Presenter: Janet Faught
Sponsor: Inland Empire/Pomona Valley chapter
About the workshop: Participants will learn a little bit of history and create replicas of correspondence written by poets, musicians, merchants, aristocrats and spies in the 17th century and later. They will discover how paper folding techniques, seals, slits, tabs, holes and string were used in the past to secure letters in a time before envelopes were mass produced.
Link to an interesting news article related to Letter Locking: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/opening-sealed-letters-study-scn/index.html
About the instructor: Janet is a visual artist living in Utah. She has a BS in Biology, a teaching credential and a BFA in Art. She was a founding member of the Inland Empire Regional Group of the Society for Calligraphy (active in the 1980s), and is a board member of the Utah Calligraphic Artists. Currently, Janet is teaching classes such as Pointed Pen Calligraphy, Gothic Hand Calligraphy, Fountain Pens and Inks (Ink a Dink a Doo), Letterlocking and Correspondence Art through the University of Utah Lifelong Learning Program. She enjoys painting in oil, acrylic, ink and watercolor. She enjoys handwritten letters, wheel thrown pottery, guitar, reading, bookmaking and knitting. She designs wedding announcements and addresses wedding envelopes.
Supply List:
Paper
Writing tool of your choice Sealing Wax
Seal
Candle
Matches
Xacto knife
Cutting surface
Bone folder (optional)
2 large paper clips Embroidery floss
Paper
Rhodia pad No.18, or bond paper, or light weight paper, approximately 8 1/2 x 11 inches. Unlined is good.
Blick has Rhodia. Office supply stores have bond paper.
Writing tool of your choice
Of course it is more fun to write with gel pens, fine liners, and fountain pens.
Sealing Wax
The kind you get will depend on the heating source you plan to use. You may use a candle, a glue gun, or a candle furnace, or just wax with a wick on it. If you use a glue gun you need to get the sealing wax made for that.
Many stores have sealing wax, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Blick, plus many on-line stores like Jet Pens, Nostalgic Impressions, JohnNealBookseller, Goulet Pens and others.
Amazon has nice sets of wax beads, candle furnace and spoon.
Seal
A wax seal can be found at the sources mentioned in Sealing Wax above.
Candle
See sealing wax above.
Matches
Only needed to light the candle. You don’t need matches if you are going to use a glue gun.
Xacto knife
Used for cutting slits in paper. You may be cutting through many layers.
Cutting Surface
A cutting mat, or a piece of thick cardboard will work.
Bone Folder
Used for making crisp folds in paper.
Paper Clips
I use them to stir the wax in my spoon, and to make a stand for the spoon when it is hot. If you are not using the spoon method, you don’t need the paper clips.
Embroidery Floss
A very small amount will be used to wind around one of the letter-locked letters.
Be sure to register to receive the Zoom invitation, which will be sent a couple days before the program.
Questions? Email Alessandra Kawakubo
NO audio or video recording of any program, meeting, workshop or other SfC function permitted without prior consent of both guest artist and a representative of the Board of Governors. ** You must ask permission of the artist/ instructor to photograph any copyrighted materials, including demos.
