Workshop Review: Every Letter is a Jewel with Julie Wildman
by Celeste Rossmiller
This fall, the Colorado Calligraphers’ Guild was pleased to host calligrapher and design artist Julie Wildman to teach her “Every Letter is a Jewel” workshop online for us. Guild members and guests enjoyed four afternoons over two weekends creating art with an extensive variety of techniques and media that Julie introduced us to. We worked on both white (strongly suggested: Arches Textwove) and black papers. We used walnut and sumi inks for washes in some instances, and watercolor in others. Julie prompted us to look for letters that show up in the natural world, to seek unusual alphabets—all the way from classical calligraphy to graffiti, and to design modular letters, like the “G,” “H,” and “JS” shown in student samples below.
Julie is an instructor who encourages students to expand into new territory, and makes the exploration possible by careful demonstrations and regular check-ins to see how students are faring. She is also really good at working along with us, and voicing her design choices as she goes along, so everyone (especially newer or less advanced students, like this author) can begin to see that outcomes are not “set in stone” or received “from on high,” as it were—but are a process for all of us. Trial and error. The “error” or “learning edge” moments become opportunities as Julie made evident through her instruction, and can become opportunities for unfolding more ideas along the way. Take a look at the wonderful and inspiring work* and words of a few of the participants here!
From Linda Lanza:
My two favorite parts of Julie’s workshop were the concept of working in a series by masking off a large sheet to set boundaries for individual explorations and watching her make design decisions on the fly. So many wonderful studio tips and techniques! Julie is a fearless artist and a fabulous teacher! Thank you CCG for a great workshop. Happy Autumn!
From Jenny Allen
Once again, Julie Wildman delivered another amazing workshop. Four hours for two weekends but the time went so fast. We wanted to make more letters into jewels.
Jenny Allen’s work
From Debby Kilgo Park
What a wonderful workshop! Julie helped us to re-imagine, draw and decorate letter forms. It was great fun and addictive!
Debby Kilgo Park’s work
From Cheryl Adams
I’m so thankful for this “Every Letter is a Jewel” zoom workshop that longtime friend Ann Hiemstra encouraged me to take, since it’d been over 25 years since I’d taken calligraphy classes while living in NYC!
Julie Wildman is a great teacher with excellent handouts, high level art/design/calligraphy talents and a cool personality that encouraged us to go for it! PTL! Also glad I joined the Colorado Guild, too. They handled zoom very well and I look forward to checking out their free programs over zoom since we don’t currently have a calligraphy group where I live in Iowa. Thanks for the fabulous, fun class!
Cheryl Adams’s work
Sherry Newton
Julie’s class was so much FUN! She’s a great instructor and was really good at encouraging me to get out of my comfort zone and try new techniques. I’m so happy with the letters I created! Thanks, Julie!
Sherry Newton’s work
From Celeste Rossmiller
I had the great good fortune to join Julie Wildman and her sister-in-law Shelly Wildman in September of 2024 for one of Shelly’s “Walk-About Tours” in Provence, France. During Covid, Julie had presented an online workshop to the Colorado Calligraphers’ Guild (when everyone was just discovering the “Zoom” platform). On her mailing list from that event, I received notice of the week of “walking about” Provencal villages in the morning, led by Shelly, and making an art journal in the afternoons, led by Julie. I was “on it!” So, I was delighted when our Guild workshop chair suggested hosting Julie for a workshop this Fall! Thanks, Tess, and happy retirement! As to my letters, in the beginning of the review, they show the need for more “trial and error” work! But they give an idea of using walnut ink, sumi and watercolor.
Celeste Rossmiller’s work