EJF Wikipedia

Paper Service

2010-02-18T18:30:43+00:00

Here's a must try. Professional assistance with custom essays, term papers, research papers, thesis etc. Any difficulty. Any topic. Affordable prices. Order 100% custom-written term papers from a reputable custom writing. Quality assistance from professional essay writers online.

ReadingEssay

2010-01-21T20:46:00+00:00

How to read an essay

What is the title?

What does it tell you about what the essay is about?
What do you already know about the subject?
What do you expect the essay to say about it--especially given when it was written and who the author was (see next questions)?

When was the essay written?

Do you know anything about the state of the historical literature on the subject at that time?
If so, what do you expect the essay to say?

Who wrote it? What do you expect him or her to say?

What are the author's credentials, or affiliations?
What are his/her prejudices?
Are you familiar with the authors' other work related to the subject?

Read the essay, marking the information that is crucial to you.
When the text gives you crucial information, mark and note it:

What exactly is the subject?
How does it correspond to the title?
What are the main points--the theses?
What is the evidence that the author gives to sustain the thesis or theses?

What is the factual information that you want to retain?

Is there a good description of something you knew, or did not know, that you want to remember its location? If so, mark it. If for research, make out a research note on it.

Does the author cite some important source that you want to retain for future reference?
If so, mark it. If for research, make out a bibliographic note either now or on reviewing the article for such citations.

Once you have finished the article, reflect on:

What have you learned?
How does it relate to what you already know?
Did you find the argument convincing on its own terms?
Given what you know about the subject, do you think the main point(s) might be correct even if the argument was not convincing?
Can you think of information that makes you doubt the main point(s), even if the essay argued it well?
How does the essay relate to other things you have read--that is, how does it fit in the historical literature?

Make out a summary sheet on the essay

External Links:

Guide to Essay Writing and Research

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Essay Reading Challenge - 2009

PoolMainInfo

2009-10-19T09:05:45+00:00

A Quick Guide to Winter Pool Maintenance

Swimming pools are very vulnerable to getting stained and damaged during winter, which is why it is very important that it is well maintained during this season. Here are some quick tips on how to do just that:

1. Drain the filter. If left wet, the water in it will freeze and compromise the integrity of the whole filter.

2. Lower the water level to just below the level of the return jets. These return jets are where the water is ejected from the filter back into the pool. We don’t want to get the filters we just worked so hard to dry up wet again. Seal the return jets and skimmer holes with winter plugs for extra protection.

3. Install the winter pool cover. All other pool maintenance efforts will be for nothing without the cover. It will be the pool’s overall protection. It keeps snow, dirt, tree branches; everything, out of the pool.

Do all of these successfully and you will be sure that your pool will be sure that your pool remains as pristine as before you covered it.

PapersForCollege

2009-08-19T05:02:39+00:00

How to Writea Term Paper

Introduction

Writing papers may well be the opportunity for you to learn more about the subject you are studying than any other aspect of a course. It is worth doing well. You not only learn more, you also think more deeply about a topic when you have to put words on paper. Finally good grades depend on good papers.

I. Collecting Information
II. Recording Information
III. Thinking About the Topic
IV. The Plan
V. Writing and Editing
VI. Finishing Touches

Other Links:

Term Paper Alternatives
Procedure for writing a term paper
Guide to Term Paper Writing

WritingState

2009-07-22T02:15:10+00:00

Guide to Writing Thesis Statements

Your thesis statement is the central argument of your essay. It must be concise and well-written.

Your thesis goes in the introductory paragraph. Don't hide it; make it clearly asserted at the beginning of your paper.

Your thesis must make an argument. It is the road map to the argument you will subsequently develop in your paper.

The key difference between an opinion statement and thesis statement is that a thesis conveys to the reader that the claim being offered has been thoroughly explored and is defendable by evidence. It answers the "what" question (what is the argument?) and it gives the reader a clue as to the "why" question (why is this argument the most persuasive?).

ResearchClass

2009-07-21T09:06:45+00:00

Suggestions for Assignments

It isn't necessary to assign a full-fledged research paper to give students experience with finding sources and putting them to use. This chart lays out some alternatives to the standard research paper as well as the concepts and the skills they address.

