First Letters for Place

I'm late to the party this year but finally settled on a plan.......We love to travel and I love to use my photos in my art so I'm cutting a letter from pics of places we've been.  I think it's going to be assembled in a flag book - I haven't tried that yet and look forward to that process.

Austria, Barcelona, Cozumel, Disneyland, Florence, Gibraltar (rock of)

Melbourne (Aus), Kuai, Hangzhou (China), Nice (France), Las Vegas, Indianapolis

There are some beautiful, creative alphabets underway and I can't wait to see the creative presentations that are going to happen!

TERRIE

April Letters

 When looking for places visited I could not find any beginning with X.  As I like to use a tactile map rather than a GPS, X had to mark the place or town on the map.  Since then I have discovered a mining town in WA beginning with X -- Xantippe, which I have passed by but not visited.

March Letters

 More of the lovely places I have had the opportunity to visit during some of my, many trips around the Australian countryside.

Hello,

Here are my first letters for ALAW 2014.

I have several ideas, but I start with this one: I am fortunate to have a beautiful garden maintained by my husband. There are many flowers and  trees that bloom throughout the year. So I wanted to make my alphabet on this "place" ...

I am part of the pictures and wanted to make letters that do not damage the photo. So there are two sheets per letter, for the letter and the other for the photo: Here is an example, and the process will be the same for all letters:

on a first page :

on the second  page :

H is for Hortensia ou hydrangea

I chose not to make in the order of letters.

Here are some for January and February :

F for fushia

I for insect

P for passiflore (passion flower)

T tournesol (sun flower ?)

G for glycine (wistaria ?)

R for rose

E for Erable (maple)

I took these photos last spring and summer.

As our winter is very rainy and little brightened up, I prefer to begin with letters full of color...

See you soon

Catching Up

Since I started late I have a bit of catching up to do.  For design reasons I have jumped to the end of the alphabet and completed the last few letters.

Some of the letters are a bit skewed on the background as they haven't yet been attached to the black paper.  This will happen when I have finalised the presentation design.

Mary

Jac’s January and February

Finally caught up.

There is no overriding colour scheme for this alphabet. I’m just trying to make mini prints that work as abstractions and can still be read as a letter.

By mixing up the letters rather than printing them in alphabetical order I’m hoping that the colours will end up varied from one to the next when they are put in sequence

Kent E to H

Carol DuBosch: J, K, L

This project continues to be the most enjoyable thing on my "to do" list. Just when I think there is no way that I can pair the letter with an image of something my grandchildren enjoy at my house...something comes to me. Whew, almost half way through the (place) alphabet.

Rrrrrrh!

D is for Dinosaur

I loved this fabric when I saw it.

I bought it for a friendship quilt project where I had a swatch of green fabric to match with at least 7 different other fabrics. I took my brother with me and ended up with three different kinds of dinosaurs! It was great, because it made it such a different block from what I would have probably chosen.

Thankfully there were leftovers and now I have this cute little block: D for Dino(saur).

I've started thinking about the layout of this quilt when it's done, whether to:

1. Put the alphabet blocks side by side, creating a middle section to then put a series of borders around;
2. Find extra picture blocks to put between the alphabet blocks;
3. Put thin, plain strips between the alphabet blocks to set them apart more.

The finished quilt should be around 70cm x 100cm. Given that each alphabet block is only 7cm x 7cm and I'll lose at least 0.5cm seam allowance when I join them, there is going to be a lot of space to fill with other fabric. Perhaps extra picture blocks will be the way to go.

I am a full time volunteer at our local no-kill cat shelter and so that is my "Place".  I am not a calligrapher by any means but love the sensual roundness of Uncials, very cat-like.  I had planned on using real breed names, one for each letter, but not all letters have cat breeds.  So I went to my dictionary and found words that were interesting and/or had definitions that could describe a breed.  I admit I had a lot of fun doing that part.  The silhouettes  are hand embossed, the letter drawn, and breed name written on front.  On the back is a short description--Elflock, corded fur; Foison, strong and powerful; Gambado; long white stockings; Karooian, of southern Africa.  These could be used as flash cards for learning the names.  I haven't decided yet how they will be packaged

  I'm hoping something will come to me at some odd moment.  Thanks for looking,  Anita

Hi

I've just joined this group after seeing the beautiful work in Bound and Lettered. I am an explorer, trying new skills and techniques in a range of areas, including textiles and paper. I like the idea of a challenge and have settled for the Place theme for my first alphabet.  We travel a lot both in Australia and abroad, but I am often heard to say that the best thing about travelling is coming home. We live in a beautiful place on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, with the ocean beaches five minutes away and the spectacular hills not much more. 

