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Friday, April 9, 2004
Neuland Plus: Three Alphabets in an Evening
Guest Lecturer, Carrie Imai

Ooooooohhhhhh, AAAAAAhhhhhhhh. If you've never studied with Carrie Imai, you were in for a treat at our April Meeting. I myself hadn't taken a class with her and was so glad to have the opportunity.

First she presented a slide show overview of Neuland, its applications and modification. This alphabet, based on Rudolf Koch’s designed typeface, can be a wonderful addition to our calligraphic repertoire. Then we got down to it in a mini workshop for about an hour and a half. We got a crash course in straight and more curved Neuland, as well as Cuneiform, a hand based on the marks made by pressing tools into clay.

Carrie gave us some valuable tips about preparing an automatic pen for writing. (These pens were recommended for Neuland and the Cuneiform hands.) She rubs gum arabic on the inside of the automatic pen and rubs toothpaste on the outside. This helps the ink to adhere to the pen better by taking the grease off. Carrie said she does this each time she writes. We used only water-based ink this evening.

Carrie Imai, always smiling!

Carrie’s example of Cuneiform

Carrie provided a packet of examples as well as her contagious enthusiasm.

After going over Neuland and Cuneiform, we got into the "supplies" she brought for us. We got to try our newly learned hands with a tool that holds little pieces of cedar, birch, and balsa wood. It's a foam brush with the foam taken off, and the staple & plastic removed. We inserted cedar chips (dollhouse roof tiles) in the handles of the brushes Other inserts provided were pieces of birch and even some balsa wood. We also got a cosmetic sponge to use (write with the thicker end, the tapered end is too flimsy) and a rectangular piece of regular household sponge that made great texture once you got just the right amount of ink on it (not too wet and not too dry). We used the end of the sponge (cut long enough to hold, but only about 3/8" square). We tried “sponging” Neuland, and then outlining it with a pen. The effect was very appealing.

Eva-Lynn Diesenhaus

I found the time just flew by. Carrie is very personable. She brought lots of examples to look at. She's the type of person you can talk to easily and feel like you've known her all your life. Hopefully we can get her down for a workshop in the next year. Many of us were enamored of her Bone alphabet and expressed the hope that she could come back and teach a workshop.

NOTES ON NEULAND:

Height:  Little bigger than 3 pen widths high.4 basic strokes: vertical, horizontal, \\\, /// done at 0 degrees pen angle and 90 degrees pen angle.Most strokes are done at 0 degrees. The trick is to keep the pen completely horizontal when writing at degree letters so you don’t leave any spaces when you hit the line.)The golden mean of this alphabet is a tall rectangle. This is a PACKED alphabet with not a lot of white space within the words, between the words, or between the lines.

Reported by Mary Kloha

Carole Johnson

Louise Ganus

(Right) Susan Stern

(For more examples, CLICK HERE)

By Trish

Carrie’s example of writing Neuland with a stimudent tool.

Two more irresistible letterforms by Carrie

Carrie’s example: Using a cosmetic sponge