The Calligraphers’ Guild holds workshops on a regular basis with members presenting workshops on their particular talent, but also workshops are presented by other local, interstate or overseas calligraphers . Subjects are on calligraphy or related to calligraphy. The workshops are suitable for both beginners and more advanced calligraphers.
Saturday 28th March 2026 – Following the AGM meeting, Natalia Achino presented a workshop on writing on water colour back grounds. Here is the Review of the workshop
by Jenny Fowles.
Participants were asked to bring their previous watercolour pieces or new ones cut to size ready for experimenting with different mediums to produce a sampler on an A3 sheet. Natalia had a wonderful informative display of her hints for producing successful finished pieces using watercolour backgrounds. Also, some samples of her very impressive calligraphic artworks. Natalia was also very generous in sharing her knowledge of the variety of mediums to produce a finished piece. She stressed the use of quality watercolour paper as the most important factor in the final product. Members were then asked to experiment with different nibs/pointed brushes/parallel pens/posca pens/fineliners or any marking tool on their watercolour samples. Among Natalia’s generous tips was how to use gesso and matt medium to cover errors. She also uses them to experiment with a smoother texture to write on. A very thorough, informative and creative workshop that inspired members to experiment and produce some final pieces.
Below: Natalia Achino – An example of what to include in a visual sampler when recording information for future projects.
Saturday 27th September 2025: Book binding with Martin Dickie
Martin began his Bookbinding workshop with a walk through the day’s proceedings. The room was set up with a series of workstations starting with the paper. Paper for the books was supplied by Zartart https://zartart.com.au. At each station Martin provided tools and instructions. Workstations included a Folding station, bone folder tools provided to crease the pages. A Piercing station, with awls and cork mats, a Cut covers station to cut strawboards, materials and make templates. A Threads station, hanks of threads, candles and beeswax blocks. Other stations, include gluing, cutting, and an area for ironing the material for the covers.
Above: Martin at his bookbinding workshop explaining the various workstations to be used.
September meeting-2024: Colleen Keelty, a longtime member of the Guild, made a very passionate presentation with her workshop on Rudolph Koch. Colleen asked members to choose a Rudolf Koch period:
1. Arts and Crafts which included open gothic like Fruhling.
2. The Blue period, black monoline with colouring.
3. His most famous style the very textural gothic.
4. Ornate capitals.
Rudolf Koch (20 November 1876 – 9 April 1934) was a German font designer, professor, and a master of lettering, calligraphy, typography and illustration. Commonly known for his typefaces created for the Klingspor Type Foundry, his most widely used typefaces include Neuland and Kabel. Source Wikipedia
“Deep Practice Sound Learning” – A Zoom Workshop held by Gemma Black 23 July 2025 – see below.
Thanks to Martin and Susie for organising all the technical requirements to hold the workshop, that went off without a hitch. Another great workshop presentation by Gemma with much thought-provoking work for us to continue on with.
Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls “Sacred Geometery” October 2020
Sue Hopkins “Pencil and graphite” workshop August 2020
Past Workshops include: Yves Leterme April 2019 with his workshop “From Formal to Gestural”