CLAS MEMBERS ACTIVITIES

The Society has a very broad programme of supportive activities and events and is continually taking new initiatives to meet the needs of calligraphers and letterers.

CLAS diary

CLAS Study Day, Saturday, 17th May 2008 in Cambridge (fully booked) *
CLAS Regional Day, Sunday, 28th September 2008 in Great Bookham, Surrey (fully booked) *

* Further details of these events from

Exhibition

Living Letters Two celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society. The exhibition featured over 100 lettered artworks and started in London in November 2004 at the prestigious Prince of Wales Foundation before touring to four other venues in 2005. All the exhibits in the exhibition were newly created and showed calligraphy and the lettering arts at the beginning of the twenty-first century. All were exciting and included not only pen-made letters but lettering on wood, into stone, computer-generated artworks, works captured on camera, lettering on ceramics and also on fabric.

(Click to see images)

Living Letters Two Exhibition Book
Accompanying the exhibition was the Living Letters Exhibition - it is so much more than a catalogue. In full colour throughout and featuring all the exhibits, it also includes six essays by some of the most prominent letterers working in the world today. Within its 160 pages there is a 40-page selection of these essays which has been made possible by a generous donation by the Manuscript Pen Co.

Patricia Lovett writes the forward and goes on to consider The History of Writing, with many manuscript examples; Ewan Clayton focuses on Calligraphy and Lettering in the UK today; Tom Perkins looks at Letter Carving in Britain and Northern Europe; Jean Larcher gives a critique of Lettering and Calligraphy in France during the twentieth century and the challenges now; Julian Waters writes about Lettering and Calligraphy in the USA; Gemma Black gives details of Calligraphy in Australia and New Zealand.

This is a limited edition and will not be reprinted. It has been glued and sewn to strengthen it. Details are included on our sales page.

Magazine

CLAS publishes its magazine "The Edge" regularly (ISSN 1358-6688). It is free to members. In addition it is requested by many libraries around the world. It covers a broad span of interest from hints and tips or "how-to" articles through to critical reviews of important new work by leading practitioners. In addition it gives full coverage of "what's-on-where" for courses, exhibitions and other events.

Courses for Students

CLAS provides a variety of courses for members utilising the best teachers and at very economic prices.

i2a courses (Intermediate to Advanced). Special tuition and support for

1. those who have gained the Intermediate diploma of the National Diploma in Calligraphy and wish to work towards the Advanced diploma
2. those already at Intermediate level who wish to develop their skills,
3. those who wish to work for Fellowship.

Qualifications

Certificate Scheme A special certificate for those students who are just beginning and feel they lack the confidence to tackle the Foundation level of the Diploma scheme. The various hands may be tackled one at a time. Each submission is reviewed by an accredited teacher and a helpful comments sheet is provided with the certificate. There is no failure mark.

National Diploma in Calligraphy CLAS operates an annual examination and award of a Diploma in three progressive levels, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. This is open to anyone in the world to enter who will submit work based on the Roman Alphabet. There is a general information handbook available free on request (see Contact details).

Calligraphy Tutor Accreditation Geared particularly towards the quality assurance needs of students in the UK, CLAS has established an accreditation scheme for teachers who demonstrate suitable competence.

Fellowship Scheme This level recognises the highest levels of competence.

See also information on the CLAS Ladder of Progress

Support for Calligraphy Teachers

CLAS is making a gradually increasing range of tutorial aids available for teachers. Currently there are sets of 35mm mounted slides of Diploma submissions from previous years accompanied by helpful notes. There are also authoritative historical 35mm transparency sets which can be used for a variety of teaching purposes.

Festival of Calligraphy 2008  (read more)

The 2008 Festival of Calligraphy will be held at Warwickshire College in Warwick on 22nd - 28th August 2008.

For more information on the Festival of Calligraphy e-mail

Special Interest Groups

Three Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have been formed, one for Copperplate enthusiasts and another for those interested in Palaeography - A to Z and the third for those interested in making little books. For details please contact

Copperplate SIG, Joy Daniels
Palaeography SIG, Patricia Lovett
Little Book Makers SIG, Viva Lloyd , www.littlebookmakers.com

CLAS Bookswap

The first CLAS Bookswap was run in 2000 with 18 calligraphers in the UK participating. Illustrations of the books produced for the swap are shown here.

Future bookswaps are being run through the Little Book Makers SIG (see above).