My Journey Into Celtic Art — Celtic Art Conference 2025 Full Talk

This is the full recording of my talk on how I learned Celtic art — from my earliest attempts at Tengwar calligraphy to knotwork, spirals, key patterns, lettering, zoomorphics, and manuscript geometry. It’s a look at the mistakes, the breakthroughs, and the slow, deliberate process that shaped my work.

What This Talk Covers

How I started with Tengwar calligraphy

Why Celtic art felt like a natural extension of where I’m from

Learning knotwork, spirals, key patterns, lettering, and zoomorphics

Studying the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels

Practicing during lunch breaks and building discipline

Recreating manuscript pages

Milestones like Oxonmoot, Beyond Bree, and the Tolkien Society

The goals I’ve reached — and the ones still ahead

Preparing this talk made me look back at eight years of learning, experimenting, failing, and starting again. It reminded me how much of this craft comes down to patience, repetition, and paying attention to the small decisions that hold a page together. It also made me realise how far there still is to go.

Join The Scriptorium

If you’d like to see behind‑the‑scenes sketches, process notes, and works‑in‑progress, you can join The Scriptorium. It’s where I share the day‑to‑day work that doesn’t make it onto social media.

Thanks for watching, and thanks to everyone who encouraged me along the way — especially the people who told me to keep going when a piece went wrong. That advice has shaped everything I do.