the beauty of the "clipping mask"

I had a wonderful lesson the other day from a friend. She showed me how to use "clipping mask" in Adobe Illustrator. ! I had this idea a few weeks ago to use scans of my paste papers to create letters. The class I am currently teaching, "The Printed Word," is making a book about one of their initials. I decided it was a good assignment for myself as well. I tried making these letters completely round-about in Adobe Photoshop. And I know, I know, you don't do type in Photoshop. The edges of the letters were completely raggedy - as one would expect. 

Now that I've been shown the right way to do it, I have these beautifully clear letters.

I'm mulling over how to make use of this with my students in the future. Using the paste paper is a great way to have students explore how pattern and texture affect what we are looking. For example the orange t above, looks completely different when the curves in the ascender are not there. What I don't understand is the strange background color. