A Freelance Calligrapher/Letter Artist for over 30 years, she has been involved in teaching, freelance commercial work and continues to learn through further extended study of both historical and contemporary scripts for the development of  lettering in today’s graphic world.

Margaret works from her studio in Devonport, Auckland, teaching and presenting work ,through Community learning centers, residential workshops throughout the country and freelance commissions from a wide range of clients commercially. She recently spoke at the International BIND25 Conference in Auckland, for the Associated Book Crafts of NZ and Australia, and in Nov, will present to the Chicago Calligraphy Collective, ‘A Pathway of Playing and Doing’, showcasing her lettering journey, from problem-solving, to inspired results.

An inaugural member of the New Zealand Calligraphy Society, and now sitting president, she has had opportunity to learn from leading international calligraphers worldwide, both historical formal lettering styles and contemporary letterforms.

The opportunities the pandemic opened, saw her under take 3 years of intensive study from Brody Neuenschwander, a leading contemporary Letterer, as well as other leading international Letter Artists, from Europe and America. This extended learning saw her further expand the styles and repertoire of her letters. Using experimentation, the playful use of tools, texture, media and writing surfaces, to ‘make’, has been a powerful pathway, and this new approach has seen her create many  Artist Books, in both paper and fabric, hand stitched, and bound within creative closures.

Margaret is most content to create by hand works on paper, glass, metal, stone and fabric. She enjoys teaching and inspiring others to move beyond self-doubt and simply ‘play and do’ and enjoy the creativity that is within us each.

Course outline

Letters are to be found in the most unexpected places, we are surrounded with their forms, the simple geometrics of buildings, or fence lines crisscrossing the landscape, to the more complex forms we see in nature, mountain range silhouettes, sheep tracks etched into hillsides, shadows cast early morning and evening…All forming familiar letter lines if we ‘look’.

We will open our class, by searching for letters within our surroundings, to be inspired to ‘see' letters in places that are unexpected and surprising, taking this opportunity to open our eyes to more lettering possibilities, and inspiration than we have imagined.

A study of the classical Roman Capital and its minuscule letter forms, will give us a foundation, upon which to ‘go beyond’ using these ‘found’ forms. With a fine pencil and pen we will ‘build up’ and make these classical shapes and proportions, to gain understanding of how these historical forms, can, when we apply their proportions to our ‘found’ letters, give us a ‘footing’ upon which to launch off from.

We will use many different lettering implements, and techniques to play and write, finding unique ways of putting ideas to paper, and applying this classical, and historical knowledge, translating these ‘found’ forms into our own unique lettering.

We will morph, stretch, compress and manipulate these ‘found’ forms into surprisingly creative and functional letters. Uniquely made and inspired by our surroundings, our ‘story’, and our ‘associations’.

This method of ‘play’ and ‘do’ is a powerful structure to see and find inspiration in unlikely places, and, together with the knowledge of formal lettering, a ‘tool’ by which to create letters that are fully ‘grounded’ in their forms. Lettering that ‘speaks’ of the journey, shows the ‘story’ behind the words, and gives ‘association’ to the marks made.

This exploration, is a means of opening up new ways of seeing, making and doing, an indispensable step in creating works that are uniquely our own, and speak our voice.