I was given a backlog assignment for a dear friend, Katherine Stanhope.  I wanted to do something spectacular and even asked if she had a preference.  She didn't, so away I went with a riff on the Black hours manuscripts.  I used arches black 80 pound paper.

Research information:

You can find references here.

I used mosaic gold, silver windsor newton goauche, windsor newton ultramarine mixed with windsor newton permanent white.   For the calligraphy, I brushed the silver windsor newton goauche onto a calligraphy pen.

And now the pictures.

Layout, Penciled in design, words in silver goauche.

I laid down the augmented arms first and then laid down the mosaic gold.  Finally the blue was added as the background.

Finished product.  Background in ultramarine, tiny circles in silver and the initial T in silver.

I have a dear friend who lost his beloved cat.  He asked me if I would be willing to make a piece of artwork with the inked paw print from the vets.   He asked me to do it with Italian white vine work in mind, so off I went.

Things I learned - you can never count on the paper that the vet uses.  I discovered that the paper that the paw print was on was waxed.  How I discovered this - blech.  Fortunately Bob gave me two paw prints, so when I put a pencil line down to write the name of the cat, Monty, and then tried to erase the pencil marks and got ugly marks, I had a second paw print to work with. 

I also thought outside of the box with this one, by framing the paw with mats, one black for the interior, then red for the exterior, that gave me more surface to put art work on.  I can't take total credit for this, my beloved gave me the suggestion and I ran with it.

Now for the pictures.

Final finished piece.  I framed it for Bob.