself to tutor Neuland. Now while I love using Neuland it was the first time I had actually tutored it, so to say I was a little apprehensive was putting it lightly.

I've tutored before, Uncial twice, once as an eight week lettering course and once as a six week lettering course. Add to that Modern Uncial as a six week lettering course and as an afternoon workshop and I think I have my nerves under control but it seems that tutoring a new script really threw me.

With only three hours to play with and a vast range of calligraphy experience in the room, the lesson plan and ideas needed a rethink on how to present. I decided on creating an exemplar that could be used as strictly an exemplar for the more experience calligraphers or a copy sheet for the beginners. Having requested that all bring along tracing paper to trace their letters this would ultimately speed up the learning process and lead them onto the creative part of the afternoon (thank you to wonderfully experienced tutor for this idea, and she was acknowledged in class).

To get everyone in the mood and to get pens, inks and arms/hands flowing, I asked everyone to practice creating a row of lines at 90 degrees, a row at 0 degrees and a row at +- 30 degrees angles. This I told the class would loosen them up but to also create the pen angles for creating the letters. While they practiced their pens angles I read them a brief history of Rudolph Koch.

After an hour of writing, it was time for a coffee, a brief break and look at what examples I had brought in before proceeding to part two of the afternoon. Using their letters.

Now as most of us know from experience, both as students and tutors that we or the class want to get onto using the letters, and in a three hour class it is no different. So while having explained that for the beginners they would still need a lot of practice to perfect their letter form, to start to get a feel for it, they could trace their letters onto tracing paper and then transfer them to a piece of good paper and they could experiment with using colour. I had suggested that they bring in coloured pencils or metallic pencils if they had them and some black paper for a different look. Most people did and the results speak for themselves.

Once the class was under way and I was able to walk around and offer one on one tutoring the adrenalin eased off and I too, was able to enjoy the afternoon. I now have another lesson plan up my sleeve if ever needed.

Enjoy the results of the Calligraphy Southscribes, afternnoon with Neuland.

Class

Kath's

Colleen's

Kay's

Mirelle's

Gloria's

Glenis'

Calligraphy Southscribes Calliarts Afternoon - Quilted Japanese Cards

I'm really looking forward to this mini workshop with one our tutors - Penny Laver on 11 July.

Calliart - Quilted Japanese Cards

These cards are based on washi paper quilting which is a traditional Japanese doll making technique called 'kime-komi' and Oshie. Pieces of Japanese 'kimono' fabric and cotton batting are used to create beautiful doll pictures. Individual parts of the image are formed by creating small 'shaped' puffy pillows and then piece together to form the final picture. 

This picture shows an example

 

All rights reserved - Penny Laver

This technique can be easily be adapted to make some beautiful cards. We shall be making the card shown below which is a great card for children, If time permits we shall try a couple of other patterns.

All rights reserved - Penny Laver

World War 1 in Pen and Brush Ends Successfully

Well it is over and done with, done and dusted as they say. The pictures are down and the reviews are in. The exhibition was successful and with ten pieces sold, artists are happy but more importantly calligraphy was promoted and brave men and women remembered.

Lest We Forget!

Cathy Sayer

Ronda Gaffey

Kay Pittman

Helen Warren

Gloria Scott

Ronda Gaffey

Winsome Doyle

Comments from the exhibition:

" it is so moving"   " I wish I could do that"   'that must take hours"  "just loved the way the works were hung"      
  " poppies are for remembrance "  "some really beautiful pieces'"     " loved the inclusion of women"
    " the nurses stories were extremely well researched and told" (Thank you to Calligraphy Southscribes for the comments).

World War 1 in Pen and Brush

Saturday the 18 April saw the official opening of our exhibition - Calligraphy Southscribes - World War 1 in Pen and Brush. The exhibition runs for fourteen days closing on 29 April, at Hazelhurst Community Gallery at Gymea.

The exhibition which is our tribute to Australians in World War 1 was officially opened by one of the local councillors and we also had an historical talk by a lady from the local Heritage Society on the history of the local Coo-ee Tree.

The Official Opening

My piece ready to be hung - The Battle of Bita Paka

Books, Books and More Books

It's good fun when you are able to participate in some auxiliary arts, one of those being the book arts. On Saturday the 28 March, a group of us meet at Sylvania to have a workshop, which involved making a spiral book. Think slinky, or I did, and you have a reasonable idea of what type of book we made. I had great fun and always enjoy these types of classes as there is plenty of time to work your way through the project and not feel rushed. It was only a small group but we all had fun. Now onto the next adventure.

