  
I’m nearing the end of my graphic design program (almost finished!) and the current task was to design a package label for something, anything: I chose to do a label for my husband’s home brew. I’ll admit that the ‘client’ here is a bit biased; however, the snowgum tree logo and associated beer bottle labels were quite well received!
I also had an assignment to do an entire company brand (logo + letterhead, business card, and envelope design). I opted to redo the ANU logo – a daunting task! I wanted to courageously tackle the ideas of classicism and university shields while also propelling the forward thinking nature of a university. I think the toughest part about a university logo is the audience – the logo must appeal to Nobel laureates, academics, emeritus professors, and high school senior students looking for freshness in their potential university! Did I do a good job? You be the judge.
[I should state here that this was in no way commissioned by ANU, nor should it be used for any such official purpose: it was made purely for fun (unless(until?) ANU decides to buy it from me!)]
 I calligraphed the menu (modeled after my friend Deirdre’s script from the workshop she led!) and cooked all the food from scratch. I really do love my hubby. Please visit Deirdre’s website if you want to see her work http://www.calligraphicworks.com/
The Canberra Calligraphy Society celebrates 25 years this year. We had a little party at the AGM two weeks ago. Nick and I made the cake, fashioned after a William Mitchell Scroll Nib.
After much hard work (probably 10-15 hours in total of practicing), I finished the menu for our friend’s wedding that took place in our backyard. I was quite happy with the menu, despite the major typo – who knew that “pistacio” is actually spelled pistacHio?? Oh well. Makes for a good story I suppose.
 
Our friend Mondo and I were on the ‘decoration committee’ and did a pretty good job we think. We turned our back garden into an altar-of-sorts and lit nearly 70 candles I think. Lots of flowers too, that you can’t really see in the dark. But Mr Groom & Mrs Bride really liked it and were quite happy with how it looked. And of course we all loved the dinner that Nick cooked  Superb!
I’m doing lots of life drawing, tons of quick portrait sketches, and lots of calligraphy lately. Just not enough time to post on here! I’ll put up some of my portrait sketches maybe next weekend.
What does that mean?! Calligraphy workshop was about Versatile Uncial script – so much fun! I made this card using a copperplate nib. It was my first time using one of these nibs and – wow! – it’s quite difficult. But I had a lot of fun and hope that Auntie Vi will like the Get Well Soon card I made her. Time to go buy a few copperplate nibs!
Oh how much fun! The 2nd calligraphy term has begun, and we will spend the 8 weeks learning different orientations of italic and flourishes on italics. I have a feeling this will be my favourite term! Here’s my first week’s homework. In the first one, I wasn’t happy with the gigantic space in the centre nor the gaudy flourish in the centre, and the lettering is a bit shaky (everything looks good from a distance!). In the second one, I put too many end-of-word-flourishes and so ran out of room and had to edit the poem, but I think the writing is much better. It’s not-surprisingly quite difficult to write at a constant 15deg angle to a curved surface. Oh well, I’ll get it right – someday!
  click to zoom in
I finished the birthday cards (but of course cannot post them here yet) and got a bit of time to play with other text this weekend so far. Here’s my first flourish, but we haven’t covered them in class yet, so after next Tues I expect to be much better after learning the tricks. Regardless, I think it turned out alright.
Oh, this Graham Berry script is from mid-1800s, one of the earliest Australian examples. We did it for the calligraphy workshop a few weeks ago. Here’s another example of it, the scanner is ever so slightly small and the scan was ever so slightly crooked, but it nicely cuts off a smudge on the right border, so I think I’ll just leave it like this 
I nearly forgot, here’s my homework for the week. This is one of numerous trials, that will become numerous trials more for a much bigger work….
Calligraphy class is fun. We’re working on the italic script for the whole session (8 weeks) and it’s been really fun so far. Our last few homework assignments have been just doing words – alpha, bravo, charlie, … – but now we’re getting into flourishes. This is quite fun for me and I can’t wait until the weekend to try it out. It’s a long weekend (Canberra Day is on Monday), so I’ll have a lot of time to practice. Should be lots of fun! Here is a little piece that we all did in class. I’ll admit that I traced it (we all did!), and for such a beginner that I am, I’m quite proud of it even tho it’s a trace. That being said, I’ll be doing my own flourishing this weekend and we’ll see where that gets me. If anything interesting comes of it, maybe I’ll post it up here.
And here are two cards that I made last weekend. Less interesting perhaps, but quite nice I think.
 
My husband loves cooking. Every few months, we host a degustation. We haven’t done one in quite a while, so had quite a bit of fun with this one. As always, he makes every single part of each meal, letting no one help (he gets such satisfaction from doing it all himself); but I get to make the menu (my favorite part) that we give to all the guests on A5 paper. I quite like this menu.
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