Chop chop. Some of 2025's letters in stone... #Lettercutting

When Mrs Raw first lived in Lima, her friend was trying out some Spanish, and when leaving a bar should have called out "hasta luego" (see you later), but instead shouted "hasta l'huevos" (up to your balls). Much merriment ensued.

Therefore, until the mid 18th century, the first month of the year was March, meaning that January really was the eleventh month and June really was the fourth month. 📷 Headstones that call January the eleventh month and June the fourth month

Just making sure that 2025 is definitely over

I just made some pasta, papardelle since you ask. Later I will be cooking it with dried and fresh mushrooms, butter, sage and lemon. Mrs Raw and I will also be drinking champagne, Pol Roger 2018. I tell you this only to show how damn fancy I am & that you shouldn't believe what people say about me.

Today I was making brass hanging plates. The tumbling alphabet already has one, but needs three more so it can be hung any way round.

The 2nd edition of the Nottingham Gingerbread Tiles 😊 I'm trying a different colour and taste. Black treacle instead of honey — taste is more intense, bittersweet, like rye bread. Glazing — yes or no? #alphabet #tile #lombardic #medieval #veraevstafieva #uk #baking #gingerbread #typography

While we're still in the C*r*s*m*s zone, I have to post this one again. It is theoretically in the shop but I think I'll keep it. It hangs in our bedroom just in case that day dawns when I wake from a fabled, unattainable, deep and dreamless sleep.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2... It would be interesting to see someone try to do an AI instructional letter carving video like mine 🙄

Gingerbread 2025 Dumpster 🔥

Reader, I ate that biscuit / tile. Nom nom nom.

When I started as a silversmith, silver was £100 per kilo on the spot market. When I stopped in 2010 it was £900. My raw material had gone up 9-fold at a time when the economy was sunk. It is now £1900. Silversmithing is dead in the water ☹️

Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

It all gets a bit busy from here on, family will be seen, some food will be eaten, alcoholic beverages with be glugged and you'll get no sense out of me until the other side. I hope during your holidays you are well, warm and fed. To conclude, I offer you my festive arse. I hope you enjoy it.

Christmas has definitely arrived now I have (am eating) a cinnamon ginger biscuit incarnation of that tile. My life is officially complete.

Lewtrenchard Manor #Devon Such wonderful skill displayed in producing this beautiful tile-like floor made of upright slates. Once home of Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould hymn writer, folklore & folk song collector & lover of #Dartmoor. #TilesOnTuesday

This is how I would end the news if I was reading the news.

Never Bloody Forget.

Archive: a large coffee pot I made for St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Rosewood handle insulators, the top of the thumbpiece on the lid is a garnet, millennium hallmark. 2001. I'll stop now.

More archive trawling. 2017, a pair of wedding rings, the turned rosewood box they were delivered in and a piece of lettering for Jess & Christian.

2019. A temporary memorial for a fine cat: For Esmé—with Love and Squalor - Wikipedia share.google/Nw5q5KlEKy2b...

Things are Terrible, but this isn't. Be weird.

Scrabble anyone?

I began the festive season a bit early this year 🎄 in November! Now I'm ready to run 1-hour workshops — introduction to calligraphy for lovely local community groups like this one in Cambridgeshire. It's fun to get everyone involved in making letters ❤️ #teaching #calligraphy #workshop #beginner

Solstice blessings to all - may the unconquered sun fill your life with light!

How are your parts this morning?

Writing extra bold Type & Faces 💙 Video by Naïma Ben Ayed #calligraphy #livedemo #type #typefaces #brushlettering #blue #paint #london #uk #veraevstafieva

A gentle reminder if you've received an invoice from a Freelancer/Self employed person which is due before Christmas. Be a love, and pay it today.

Ready to go. Now I'm off to a neighbour's place to install a house sign on a wall. My favourite job 😱

From the archive, my first silver / stone combo. A rocking silver bowl and the text "Love looks not with the eyes..." Over 20 years ago 😱

I was talking about many-years-long thread in my work: I showed Amalta typeface, its ancestor – my flat brush calligraphy, then my move to the next level in calligraphy to CMYK calligraphy project, and at last – Amalta's transformation into wood type which is happening these days. #font #design

Louvain presents a history of early lunatic asylums in S Wales. Fascinating work. Strong recommend 👍👍

On the easel (a request from a friend). Cariad:

#AdventAngels Trumpeting angel, Arbroath Abbey, Arbroath, #Angus

Last shipping date for orders from the shop: Weds 17th December! DM or email... www.poorfrankraw.co.uk/shop

While we're (I'm) in the mood for a bit of Handel's Messiah, I'm not going to carve this one either.

"AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations" -Cory Doctorow.

Monday:

I adore the Welsh language. 'Coffinwr' is a lovely word for undertaker ⚰️ #Wales #History

Barbie and Ken both have nonbinary genitals.

The Messiah is for all year round y'know, not just for Christmas.

There are reasons for this 😶

Good morning Derbyshire:

Partly successful 😶 but I can confirm that gravity is a terrible thing.

Friday, Job 1. Roll my old safe, all 450kg of it, out of the workshop, through a stable and into the yard, without trapping a nerve, a finger, or pulling a muscle. 💪 Then a guy with a telescopic loader can lift it up and drive it half a mile up the road to its new owner 👋

How does one learn to carve lettering on stone? You take a course with an expert. I learned at the elbow of John Neilson near Oswestry. All round great guy: linguist, musician, typographer, lettering designer and letter carver. jneilson.co.uk/courses/ #lettering