Floral alphabet. Dip pen and ink.

With dip pen and Windsor and Newton ink I have been drawing floral alphabet letters.

It's lovely drawing with a dip pen, impossible to go fast, and the lines are wonderfully uneven and not remotely uniform.

I am working my way through the alphabet.

I've had success selling alphabet cards, but until now have been drawing and selling originals. Not very time efficient! So an investment in laser printer has made the process much simpler. I am taking my time to create one letter I really like, and then printing it directly onto a card.

  I hand colour the tiny hearts on the letters after printing, so they could be changed to gold, pink, purple or a rainbow of colours, not just red.

I am happily heading towards Z, and putting the floral letter cards onto my Etsy shop as they are finished and printed.  http://etsy.me/1eCltUZ

Found Alphabet, number 7. The letter Z.

Here is the letter Z, formed from a piece of electric fence tape lying on the path to the turnout fields at the stable yard.  

  

You can see how dry the ground is, even after the recent torrential rain. 

The photo, taken with my phone, doesn't do justice to the wonderful colour of the Herefordshire soil.

Electric fencing is a very effective way to make temporary fields for horses to graze. And as I discovered yesterday, the shock delivered from the battery powered fence isn't enough to hurt, but enough to put you off touching it!

 

 

Found Alphabet. No 6. The letter F

Slowly my found alphabet is finding me.

Here is the letter F.  A piece of straw lying on the yard as I was sweeping this morning. I very nearly swept it up without noticing.

Only another 20 letters to go.

found alphabet number 5. The letter Y

Here is a rather good capital letter Y

It's the stem of Old Man's Beard, the wild clematis.

Number 5 in my quest for a complete found alphabet!

Forwards and onwards.

found ampersand number 1

Opening the car door in the car park this morning I saw a rather lovely ampersand on the ground.

I have decided to make it number one number one in a new series of found ampersands. I fear it may be a while before I find another.

Found Alphabet No 4 - the letter V

The fourth in my Found Alphabet series, a rather slim and understated forked twig, graceful on the pavement.

I found the first one, the letter A, on March 29th 2012.  This is a slow process.

Upper or lower case, I don't mind. My rule is that I cannot in any way touch or alter the letters, they have to be complete when my eyes first alight upon them.

With A, H, T, and now V under my belt, the search continues. 

haiku. alphabet trees

alphabet trees

seed, sapling and tree -
every season, stories grow
letter by letter

 There is something magical about wooden type.

And how it prints.

Letterpress. Letters. Love.

I have been sorting through a container of large metal letterpress letters, arranging them on a slate table mat.


I love the edible and textured look of them in the low light.

There isn't a full alphabet, but quite a number of letters with an upper and lower case.

Found Alphabet. Number 3. The Letter H

Here is a magnificent capital H, photographed at the stable yard this morning. It's formed from the dried mud that has fallen out of the deep pattern on the sole of a wellington boot.

I often see little mud grids and shapes like this, but never before a letter. Fantastic.

Found Alphabet. Number Two. The letter T

Here is a very beautiful letter T, the second letter I have discovered for my Found Alphabet.
The first letter, A, I posted on 20.3.12.
This Found Alphabet project is going to take some time!

This letter discovered on the beach at Ferryside, West Wales.

A Found Alphabet. Number One. The Letter A.

I was riding along the edge of a field,  the grass full of sticks thrown onto the grass from the hedgecutter.

I spotted this letter A, and decided to make a found alphabet.


I wonder when and where I will see the letter B.




                                                                 
My horse has got used to stopping while I take photos with my phone, look at wild flowers, and try to identify wild birds.