Once described as
"the Work of Angels" by Gerald of Wales, Celtic art has impressed the world since a small band of tribes immerged in the La Tène culture (c. 5th century B.C.) in parts of Germany, eastern France and surrounding areas of middle Europe. Julius Ceasar's Roman armies were not able to conquor and Romanize the tribes of Ireland so their art and traditions were safeguarded for future generations to enjoy.
Celtic Art incorporates Nature with geometric spirals, keywork designs and intricate knotwork. When Celtic knotwork is create the artist/craftsman painstakingly laps one or more line over and under other lines in the belief that each crossed line will add powerful protection to the wearer. Examine Celtic knotwork and discover if the Artist was able to successfully cross over and under without crossing over (or under) twice. It is a great challenge for the artist. And some of the best knotwork is created using only one line - this single line symbolized to the Celts that all in the world is connected in some way.
The Celtic Lady's™
prepares each design with the idea that the Art will be used for Tattoos.
Tattoo Art (called "flash") has certain requirements so that a quality design is acheived.
Not all artwork found on the Internet translates into a nice, clean tattoo.
It is also important to select a qualified tattoo artist - ask to see examples of his/her work.
Celtic Knot Meanings
Unfortunately the people of the ancient world did not write down the meanings of most knotwork. And it is possible that the knots do not have a meaning or symbol associated with them.
During our modern period some of the Celtic knots have been associated with certain symbolic meanings. When enough people recognize a design as standing for something - a symbol is born. The Celtic Lady's™ advises that
YOU DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH when choosing a Celtic knot for personal use - ask yourself what it means to you. In this way you have created the symbolic meaning of the design. In way you have empowered that design and thus have created a wonderful story to tell others when they comment on your tattoo.
To aid you in your research The Celtic Lady's™ has created her
List of Celtic Symbol Designs for Tattoos
These designs were created after extensive research using archeological sources, art history books, historical records and a variety of other well respected sources. Included in this historical research were medieval Irish manuscripts, Scottish stones, British tribes and Central European ancient cultures.
Celtic Fonts (sometimes called "Uncial" or "Half-Uncial") are preserved for us in various Illuminated Manuscripts created during the Dark and Middle Ages by Irish monks. These monks created beautiful pages using many different techniques, such as making the first letter of a paragraph very large and highly decorated and the remaining letters fitted around it.
After studying many manuscripts, Susan had created her first font -
California Uncial. This font contains both upper and lower case letters (originally Uncial contained only upper case) and has many accented letters for use by the non-English world.
Letter Art
Unique individually drawn letters for use with such programs as Word and Excel. Each letter is a .TIFF file and can be "INSERTED" or "PLACED" into other files. Some styles are available is both Black & White illustration and in Color.
High quality graphics created by The CelticLady ! ! !
a stylized inital letter to use at the beginning of a paragraph. Due to the intricate design,
ALPHA-01is not a font but rather clip art which can be "inserted" into a Word or WordPerfect document.
Presently this Letter Art is only available in Black & White.
"The name 'Keltoi' first appears in Greek texts dating to about 500 B.C.
and was used to refer to societies on the northern fringes of the Classical Mediterranean world." ~~~ Simon James, "The World of the Celts" 1993, Thames & Hudson --- a highly recommended book with wonderful photos and illustrations
(TM)
Celtic Art incorporates Nature with geometric spirals, keywork designs and intricate knotwork. When Celtic knotwork is create the artist/craftsman painstakingly laps one or more line over and under other lines in the belief that each crossed line will add powerful protection to the wearer. Examine Celtic knotwork and discover if the Artist was able to successfully cross over and under without crossing over (or under) twice. It is a great challenge for the artist. And some of the best knotwork is created using only one line - this single line symbolized to the Celts that all in the world is connected in some way.
The Celtic Lady's™
prepares each design with the idea that the Art will be used for Tattoos.
Tattoo Art (called "flash") has certain requirements so that a quality design is acheived.
Not all artwork found on the Internet translates into a nice, clean tattoo.
It is also important to select a qualified tattoo artist - ask to see examples of his/her work.
After studying many manuscripts, Susan had created her first font -
California Uncial. This font contains both upper and lower case letters (originally Uncial contained only upper case) and has many accented letters for use by the non-English world.
Unique individually drawn letters for use with such programs as Word and Excel. 
~~~ Simon James, "The World of the Celts" 1993, Thames & Hudson
www.celticlady.com