Interpretive Assignments

Letters or diaries: have students examine texts written by a figure discussed in class, generate questions from those primary sources, and prepare an annotated version of the text that answers or provides speculation on aspects of the text that are unclear. This could be a group project, with a set of letters or diary entries distributed among the class.

Synthesis Assignments

Have the class develop a collaborative lecture: rather than present material in lecture form, have students gather information and during class compile it. (Works best with topics that have a natural organizing principle such as chronology in order to process the information brought to class.)

Exploring Discourses

Have the class prepare an interview-either one to be actually carried out or one that they can't because the subject is long dead or otherwise unavailable. To generate useful questions they would have to become familiar with the person's life and work and understand its significance. They could either writeup results of a real interview or writetheir own imaginary responses based on available evidence.

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Calligraphy as a Basis for Letter Design

2009-01-31T21:58:42+00:00

by Tom Perkins

Category:Calligraphy

The purpose of this article is to provide a method of constructing letters which is rooted in calligraphic principles, and is suitable for a wide range of uses, e.g. signwriting, letter carving, other forms of letter engraving, type design, etc. By calligraphy or calligraphic I shall mean throughout the influence of the formal broad-nibbed pen. The problem with using calligraphic forms as a basis for letter design is the tendency for them sometimes to retain too strong a calligraphic image with the resulting associations 'of some pleasing archaeological reconstruction'¹, interesting in itself but with little relevance to contemporary needs. In contrast one need only instance the typography of Jan Tschichold or the type designs of Hermann Zapf to show that a thorough grounding in calligraphy, far from being an over- riding influence, can in fact make available a far wider range of options in the design and use of letterform.

Most contemporary lettering is a product of drawing and nearly all of the lettering around us will have originally been produced in this way. 'Today the pencil is the universal lettering tool'.²

Unfortunately, the pencil on its own provides us with no information as to how a letter is formed. Edward Johnston, writing in Formal Penmanship and commenting on 'the value and uses of the formal pen' states: 'The broad nib was the principal formative tool in the development of writing. From early stylus- made skeleton letters, it produced the conventional finished shapes and varieties which we now use (familiar to most of us mainly in print). The finished shape-and- structure of the common alphabet is, in fact, bound up with the shape and action of our pen'.³ This suggests, and suggests strongly, that a thorough working knowledge of these calligraphic prototypes would greatly enhance our appraisal of modern adaptations and give our own adaptations a greater authority.

It is not possible to consider a wide range of letterforms here so I have used only Roman capitals. 'Nearly every type of letter with which we are familiar is derived from the Roman Capitals'⁴ and these capitals form an excellent basis to demonstrate certain visual principles. These principles combined with a thorough understanding of freehand

Jovica Veljovic

2007-07-23T21:02:01+00:00

Category:Calligraphers
[TOC]

Biography

Jovica Veljovic received his Masters degree in Calligraphy and Lettering at the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He now lives in Germany and teaches type design and calligraphy at the Fachhochschüle Hamburg. His typefaces include Veljovic, Esprit and Gamma for the International Typeface Corporation and the multiple master typeface Ex Ponto for Adobe Systems, Inc. He has served as a consultant on type design for Apple Computer, Inc., Linotype-Hell AG and URW Software and Type. He received the Charles Peignot Award from ATypI in 1985 for excellence in calligraphy and type design.

Edward Johnston and Wood Engraving

2007-05-12T20:33:45+00:00

From an article by the late MICHAEL RENTON in the exhibition catalogue ‘Sharpness, Unity and Freedom’ (The Edward Johnston Foundation, Ditchling 1994)

Category:Wood Engraving
Category:Calligraphy

Edward Johnston’s achievement in renewing the art of the scribe and the understanding of letterform sprang from the quality of his mind – his quietly insistent logic, and devotion to first principles in everything from mathematics to making toast. This was not without other consequences. In its origins the technique of wood engraving owes everything to its association with the written and printed word. From humble beginnings it attained artistic respectability in the hands of Thomas Bewick (1753–1828), and helped to create an expanding market for illustrated literature. But in service to this and to commercial demands accelerated by the Industrial Revolution, it became itself an industry, and largely a reproductive rather than a creative skill. With the advent of photographic ‘process’ engraving in the 1880s it faced a crisis of identity. A few artists began to see more personal possibilities in the medium, but their approach was confused by its reproductive heritage and by an awe of the Renaissance woodcut, technically and otherwise a different animal.

