Saturday - the last day.

Saturday, and feeling a little blue, will miss this.

The usual morning routine but this time I also packed and took stuff to the car - thought I'd remembered everything but of course, forgot the few things I had in the small fridge in studio 2 where I've been chilling' and blogging in the evenings. Ah well, never mind.

Up the hill and straight into .... oops, forgot my glasses!
Back down the hill, drove up, and then straight into cutting, finished that 'B' of mine. I feel a sense of accomplishment because it's looking ok and I can also see where to improve which makes me realise how much I've achieved.

Here it is in all its glory. Difficult to tell the size from the photo but it is in fact 10cm high.

Moving on - now to do an 'E'.

Thins first and watching the angle

Excitement is the sentiment at the moment and more confidence as I scratch and chop away the sandstone.  Robbie remembered that he'd offered a chance to cut letters into limestone as there are a few pieces here. I jumped at the chance, Lara too.

Quite a different stone altogether. The noise when cutting is like porcelain in a strange way, and a  metallic type of sound. It is a lot softer so having to take much more care.

nearly finished

Talking about taking care - I broke through on the inner apex of the 'A'. After that I made doubly sure I cut straight and chased thoroughly so it wasn't as obvious. (it worked)

Had to have a flourish to end the cutting for the week. Enjoyed it a lot.

LUNCH!

Food great!

During the morning, the guys upstairs drawing had had a chat and thought it was a good idea to get Robbie a little thank you in liquid form. Tim went off to do that. 

After lunch, the usual chat was had and then a wee presentation of the malt. Tim had also had a great idea of buying 8 erasers,  which we all put our names on, something to remember us by. Plus there is a lot of rubbing out.

Robbie was tickled with the erasers and chuffed with the whisky.

Back up the hill one last time.

Decided to spend the last of my time drawing out the words I want on the other side of the stone.

No tracing the letters to make it easier to learn the spacing, all my own work apart from I had Robbie's sheet of letters to consult.

Gail, David and another lady from Cromarty Arts Trust came up to see how we were getting on,

and.....

We got a certificate!

There was also fizzy or orange juice - most of us were driving so juice it was.

Photos were taken, wee speeches and then it was all over.

Before leaving I got the stone in the car.

Things like this always end strangely, everyone disappearing off back home and knowing that there will be no letter cutting tomorrow. ( got to get my act into gear and sort out an easel for the stone )

Feeling quite sad as I drove off. Will definitely be back to Cromarty though.

Got that Friday feeling!

Yup, we've made it through 4 days and still eager for more. The great company is a good part of that.

No 7am squeak this morning so woke at 7.37 according to my phone.

Fuzzy head and a slow start. A wee bit yoga, a wee bit writing then breakfast. Silly chat, smiles .... and alls well.

Everyone a little tired today. I took my computer to the Stables and showed some of my work - always feels odd to present it even though when others do I'm really interested. Maybe it's that imposter feeling again.

Back to drawing  and kerning today, finished the 'ON' of Morison and moved onto Siobhan. It takes so long to kicker around with the letters - if it's wrong, as Jo says, you can feel it in your gut - an instinctual feeling.

It's peculiar how both parts of my name have 7 letters but they take up different spacing. Which is why, we were told, there is no formula for setting out the letters.

Anyway, my words were perused by Robbie and passed as 'not bad'. High Praise!

Moving onto the big 'B'. 

Scaling up - never spent so much time on one letter - tiny little adjustments and I thought it was ok, then Robbie makes more minor modifications and the area just falls into place -  a wee sparkle of rightness. (correctness - ish) - because of course tomorrow or next week it could changed and still be right.

Ah! uncertainty, but going with the feeling. Control, finess and also emotional content.

Lunch.

OMG - did I eat too much or what! Didn't see a pudding put out so ate what I wanted (well more than I wanted because it was delicious) then out Gail came with the pudding - with hot custard and cream.

Felt obliged, in fact it would have been churlish not to, but boy did I feel tired all afternoon. Fabulous food but I think I need to starve myself for a week.

Stones swopped and finished off my 'C' from yesterday. Then as some of the others had done, I turned the stone upside down so that I could cut more easily.

(am keeping the other side for when I get home)

'B' carbon traced on then I felt really nervous - procrastination set in a little. Wee walk outside to photograph the Stable and Urquhart the Unicorn - as well as the sheep that had escaped from a field a few days ago and have been wandering up and down the road eating grass and becoming less nervous of us lot.

- Finally, bit the bullet - in for the scratch!......

Then nervous again - not sure why the big letter makes me so nervous.

first chop

Went for it and chopped left and right, round the curve - even had to use the big chisel - the width of the chisel has to be slightly wider than the line being cut.

round the curve

scratch

chop

chase

Kept at it until we had a short break, a wee talk, with slides, about the history of lettering. From pre-cuneiform, cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek, Roman and to the Trajan lettering.

Either the chairs were uncomfortable or I was still too full from lunch. The talk was really interesting and makes me want to research more about it.

Back to cutting. 5.15pm, left late and most of the others still behind.

Computer/ photos/ writing /shower, then we left for the Royal Hotel where Innes had booked us a table. A wee saunter down the street, dropped in to pick up Alan on the way and then to the pub. Jo already there.

What a fabulously, enjoyable, funny, silly evening! Life is good.

As a joke, Robbie had said he wanted 500 words on the lettering of The Royal Hotel sign.

On leaving, and before our stroll back up the road, we tore apart the sign. Kerning all over the place and the serifs were too modern.

Hadn't realised how much we had learnt - Happy days.