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In October, our presenter for our hands-on workshop was Mike Whittington, former Niagara Calligraphy Guild President and current Newsletter Editor.
Mike chose an illumination style popular in the 13-15th century in Western Europe. The style consisted of Versals, black and white spaces and lines painted in various colours of vermillion, blue, green and violet.
Various styles developed from Filigree.
Style one was the simplest design using the Versal, coloured in black and several curls and cloud shapes. For us, this would be a quick and eye-catching way of decorating an envelope.
Style two used more flourishes and a border around the Versal. These again were quite beautiful and simple to create. Adding various flowers, beads and waves make the design quite lively.
Styles four to six involved more complicated designs but they were quite easy to built if one understood the concepts. The buttons, waves, leaves, clubs edges and repeat patterns combined to make an unusual design that could easily be the focus of a broadside, decorated envelope or the title page in a hand made book.
For excellent examples of Filigree, please see back issues of the Niagara Calligraphy Guild newsletter for which Mike created wonderful covers using this technique. The March 1996 issue has a fine example of what endless patience and persistent effort can produce.
Thanks, Mike for introducing us to this lovely technique.
Editor's note. An excellent primer for Filigree can be found in the Journal for the Calligraphic Arts, Nov-Dec 1995. Sadly the Journal is no longer being published.
