These are the Cape Town workshops.  There are also workshops in Pretoria & Johannesburg.

• CAPITALIS ROMANA (CTN 1)

Duration: 1 day – Saturday 30 June 2012

Cost:  R250

Level: medium / high

Open to: everyone,

Basic study and practice of the Maiuscola Monumentalis, the letter used on lapidaries in Ancient Rome, which has remained intact for 2000 years. Without doubt the most solemn and fascinating of all letters, but also the foundation of all writing styles.

Learning how to use a flat brush will lead to the writing of write letters and calligraphy on any type of surface: walls, wood, glass, etc.

• BEAUTIFUL ALPHABETS: FROM MANUSCRIPTS OF THE MEDICIS TO

CONTEMPORARY CALLIGRAPHY (CTN 2)

Duration: 3 consecutive days – Thursday 5 July – Saturday 7 July 2012

Cost:  R750

Level: any

Open to: everyone

The aim of this course is to explore the possibilities of contemporary calligraphy by studying a number of original manuscripts. . In this course we will use some manuscripts of the fifteenth century, of the Medicis in Renaissance Florence. Each manuscript is unique of its kind and in its form as it is linked to a series of fortuitous, unrepeatable factors: its historical context, the precise moment in time, the calligrapher’s hand and his emotions. The theory will then lead us to create an alphabetic style for each manuscript work. 

During a calligraphy course of this kind, it is usually the teacher who provides a pre-constructed and pre-elaborated model of writing, but in this case the teacher will be there to encourage each student to study the fascinating letters of one of the manuscripts, its rhythm, its links, its spacing, its characteristics and its uniqueness.

Following on from there, we will develop the letters of the alphabet used in our manuscript to give them a more creative and freer aspect and so create a “new” kind of writing that is more rhythmic and dynamic, and at times downright illegible, but which has its roots in a historical form of the past. Our intention, therefore, is to breathe new life into the letters and rhythms of the past by passing them through the filter of our own personality and sensitivity, our experiences and emotions, to make them once again unique and unrepeatable. With the help of the teacher and by following a special method, each student will do practical exercises and use alternative and unusual writing tools to the background of sounds, music and images.

To conclude, we propose to bind an “artist’s book”, to give a new form and lease of life to the original

manuscript from which we started out on our fascinating journey through the art of writing.

No special know-how or experience is needed to take part in the course, and it is therefore open to everyone. It is, however, particularly suitable for those who are involved in the world of creativity and image such as designers, type designers, painters, graphic artists, etc.