Among Edward Johnston’s earliest students were, of course, Eric Gill and Noel Rooke. In Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering some Bewick engravings are reproduced, with a note by Rooke suggesting them as possible models for a student-illuminator.¹ Elsewhere in the book Johnston commends ‘The splendid effect of Title and Initial pages engraved in wood... seen in the books of the Kelmscott Press’. Though generally favouring ‘ordinary typography’ for ordinary purposes he says ‘If special forms or arrangements of letters are required, for which type is lacking or unsuited, they are best cut in wood or metal. The engraver leaves the mark of his tool and hand upon, and so gives character to, such lettering; while, if he has some knowledge of letters, he may give fresh beauty to their forms’.² In a lecture on 30th November 1906 he said ‘I commend wood engraving to you for its simplicity & its direct educational value... you will find the wood & the graver will teach you at once things about form that are new to you & wonderful’.³ This reflects the excitement of very recent discovery; his work diary for the same year and month records:

Nov 16 Fri. Bt. Wood Engraving matls.
17 Sat. My 1st Wood Engraving
18 Sun. 2nd Wood Engraving
3rd Wood Engraving
20. Tues. Gill abt. 9.pm till 2am (21st)
(trying engraving)
(EJ’s 4th wood-engraving)⁴
The latter entry matches one in Eric Gill’s diary for the same date: ‘Tried wood Engraving a little in evening’ – clearly the two sat down together that night (and characteristically into the small hours of the next morning) to share their adventure. Proofs of Johnston’s efforts survive – not masterpieces, but one is thoroughly Johnstonian in its humour. Noel Rooke had already made his own start. He had been drawing for illustration since 1900; but, dissatisfied with ‘the Zincograph Process’ which had ousted wood engraving from its purely reproductive role and ‘Inspired by the thought of Johnston’s calligraphy I started in 1905 to make wood engravings on the same basis’, i.e. Johnston’s definition of formal writing as ‘the characteristic product of a special tool’. ‘I concluded that wood-engraving offered the best means of book decoration and illustration for the future, but on condition that it was done from a new point of view. All the attempts to revive it had failed because they followed the error which had caused its destruction fifty years ago, i.e. making engraving a method of reproducing drawings, instead of making it the chance of creating designs which could not be brought into existence in any other way.’⁵ These were the principles on which wood engraving would be redeveloped in the twentieth century. Rooke was not quite alone in pursuing them – Edward Gordon Craig, Sydney Lee and one or two others were working independently on similar lines – but his claim that this was the start of a movement was essentially justified.

Johnston had been rubricating books by hand for the Doves Press, run by his Hammersmith neighbour T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. Soon both Rooke and Gill were engraving initial letters, headpieces and the like not only for the Doves Press but the German publishers Insel Verlag, through the agency of Count Harry Kessler, from Johnston’s originals. Though this was in fact reproductive engraving, both moved on quickly to work which was their own in all ways. Johnston himself engraved a Christmas card in 1913, but does not seem to have pursued the medium further after this – no doubt calligraphy as such, and teaching commitments, were proving a sufficient tax on his never-abundant energy. Gill’s engraving developed steadily into a major part of his output, especially after his and Johnston’s mutual friend Hilary Pepler had started the St Dominic’s Press at Ditchling. Though he never taught engraving formally Gill was always a powerful example, articulate in his view of the medium and encouraging to others. Noel Rooke was a tutor in book illustration at the Central School from 1905, but overcame unaccountable opposition to the teaching of wood engraving only in 1912. Two years later he became Head of Book Production, which no doubt restricted his own output but was a position from which he could exert unrivalled influence. The mark of his teachings can be seen in the work of many wood engravers who emerged over the next generation. One of the earliest and most energetic, Robert Gibbings, seems first to have mooted the idea of a group which would draw together the somewhat scattered activities of artists working in the medium. But the catalyst for its realisation was Philip Hagreen, self-taught as an engraver though his early work suggests Rooke’s influence. On the initiative of these two the Society of Wood Engravers was formed in 1920. Rooke and Gill being at once invited to membership. Hagreen’s encounter with Eric Gill transormed his artistic outlook – he worked at Ditchling Common then and much later, becoming among other things an engraver of lettering too little appreciated even now.

