letters as artform

my fascination with typography continues.  "the story of writing" book came from the library and on the inside i was happy to find, in his own writing, "oregon school of arts and crafts, donald jackson" (current calligrapher to the Queen of England and leader of the St. John's Bible project).  tempting as it may be just to never return the library book (i'm kidding), i took a photo instead.

here is my attempt at scribal art, "Lord of Hosts" with the scripture from 2 Corinthians 5:21.  afterwards, i did a modern form "Yahweh" sprinkled throughout the text in red.

even with the 6 steps of gold foil embossing before me, i struggled with the gold and silver leaf.  it doesn't show up well in the picture, but each letter is outlined or filled in gold with a filagree cross in the center flourish.

it unbelievably coincides with the novel i'm reading right now called "gutenberg's apprentice" by alix christie;  smart historical ficiton writing about the revolution in typeface as the printing press took over the work of scribes in order to print the first Bible.

and an amazing modern letter artist i was just introduced to via the internet?  seb lester.  his website is www.seblester.com and it is well worth the time to watch a short video of him at work.