Join us for this Guild meeting to see demonstrations, make some tools, and then try out some unique, fun tools to add to your arsenal. No pressure-all levels welcomed. Free.

Sunday, January 22, 2012, 1 to 4 pm
Room 227, Margaret Morrison Hall
Carnegie Mellon University

Pre-registration before Saturday, January 14 required so that we bring enough supplies. Email your RSVP to Lily Hoy <lhoy@cfo.pitt.edu>.

This year’s theme, “D-liver D-letter D-sooner D-better,” was inspired by the nation’s letter carriers, who D-liver 170 billion pieces of mail each year.

Deadline: Monday, April 30, 2012.

For contest details, visit the Graceful Envelope Contest.

Moravian Paste Paper Gallery

“If you are looking to start at the beginning with calligraphy, than this is a back to basic and common sense approach to learning the lettering arts. What you will find at this site is quality content and a method of study to develop the building blocks of a lifelong study personal to you.”

Location: Room 203, Margaret Morrison, CMU
Teacher: Myrna Rosen
Fee: $45 for Guild members/$50 for non-guild members

All of our Western letters or hands, as we refer to them, have evolved from the majestic incised Roman capitals. Finished to their finest stage of beauty by the first century, this evolution occurred by way of a need for speed and tools and materials available.

In this workshop we’ll use the existing incised Roman capital models as a springboard to pen made capitals. We’ll also glimpse the later models of these majestic and powerful forms.

If you have your a tool box bring it, some black ink, and a tablet of white paper (11 x 14 or bigger). Be sure that you have some larger sizes of the nibs you prefer, e.g., Speedball C-0, C-1, C-2. Also bring double pencils. You may request a more complete list of supplies if this is new to you.

Registration deadline, Friday, June 17th.

Download registration form [.pdf]

Limited seating; please register through friends@carnegiejapanese.org

Master Ritsuko Takaoka, a Japanese calligraphy artist based in Fujisawa City of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan, uses a long calligraphy brush and large Japanese paper when she performs. It is a signature calligraphy style of Sogen Shodo Kai, a group of well-known calligraphy artists in Japan. The group is also known as the main contributors of Nitten, the most popular of all major art organizations in Japan.

Under the direction of Sogen Shodo Kai Master Seido Taoka, one of the former Nitten judges, Master Ritsuko Takaoka has learned a wide range of writing performances. Currently she is teaching at a private 6-12 school, has her own calligraphy classes, collaborates with others and offers workshops and performances. She has also traveled abroad with Master Taoka and has given performances and workshops in several countries including China, Italy, Germany and Turkey. In June 2010, Master Taoka received an award at Mainichi Shodo Kai Honoring Ceremony for his contributions to introducing the beauty of calligraphy art to worldwide.

This workshop is FREE. But, we would greatly appreciate a donation. We organized this event to raise fund for improving the Japanese language collection at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Your donation at the workshop will be of great help to the project. Your donation will be used in three ways.

33% of funds raised at the event will go to the Bridge to Japan/Friends of Library at the CPL-Main. In order to help the CLP’s efforts to overcome a financial crisis, we joined the friends of CPL-Main and proposed a project to improve the Japanese language collection and support cultural events. The project is called “Bridge to Japan,” which originated from one of Pittsburgh’s nicknames, “The City of Bridges.” This campaign intends to build an imaginary bridge from Pittsburgh to Japan, which will grow as donation increases.

Another 33% will be given to the Purposeful Penny, a university-certified student charity organization at the University of Pittsburgh. The Purposeful Penny is engaged in raising funds for educational development in third-world countries (this year for orphans in Uganda). The students will host Master Ritsuko Takaoka’s performance at Lower Lounge of William Pitt Union on Friday, June 3rd.

The rest will be donated to a charity for the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Currently we are thinking about the Brother’s Brother Foundation which, based in Pittsburgh, has ranked as one of the best charitable organizations in the United States by the Forbes Magazine. Administrative and operating costs are less than 1 percent of the value of received donations.

Questions? Contact Kazuyo Good at kak93@pitt.edu(412) 648-7685 or John Knox at friends@carnegiejapanese.org

phone: 412-828-1031

Gallery Hours: Thursday – Saturday, 12-4 pm