A further circle, as it were, was completed when Gibbings took over the Golden Cockerel Press in 1924, commissioning engravings (as well as a proprietary typeface) from Gill. The summit of their collaboration, the Four Gospels of 1931, is a supreme realisation of that ideal of ‘the Book Beautiful’ which had inspired Cobden-Sanderson, and Johnston’s association with him, years earlier. Around 1930 Johnston was working on typefaces, and Gill was engraving, for Count Kessler’s Cranach Press; both were involved in Kessler’s editions (German and English) of Hamlet with woodcuts by another pioneering figure, Gordon Craig. About this time, too, the young Reynolds Stone, fresh from Cambridge and the University Press (where Stanley Morison’s typographic authority ensured that Johnstonian principles were honoured) met Gill and was effectively launched on his own engraving career. He was to demonstrate further that, in Johnston’s words, the engraver with a knowledge of letters ‘may give fresh beauty to their forms’.

Reynolds Stone was also one of those who kept wood engraving in the public eye when the excitements of the ‘revival’ – actually of course an entirely new movement – cooled down. The principles enunciated by its founders had sometimes been carried to extremes but a body of original and vigorous work had been created. Noel Rooke taught at the Central School until 1947, being succeeded by another distinguished ex-pupil, John Farleigh, founder in the same year of the Crafts Centre of Great Britain. In a lecture shortly before his retirement Rooke foresaw the developments – changes in fashion and the uses of graphic media, in art education and printing technology – which would combine to make the future of wood engraving again problematical. Symptomatic and maybe symbolic was the decline of the Society of Wood Engravers, even to apparent extinction in the 1970s – and its rebirth in 1984 (it was good that one of its principal founders, Philip Hagreen, should have lived long enough to receive the news of this). Continuity has been maintained, new talents continue to come forward and the spirit of exploration is alive and well. In this renewed vitality there is still a fundamental debt to the perceptions of Edward Johnston and those he inspired a hundred years ago.

FOOTNOTES
1 Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering, pp 189-193.
2 Ibid, pp 328-330.
3 Lessons in Formal Writing, ed. Heather Child and Justin Howes, 1986, pp 96-7.
4 Edward Johnston’s Work Diary, held at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey.
5 Quoted in ‘Noel Rooke: the early years’ by Justin Howes, Matrix 3, 1983.

Illuminating: Edward Johnston and his Legacy

2007-05-10T08:54:53+00:00

by Timothy Noad

Category:Calligraphy
Category:Illumination

In 1899, Edward Johnston was encouraged to start a class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts by WR Lethaby. His subject was to be ‘Illuminating.’ At that time the crafts of calligraphy and illumination were almost inseparable. The characteristically British tradition of presenting illuminated addresses, patents, charters and other documents had continued unabated since the Middle Ages, preserving many of the techniques of formal writing on vellum, gilding and decoration, and often incorporating heraldry. Johnston was to play a major part in the refining and invigoration of this tradition, particularly through the publication of Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering in 1906, and his impact on illumination is still apparent a century later.

