These were my last A Letter A Week 2014 letters for the challenge co-ordinated by Fiona Dempster. I am well overdue with my next set. The versals (drawn with pencil) were again a challenge but I think that they have turned out OK.
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It is past the time when I should have my ALAW contribution published on the A Letter A Week 2014 Blog. I was hoping that this year I would make a start on time but unfortunately that didn't happen. Despite that I'm sure that I will have as much fun contributing to and reading about the ALAW blog as I did last year. But now that I have started, I am continuing my love affair with leaf mono prints. I have used them for large and small calligraphic works including illuminated letters. I have also used them for the covers of hand bound books and for greetings cards. Now I have incorporated them into my contribution to ALAW. The only problem I had was in photographing the letters. The graphite keep turning to a sliver in the photo. The letters (with thanks to the expert tutoring of Gemma Black at a workshop many months ago) are hand drawn versals using graphite pencil. The excitement of it all! Bound and Lettered Vol. 11 No. 2 features an article on the exhibition Fiona Dempster coordinated and curated last year. The exhibition was called 'A Letter a Week - Artistic journey Through the Alphabet'. I was lucky enough to have my 'Book of Letters' chosen as one of the images to support the article. Many thanks to Fiona and to Anastasia Karyofillidis who took all the lovely photos used throughout the article.  Book of Letters I have completed my ALAW letters all in a rush. It was a case of do it now or who knows when I would get to it. It's this crazy time of year where catching up with family and friends, making cards to keep in touch with the family and friends in other parts of Australia and the world, takes precedence. It is such a lovely time of year, one that gives me permission to think about people and think of the memories of previous years. I love it! I have enjoyed being part of ALAW again this year and I am looking forward to being part of the challenge next year. Special thanks to Fiona for organising the very successful ALAW exhibition.  How exciting to be part of an exhibition in Queensland! For more information Fiona Dempster has details on her blogspot . This is the first time I have been part of an exhibition outside of Canberra. It is just lovely to be included in this six week exhibition that includes 29 artists from 6 countries. Fiona has worked so hard to get all these exhibits photographed, packaged and labelled. I do hope that it goes well. My two pieces are a 'Book of Letters' and 'Letters in the Round'.   My second alphabet for the ALAW blog started well! Hopefully this will continue but life has a way of getting involved and messing with my plans. I have thought of several different ideas for the final presentation. None of the ideas are exactly what I want. Still I have a little bit of time yet. If you haven't had a look at this blog it is a fun blog to follow with many talented people contributing to it. http://aletteraweek2013.blogspot.com.au/ This is the idea I had from the beginning and I am pleased that I was able to achieve something close to what I had envisaged. Again it is with the thought of the origami crane being a symbol of peace through the inspiring story of Sadako Sasaki. In Hiroshima Peace Park there is a statue of Sadako holding a crane with the inscription: 'This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world.' Have a look at the A Letter A Week blog for this and many more interesting pieces. 
I have also incorporated one of Sadako's quotes in my presentation. As usual I have really enjoyed the challenge that ALAW presents to me. 
 No spare piece of paper is safe from being turned into a crane!
I have had some lovely responses including the owner of the local Chinese restaurant who while watching me make cranes from the discarded chopstick wrapper asked me what I was doing. I said making cranes for good wishes. By this time I had made seven. She asked if I could make one more as her lucky number is the number 8. When I had finished it she scooped them all up and very gently cupping them in her hand took them away to display on the counter. It was a lovely interlude. However, now finally two achievements. First is that I have folded OVER 1,000 cranes and now comes the reward of a wish. In keeping with the ALAW 2013 challenge I am making the huge wish for peace. Peace in our daily lives as well as the beginning of peace for the world. Secondly I have completed the letters for my project. Now to start work on the presentation. Should be great fun. Just published my contribution to A Letter A Week blog. I had fallen behind but I am now up to date! Amazing. The theme is Peace and I found the challenge quite hard but very appealing. My granddaughter folding some origami paper cranes reminded me of the Japanese legend. The traditional Japanese crane is a symbol of peace. So I have decided to use origami cranes as part of my final piece. I started out with red cranes but realised that perhaps red is not quite the colour of peace. Progressed then to blue and finally have decided on a recycled first aid book from my trainee nursing days. Here is the start. 
Some more letters.
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