Lay Members’ Day 2012

We would like to thank everyone who came to Lay Members’ Day 2012 and the surprise gift on arrival of the catalogue for the Society's 1996 exhibition ‘Celebration of Calligraphy’. We hope that you are inspired by the incredible pieces in the collection and that you put pen to paper for 2013 – it may seem a long way off but it will come around again quickly enough!

We owe our thanks to so many people who made the day a great success. The Birmingham Calligraphy society and Cinque Port Scribes came down to show their wonderful work, and both societies have certainly been keeping busy. With so much on display it was a real treat.

The demonstrations this year were equally inspiring, Veiko Kespersaks showing his quill cutting techiniques which fascinated beginners and experts alike. Rosella Garavaglia demonstrated brush lettering and mixing of colours to create some really effective results. Carol Stables also demonstrated gilding, which included demonstating gold leaf and gold transfer leaf, using a number of different fixatives from gesso to gum ammoniac.

The group display this year with 'The Weather' showed so many different pieces – it was truly wonderful to see how many inventive ideas there were, and next year we hope to inspire you with something equally creative.

The Group 23 ATS students this year were displaying their various work, and the different mediums used showed a real range of technical skill and excellence.

Again, people came a very long distance to enjoy the da, and we would like to thank everyone who came from far and wide – the day is not the same without you, so thank you.

Sally Mae Joseph gave an excellent commentary on the exhibition, giving helpful and constructive advice on the pieces, which was followed by praise for her helpful suggestions.

The Daubney lecture was given this year by Ewan Clayton, and he gave an excellent talk entitled From Painted Letters to Pixels: Fresh Light on Calligraphic History. Ewan Clayton is in the middle of a three year project to write a new history of writing and he was able to share some of the joys and difficulties associated with the project.

Again there were three prizes to be won this year, and this year they were won by (in no particular order) Olivia Branston, Jane Knights, and Simon Daniels. Congratulations to those three contributors and we hope you enjoyed seeing the hard work that they all put in.

Sharon Shaw steps down this year from the committee and is replaced by Lynda Jordan. We would like to thank Sharon for her help over the last few years in organising the stallholders and plans, amongst many other jobs. We welcome Lynda to the team and we know that she will do an excellent job.

Once again, thank you to everyone for your support to make the day the success that it is – it is a success because of you, and we hope to see you again in 2013.

The LMD Team