Johnston would have been well aware of the Victorian enthusiasm for illuminated manuscripts of the Gothic era, reproduced and pastiched in works ranging from the antiquarian to the popular. William Morris advocated a more original approach than his contemporaries, emulating the illuminators of the past by analysis of their tools, materials and craft processes, rather than by slavish imitation. Johnston’s own early attempts at illumination are clearly inspired by the work of Morris, in which scrolling plants and flowers encapsulate the text, and he wrote: ‘Morris, who was a writer and illuminator before he was a painter, has shown us how beautiful modern illuminated writing can be and how in every case the method is to be sought in the old work and inspiration is to be found in nature’.¹

In Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering, Johnston treats the former two subjects together in the first half of the book. He describes the application of decoration to simple lettering, progressing from coloured initials and pen-made patterns to raised gilding and more elaborate initials and borders. Three different types of illumination are distinguished: Barbaric, or geometric and abstract patterns, inspired by Romanesque and Renaissance work, Filigree or pen-made scrollwork, decorated with tiny gold leaves, and Natural or Limners’ work, using plant and animal designs inspired by nature. Like Morris he cautions against imitating medieval designs: …‘our own work is only honest when made in our own humour, time, and place…I have little doubt that an excellent modern style of illumination is quite feasible, in which the greatest possible richness of colour effect is achieved with extreme simplicity of form’.² Johnston gives methodical and practical advice on mixing gesso and applying gold leaf, much of it still relevant today, and even includes a troubleshooting guide for diagnosing why the gold won’t stick! Whilst the body of his text focuses on the decoration of manuscriptbooks, he also gives an appendix covering illuminated addresses, with guidance for their wording, layout, decoration and the order of work.
An additional appendix, ‘On Gilding’, was supplied by Johnston’s pupil and associate Graily Hewitt. Hewitt was largely responsible for reformulating the recipe for gesso (which he calls ‘the asiso’), based on the fifteenth-century writings of Cennino Cennini. Highly skilled in gilding, he devised a style of illumination based upon Italian Renaissance ‘white vine,’ in which the initials are surrounded by a dense pattern of outlined flowers and foliage, set against richly coloured backgrounds. Among his followers were Ida Henstock, Madelyn Walker and Dorothy Hutton. Of Johnston’s own pupils, Louise Powell was significant as an illuminator, completing some of Morris’s manuscriptbooks and working in the Arts and Crafts idiom well into the mid-twentieth century. The conservative craft of illumination remained almost untouched by trends in contemporary art until comparatively recently.

The Society of Scribes and Illuminators was founded by Graily Hewitt and other pupils of Johnston in 1921 and working groups were formed to investigate subjects such as gilding, the use of vellum, and heraldry in illuminated manuscripts. The Society continues to provide a forum for the exchange of technical information and the sharing of members’ work. Among present-day practitioners, Sam Somerville has made a particular contribution to the investigation of the technical aspects of gilding.

In 1931, an exhibition was mounted by the SSI, ‘Three Centuries of Illuminated Addresses, Diplomas and Honorary Freedom Scrolls’. As a result of two World Wars, many memorial books and rolls of honour were also written out and illuminated by distinguished scribes. The Royal Air Force Book of Remembrance at St Clement Danes in London (1962–4) runs to eleven volumes and was worked on by a total of thirteen scribes, directed by Alfred Fairbank. Another pupil of Johnston, Irene Wellington, carried out the Wykehamist Roll of Honour for Winchester College in 1948. Its title page cleverly draws upon the style and techniques of the Anglo-Saxon Winchester school of illumination, characteristically tempered with an almost light-hearted originality.³

In the generation which followed, comprising many of the senior scribes and illuminators of today, calligraphy developed as an art form in its own right, less utilitarian, and often independent of any decoration at all. On the other hand, the techniques of illumination have been used to create images unrelated to traditional initials and borders. For example, in the highly personal work of Ann Hechle⁴, a pupil of Irene Wellington, gilded and painted geometric motifs are often scattered amongst the complex layers of textual imagery. Her fellow pupil, Donald Jackson, has become pre-eminent in the world of illumination today, combining a respect for the techniques and materials of the past with an experimental and painterly approach. The St John’s Bible has returned illumination to its medieval roots in the decoration of sacred texts but, in line with Johnston’s precepts, it is no pastiche and the words are the starting point for the decoration.⁵ The illuminations also follow the Johnstonian progression from coloured initials to patterned borders and figurative illustrations. Donald Jackson’s techniques combine traditional craft skills with cutting-edge technology. The page layouts, pictorial images and patterns are often designed using a computer but the work is executed on calfskin vellum, using quills, gesso and powdered gold and an eclectic mix of inks, paints and pigments. With a confidence and freedom not normally associated with the work of an illuminator, Donald Jackson applies layers of paint and gesso with a brush or roller then adds further detail with quills, fine brushes or rubber stamps. He has assembled a team of craftsmen to work with him on the Bible, among whom are illuminators Sally Mae Joseph, Hazel Dolby and from the USA, Thomas Ingmire and Suzanne Moore.The decoration of conventional texts can vary enormously. Sheila Waters’s manuscriptof Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood’ (completed 1978), combines elements of Celtic illumination with folk art, its intricate patterns and colouring appropriate to the language of the play.⁶ Marie Angel’s ‘The Caterpillar’ (1979) illuminates a text by Christina Rossetti, contrasting plain Roman capitals with plants and insects painted in a highly naturalistic miniaturist’s technique.⁷

