A complete, stroke-by-stroke guide to producing Celtic calligraphy. Learn how to create each leter of the alphabet in the age-old Celtic manner. Crystal clear instructions also cover pens, inks, work surface, paper and lines, how to hold the pen and more. 38 full-page plates plus 8 illustrations.

In an age of myriad computer fonts and instant communication, your handwriting style is increasingly a very personal creation. In this book, Margaret Shepherd, America's premier calligrapher, shows you that calligraphy is not simply a craft you can learn, but an elegant art form that you can make your own. Calligraphy remains perennially popular, often adorning wedding invitations, diplomas, and commercial signs. Whether it is Roman, Gothic, Celtic, Bookhand, or Italic style, calligraphy conveys class and elegance. Margaret Shepherd makes this ancient art form accessible in a completely hand-lettered technical guide that will: * Provide context for calligraphy as an art, exploring the rich tradition of hand-lettering and mapping the evolution of the most popular styles. * Give detailed technical advice on choosing pens, paper, and inks, setting up your workspace, mastering various pen angles, along with step-by-step illustrations to guide you as you practice. * Explain which alphabets are appropriate for different forms of writing. For example, the Roman alphabet works well for short, unpunctuated passages, while the Italic alphabet is more suited to informal everyday communication. * Encourage you to personalize your lettering by using variant strokes and interpreting how you would like the words to look on the page. * Inspire you with carefully chosen illustrations and examples, which bring letters to life. In Margaret Shepherd's own words, "Calligraphy trains not only your eye and hand, but your mind as well." Learn Calligraphy is the authoritative primer for this age-old craft, and will help develop a new appreciation for lettering as you discover your creative personality.

This invaluable book offers a rich source of design, with lettering, patterns and colours that will delight beginners and more experienced calligraphers.

Even the most elaborate Celtic pattern boils down to a few basic motifs (including spirals, swastikas, circles, "s" curves, knots, tau crosses, sun signs, etc.). This lavishly illustrated handbook of over 600 designs offers a key to the intricacies of Celtic decoration, showing how the judicious use of these simple symbols, motifs, or ideographs can be used to develop newer and more ambitious patterns to meet the requirements of modern decorative art. Over 600 black-and-white illus.

A sea kayak battles the freezing Irish waters as the morning sun rises out of the countryside. On the western horizon is the pinnacle of Skellig Michael-700 feet of vertical rock rising out of exploding seas. Somewhere on the isolated island are sixth-century monastic ruins where the light of civilization was kept burning during the Dark Ages by early Christian Irish monks. Puffins surface a few yards from the boat, as hundreds of gannets wheel overhead on six foot wing spans. The ocean rises violently and tosses paddler and boat as if they were discarded flotsam. This is just one day of Chris Duff's incredible three month journey.