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Gemma Black 
12 Maria Place, Lyons, ACT 2606 Australia

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"The Johannesburg Group"

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"The Johannesburg Group" Catherine, Marj, Jill, Antonette, Pearl, Barbara, Louise, Dianne & Jeff  And per se and! Meet Tiny. What a woman! Here is a wonderful array of work from the Retro Deco three-day course in Johannesburg. Thank you to all my diligent participants who worked ever so hard to achieve these works. A huge thank you to Pearl de Chalain for being the the mover & shaker for the JB group. Also my thanks to Pearl & Paul for their generous hospitality.
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Apology to all Australians impacted by the Thalidomide Tragedy

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"We are sorry. We are more sorry than we can say." The full manuscript.   A close up. Two manuscripts were created. An original and a hand facsimile identical to the original. Two originals in other words. This photo was taken before I erased the lines to show the beauty of the gilded letters which were tooled, very softly, with a metal stylus. Hair follicles can be seen. It is a privilege to be invited to create a manuscript that will remain in perpetuity for our future generations. We all hope that a tragedy such as Thalidomide never happens again in this country. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese MP has now signed this manuscript which is on display in Parliament House, Canberra. To aid the longevity of such manuscripts my preference is to work on vellum which is calf skin. Such skins, calf, sheep and goat, have been used for centuries to create written artefacts in the form of books in codex form and earlier in some scrolls. Here you can see the soft yellowish tone of t...
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Nib sculpture

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Pen Nibs, Sculpture by Anne Neil 2005 Can you believe these nibs!!  I was excited when my host Barb King, who was looking after me for my recent versals workshop for the Calligraphers Guild of WA, said I must see these nibs. Barb was right!  This nib sculpture is in Barrack Street at one of the entrances to the Supreme Court gardens.  There was no plaque to tell me the sculptor, nor it's name. It may well be "somewhere" on the work.   Makers ... please insist on leaving your mark! I have done a little search and have come up with a couple of explanations to their significence. One is that scriveners worked nearby at the courts for the past two centuries ... but another says they have nothing to do with the courts at all and that they are related to the gardens and were a tribute to the far-sighted planners who established the gardens over a century and a half ago. I took these photos obviously in the evening, lit up, as well as i...
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