The traditional work of the illuminator continues apace in presentation scrolls and ceremonial books. Joan Pilsbury, a pupil of Irene Wellington, has distinguished herself in this field, combining consistent writing with rich heraldry and subtle floral decorations in opaque colours, combining to create a calmly balanced effect on the page. An example is the Royal National Lifeboat Institute Memorial Book (completed 1974), produced in collaboration with Wendy Westover, Heather Child,Wendy Gould and Margaret Alexander.⁸ Joan Pilsbury has also made an inventive contribution to the illumination of Letters Patent for the Crown Office over many years.⁹
The initial ‘E’ for Elizabeth II is traditionally executed in raised gold and the decoration incorporates the shield and other portions of the Royal Arms. Donald Jackson uses these elements very differently, adding vigorous quill-made flourishes around the initial to give a contemporary feel. Anthony Wood, by contrast, works in a medieval-inspired heraldic idiom, and must be acknowledged for imparting the traditional skills of calligraphy, heraldry and illumination at Reigate School of Art between 1965 and 1987.¹⁰ At the College of Arms there has traditionally been a division of work between the heraldic artist and the scrivener, which in my own work I have endeavoured to reconcile in order to give a visual unity to Letters Patent granting Arms.¹¹ As Denis Brown has shown, it is possible to give an exciting modern flavour to a documentusing the traditional elements of text, initial and illumination. In The Founding of Trinity College, Dublin (2002), he contrasts a boldly coloured and gilded heading with intricate italic flourishes, incorporating medieval and Celtic features into his personal style.¹²

The rich tradition of illuminating covers a wide spectrum of styles and techniques and features in the work of many calligraphers who it has not been possible to mention here. Following Edward Johnston’s advice and example, its greatest practitioners have used traditional skills and ideas from the past to shape their own work, reinventing it and making it relevant for their own times. The constraints of a commission within a prescribed format may be regarded as a challenge rather than a straightjacket. As Johnston wrote a century ago: ‘There is a fairly steady demand for Illuminated Addresses; but the independent craftsman would have to establish himself by useful practice, and by seizing opportunities, and by doing his work well’.¹³

Footnotes

1 Quoted by Donald Jackson in More Than Fine Writing, pp. 30-1
2 Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering, pp.196-7
3 Illustrated in More Than Fine Writing, p.98
4 p.80
5 pp.35/9
6 Commissioned by Edward Homby, illustrated in Painting for Calligraphers, p.34
7 V and A Collection, illustrated in Painting for Calligraphers, p.37
8 Illustrated here and in Painting for Calligraphers, p.99
9 p62
10 The course continued to run in an amended form until its regretful closure in 2006.
11 p47
12 p34
13 Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering, p.xxi

Bibliography

Marie Angel Painting for Calligraphers London, 1984
Christopher Calderhead Illuminating the Word; the Making of the Saint John’s Bible Collegeville, 2005
H.Child, H.Collins, A.Hechle & D.Jackson More Than Fine Writing; Irene Wellington: Calligrapher (1904-1984) London, 1986
Heather Child Calligraphy Today; Twentieth Century Tradition & Practice London, 1988
Edward Johnston Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering London, 1929 (sixteenth edition)
Joyce Irene Whalley The Art of Calligraphy; Western Europe and America London, 1980

External Links

The Edward Johnston Foundation
The Society of Scribes and Illuminators