Lyndell's second alphabet

Hello from Canberra Australia where we seem to be having, if not Winter at least Autumn. The weather has not been at all like the summer we are used to.

I have made a start on my alphabet. I can only plead a very busy time at work for my not being any further ahead than this. Still, it is a start. And I have some idea of where I am going with it.

I have been very impressed with all the posts so far - great work. It is lovely being a part of this community.

I seem to have posted this to A letter a week 2011 as well. Oh well.....

Lyndell

JGR First ALPHABET

Hi Alaw friends, I hope your year is going well so far. I know many of you are going through Summer right now and for us it's 'Winter'. I put it in quotes because here (Southeast U.S.) the Winter is short and not too cold. Right now it's 30˚ F which is rather low for us. Anyway: I've had fun working on my first letters. I chose to go with the dotted theme for my first alphabet. 

A is has a few grundgy dots positioned on a large dimensional 'ball' type of dot. 

 Next is a somewhat camouflaged B on an inverted dotty background-still trying to retain a bit of the dimension from A's background.

 C is a bit more bold and youthful with small and mid size dots and a divider in the center for some contrast.

D is a more obvious contrast, with dots inside and outside the letter form. As always, I became 'lost in the process' as I worked on this. Thank you Fiona for this fun challenge! Happy 2012 to all and thank you for visiting.

Jenny's Intro

Hi
It's nice to "meet" all the people that have been producing such amazing work - i had no idea we came from such diverse places!  I live in Vaucluse in Sydney.  My flat has sea glimpses if you stand in the right spot, and lots of visiting bird life, some of which needs to learn that you cannot fly through a closed window.  I am a science teacher in my "normal" life and do calligraphy for the love of it.  Right now i am making a diary, an address book and designing an invitation, all for different friends.  School holidays are wonderful!

The images are from my second alphabet for 2011,  and i am currently planning the first 2012 one.  I learnt last time that it is a good idea to have some idea of how you are planning to put the alphabet together before you start making it!

... looking forward to seeing what everyone produces, there is so much talent out there it is exciting!


:) Jenny

Barry's introduction

Barry Smith © Foldformed letters - a touch of blue

Hi all

I am a sculptural, assemblage and metal work artist based in Maleny, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

I like three dimensional artwork; artwork that has layers and embeds history and messages in and on the material; artwork that takes used, forgotten and discarded materials and objects and gives them new life, new forms, new meanings.

Much of my work reflects themes of peace, meditation, nature and our journey through life and the environment.

I blog at http://www.rustnstuff.blogspot.com/

I am not a calligrapher and really can't form letters properly at all. But I have two saving graces: I love pens and have quite a collection of modern Lamy 'fountain' pens; and I am married to a skilled calligraphic artist. I have taken part in ALAW from the beginning to challenge myself to combine letters and my metal and 3D art forms. So far so good - but I keep thinking I'll run out of ideas with each new year. 

Hi from Canada

This is from the first alphabet from last year--Black and White and a touch of red. Highly influenced by playing with zentangles.

This is from the second alphabet--"party neuland".

Hi everybody,

I live on the west coast of Canada in Burnaby, B.C. (Burnaby is a suburb of Vancouver, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics).

I am a retired high school teacher-librarian. Calligraphy has been my hobby for about 30 years. I always enjoy playing with pens and inks, pencils, etc. I am actively involved in two local calligraphy groups: Alphabeas Calligraphy Guild and the Westcoast Calligraphy Society (visit us on the web: http://www.westcoastcalligraphy.com) Until the end of December I was the webmaster for Westcoast--at least today the website is still as I left it. I love learning about calligraphy, attending classes, workshops and conferences. I also belong to IAMPETH, the International Association of Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting. I like both broad edge and pointed pen work and think both can produce stunning work.

I also organize a yearly envelope exchange for calligraphers around the world. I am taking participants until January 20. You send one envelope a month for 11 months. Details and sign up can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dEJWWHB2bElJZkZNWUZLbE9ydDFyWGc6MA#gid=0

One of my brothers lives in Brisbane, Australia and in 2001 I was actually in Maleny! I still wear a Peruvian handmade vest that I bought there.

I followed ALAW in 2010 and enjoyed seeing everybody's work. Last year I decided that I had to participate. I didn't always keep up with my letters, but I did finish both alphabets by the end of the year. I am looking forward to playing again this year.

Keeping Track

As a newbie to ALAW, my biggest fears are keeping a steady pace (ie - not doing all the letters at once -which would be pointless as it's a letter a week!) and losing track of where I should be up to (which is why I might panic and try and do all my alphabet at once), hence I have just gone through my i-calendar and put a reminder of which letter I should be up to each week through out the year. 

Completely paranoid or just extremely organised? 
As I am one blessed with the propensity to finish any given project at the 11th hour - I'm opting for completely paranoid!
I'm sure I will become calmer about keeping pace as the project unfolds around me.

my first letters

here are my first dotty letters

a circle made of smaller circles, in a square. colorored pencils on paper. I think I'll use only these two colors for the entire alphabet, and well, how to bind it is another story ...

INTRODUCTION- MIEKE.

Hi, My patch (15 acres) is in Maleny a wonderful place in the Hinterland of the sunshine coast.
We grow strawberries-kiwifruit-avocados and other bits and pieces witch we sell on markets in the week-ends.
In my "free time"my passion is clay, many different aspects of it I do wheel work, sculpture and everything in between! Different firings as well Raku-Naked Raku, horsehair raku and firings in an electric kiln.

I really enjoyed doing the alphabets so far witch moved me in different directions an outside the square.
So... on to the next one!

a link to my blog
www.potfrot.blogspot.com

Introduction - rObfOs

Not really an introduction - I'm sure we'll get to know each other over the coming months
through posts and individual blogs (mine is rObfOs blogspot).
More a "Hello" from another new inductee.
Although there are many other things I should have
been doing this morning - instead - I started on my ALAW
project as I just had to get it out of my head
(also I was a bit behind after only signing up this week).
Below are my first two letters A & B.
I began with the specific dots/spots brief.
I have chosen to do a braille alphabet using coloured tacs on metal
(not easy to photograph reflective metal - but I'm sure you get the picture {pun intended}).
This is just the beginning of course and I am tossing up whether
to mount the individual letters onto parchment &/ timber &/ another kind of metal.
I think I am leaning towards a book format (as I usually do!) for the final display,
but there's plenty of time for that yet and many new ideas to cross my path before
we arrive at that point.
I think my biggest difficulty will be pacing myself!

Greetings from Denver!

Hi all!
Julie Gray here....and ho boy, was 2011 a year! I WAS able to finish my two alphabets, but also moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico cross country to Denver, North Carolina! (nope, not Denver, Colorado). So the beginning of this year will be mainly re-setting up a studio and getting back in the grind of things. PLUS trying to just FIND things! I'm looking forward to our alphabetic challenges this year. Hopefully I can keep up! My main love is paper sculpture as you can tell from my two alphabets from last year, but not sure yet what I will do THIS year.
Here is an example of what I love doing.
Looking forward to seeing all the wonderful alphabets! Thanks Fiona!
Julie