A as in . . .

. . . Alphabet. Alphabets have a history with embroiderers, lovely, perfectly-stitched letters that march across aging linen that is usually even weave, or very close to being evenly woven. Today many embroiderers take great pride in reproducing historic samplers. I am always an appreciative audience of these works, having tried for many years to cross-stitch an alphabet of my own and never able to do this because I belatedly discovered I have a double astigmatism! This minor bit of handicapping condition is probably the reason I clung to free-style embroidery. After a while, I even began to apply this free-style approach to alphabets. Mine were never perfectly-stitched letters that marched demurely across the fabric. Instead, they tumbled and sprawled and generally tugged at their enclosing spaces until they developed their own wills in the matter of the face they would show to the world.

My favorite source of alphabetical inspiration comes from ancient illuminated manuscripts. Images come to mind of cowled monks bent to their work in the cold, high-ceilinged scriptoriums of monastic dwellings. In my imagination they are placing mythical creatures in the over-sized initial letters of Latin words of the sacred texts they are copying. Despite the rigid discipline of monastic life, what humor they must have had to produce such delightful work! The calligraphy of the rest of the page is perfectly formed, but in the development of those ornate letters, discipline was set aside for the sheer joy of drawing and painting from their own fertile imaginations. In these minutely detailed letters executed on vellum, secular and sacred worlds come together quite beautifully.

Several years ago I embroidered an alphabet for my grandchildren. As I see Bethy in the early stages of learning her letters, however, I am not sure my off-beat style is a "good" influence on her. Maybe later on, when both she and her brother can appreciate their rough-and-ready nature, we will be able to laugh over them. True humor comes from knowing the rules well enough to break them with some sophistication.



And lest I be accused of not remembering the basics of A-B-C-ism, I include the unavoidable image of the letter "A:"