Jenni Cole and the amazing Tex Mex Alphabet designed by Betty Locke in beautiful Canada

It started with an envelope between two talented people communicating across the world, who participated in an envelope exchange group. Jenni contacted Betty and was given permission to use her script for our workshop. So a big shout out and thanks to Betty.

The feature of this script is that each letter exists within a box, with the box being part of the design. The letters can be straight in the box, or at an angle.
Templates: small cardboard squares, small plastic squares (made from overhead film)

Exercise 1--using light card
Draw 2 lines 1.5cm apart then make 1.5cm boxes with a 0.5mm gap between them. 

Then try the same size boxes again, using different angles, so it looks like each box is leaning on one another.

Now draw the letters in the boxes, making sure some parts of the letters touch the outside of the box, as in the illustration in the previous column.
Next step is to take a dark, fine point black permanent marker and using the square template, trace around the template by hand. Do not use a ruler to do this.

When adding colour, we first coloured in both the letters and the backgrounds, before outlining using a black outliner/marker. Use a light coloured pencil to colour in, then outline in black. The reason for this is if you go over the black line, the viewer will see the pencil on top of the black line, and really who stays within the lines.

Colour the word using coloured pencils to outline the letter using the Tex Mex script. Inside the letter do some doodles, people may know this as Zentangle©. Mix it up with colour, design and movement of the boxes.
TIP—tip the ruler over so that the bevelled edge is face down on top of the paper/envelope. This avoids smudging the black ink onto the paper when the ruler is moved.
 
Exercise 2--using beautiful chrome leather
We wrote on a piece of leather, that Jenni provided, with white paint, sharpies or gouache. If using gouache you will need Gum Arabic to bind it. Gum Sandarac powder will prepare the surface before you write on it. Do your design with a square within a square, and then add your Tex Mex letter. Don’t forget to add a fixtative at the end to ensure it remains on the leather.

Cherrie Grant