CreARTivity was a Success

Last Sunday I persuaded a couple of friends to accompany me to a park in Arncliffe, to promote the calligraphy group that we belong to, Calligraphy Southscribes. Having heard Sunday was going to be 29c and sunny all week, we were prepared for a hot day but no, it turned out to be overcast and very windy. The wind didn't aid the calligraphy as you would imagine but it didn't stop the participants from coming along to the day.
We were to arrive at 10am for set up for the art festival day (being part of the bigger Rockdale Council's art festival month) and the activities were to commence at 11am.
I was a bit apprehensive about taking the other girls with me, as last time I volunteered us for one of these events it was a disaster. This however turned out to be the exact opposite. From the car entry, to the set up and then ending with the pack up, the organiser, Michelle, had everything under control. Council people were there to help us carry our materials and goods, tents were clearly marked and the atmosphere was great.
Things got off to a slow start but by lunch time, queues were forming and the girls were inundated with requests for calligraphic bookmarks. We made the decision to give them to the children for free and sell them to the adults for a donation. This left the children with their money still in their pockets which allowed them to purchase other calligraphic items, which Gloria had made for the day. Alot of the parents made donations to us, feeling that our art should be rewarded, which was extremely pleasing. We had to take a short break for lunch and so that Glenis and Gloria got some feeling back in their hands but it was only short lived with the queues quickly forming again.
Many of the children and parents were of Arabic background and while their children watched their names being written, parents explained the ancient art of calligraphy and how beautiful it was. The looks on those kids faces said it all, as their names came to life in beautiful scripts.
While Glenis and Gloria wrote and decorated bookmarks, I worked the crowd, talking calligraphy in general and our group in particular.
At 3pm it was time to pack up, shake out cramped hands and shoulders and remark on how busy we had been. The three of us were tired but happy.
The next day, after a round of emails, we had worked out that the girls had written and decorated 75 bookmarks, and we had raised app. $68 for the group not a bad day.
So thank you to the people from Rockdale Council, especially Michelle for organising the day, and a big thank you to Glenis and Gloria for giving up their Sunday.

Tutoring Modern Uncial

On February 14, I was lucky enough to share my version of Modern Uncial with some keen students at Calligraphy Southscribes.

The group, on the second Saturday of the month, from 1-4pm have what they call their "Calliart" afternoon. This is where people like me get to share our knowledge with others. Thank you to Mike Kecseg for inspiring us.

Everyone seemed to have a great time and they still had their pens up at 4pm. Needless to say this tutor was chuffed!

Rare and Beautiful Books

Tuesday saw me off for a visit to the N.S.W. State Library and in particular the Mitchell Library which is a glorious sandstone building next door to the current main library.

 

The trip was organised by Calligraphy Southscribes and featured a viewing of a facsimile copy of the Book of Kells and one of the Saint John's Bible (Donald Jackson). After wetting our appetites with these two we were allowed to view four rare books from the 15th and 16th centuries brought up from the safe for us. 
One was a miniature prayer book and the illustrations were exquisite, representing the goings on at different times of the year. It was the equivalent of a camera today and allowed this generation of reader a glimpse into a world now gone. Another one of the books had an intricately carved cover of ivory on it. 
Add to this the beautiful calligraphy and the books or manuscripts were delicate works of art.

In contrast the Saint John's Bible held page after page of modern interpretations of both hands and illustrations. Some pages awoke the eye with rich and colourful works while others were subtle and gentle in their execution. It was interesting to be able to determine when a new calligrapher took up the pen as they displayed their own nuances in the writing.

   

All in all it was a great visit and I would recommend making a time with the lovely Librarians and Library Technician of the Rare Books and Manuscript section of the N.S.W. State Library. Lynette, Rene and the other young lady who helped out deserve our support, as do our libraries in general.
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/ 

Text as Texture

On the last weekend of August, one of the calligraphy groups I belong to hosted a Victorian calligrapher Deirdre Hassed for a weekend workshop. The title of the workshop was Text as Texture.


On the first day of the workshop, Saturday, we took a formal approach with Deirdre bringing some great examples by herself and other well known calligraphers of how text can be used as texture in a piece. After studying these examples we practiced creating textures and built up our own repertoire. On the Sunday we spent time looking at and developing more experimental ways of creating texture with our texts.
Tall and thin, lettering written over itself, spirals, text written with alternative writing implements, all gave us a different way of both looking at text and creating a piece.

My work in progress contains the use of uncial, writing the same piece of text, over and over on itself, so that it can no longer be read but instead is now a texture.

All rights remain with the artist - Uncial Text as Texture

More examples of the workshop will be up soon on the Calligraphy Southcribes, Inc blog http://calligraphysouthscribes.blogspot.com.au/  and you can also check out the website of our tutor Deirdre http://www.calligraphicworks.com/