My Place alphabet represents my home, my place:
the handmade paper used for the background has been made from local plant materials, some wild and some from the garden.
the prints on the paper are made using plants from the garden
the letters are cut from old photographs of my home and the surrounding area

Not sure about the final presentation, but I enjoy book binding, so they will probably end up in some book form.

Getting ahead of myself...

Getting ahead with my free form alphabet by a few weeks, well months. Justification being my challenge alphabet looks like being just that...a challenge. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? First 'challenge' attempted alphabet letters failed. I cut the letter card circles to large by 7mm. Discovering the fact after cutting all 26 circles by hand and drawing letter shapes onto all 26 ready for further shaping. Pays to measure twice and cut once. How hard is it! Blame it on a senior moment.  I am enjoying following the progress of the other participants, some very clever and beautiful ideas.

Fiona's February letters

Apologies if you have already read this on my blog - but I am trying to keep here and there up to date!

So far so good, altho I feel as if I may be tempting fate by celebrating that I am managing keep up with the project this year! I am possibly a bit in front, but when I did the calculation I realised that four letters a month only gives you 48 letters, not 52, so I need to stay on top of it and publish some a bit early.

I am still enjoying playing with the coloured pencils that Hiro gave me when we visited Japan last year.  and I am learning lots about how sand compacts - it is quite incredible.

E got me started again - with an Emerald theme

Here is F - with a theme of Fuchsia

Then G got hard. It has a Green theme, but my it was tough work poking the pencils into the sand as you can see!  After G I had to empty all the sand all and start all over again.

And so we made it to H - with a Hot Pink theme and the pencils were behaving again…

The things you learn. 

Leaf Mono Prints

Hello all!  I was hoping that this year I would make a start on time but unfortunately that didn't happen.

But now that I have, I am continuing my love affair with leaf mono prints.  I have used them for large and small calligraphic works including illuminated letters.  I have also used them for the covers of hand bound books and for greetings cards.  Now I have incorporated them into my contribution to ALAW.

I had considerable trouble photographing the letters.  The graphite keep turning to a sliver in the photo.

The letters (with thanks to the expert tutoring of Gemma Black at a workshop many months ago) are hand drawn versals using graphite pencil.

F for Fish

F for Fish

I'm not sure about this one...

 

I thought this was a great idea when I started, but then it turned out not as legible as I thought! Bit of an underwater feel though. Fishy fabric, F for Fish.

Hello, I'm attempting ALAW this year

I decided to write and ask Fiona in February if I could join ALAW 2014 and she's welcomed me warmly to participate. Hi, I'm Maya, a textile designer and fibre artist, you can view my work here.
I'm taking a stab at the alphabet and place to begin with.
 For the alphabet and place I'm looking at maps to find places I've visited, lived in and would like to visit. I'm sticking the alphabets of places I've lived in or visited on red paper and the places I would love to visit on purple paper.
I live in South India so you will find a number of Indian cities and towns represented by the alphabet.
For the first four I've taken the maps found in all inflight magazines which airlines have in the seat pockets, to cut out the alphabets.  
A- is for Ahmedabad. A city in western India where I went to design school and a great textile hub.
B - is for Bengaluru. The Silicon valley of India and the city I currently reside in.
G - is for Goa. A former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India. A beautiful holiday destination.
H - is for Hong Kong which I visited last month.  
The letters are not in sequence and I have a feeling that's how its going to progress for this set of the alphabet.
I'll be back soon, in the mean time I'm following the ALAW blog with interest.

abcdefgh ....... a beginning at last

Hello Fellow letter a weekers 

Bit of a late starter, again!  Here though are my first two months of ALAW 2014.  I have begun with my freeform rather than the 'Place' alphabet as I am waiting for inspiration to strike.  The background for my letters are engraved marks of mine and I am actually using lettraset which was in my architect fathers' supply.  It gives me great joy to bring part of him to this alphabet.

I am ahead of myself with this alphabet in as much as I already have designed the book in which the letters will be housed.  Can't quite believe it.  I still have not actually made the book for my 'Peace' alphabet from last year.  It will happen, slowly, as time allows.

I have really enjoyed having a look at the work that is coming from far and wide .... will look out for our finished books once we get to that point.  I don't often comment anymore, but please know that I am looking and really loving all I am seeing.

Hope 2014 is treating you all well. x

a b c d

e f g h

and a mix of letters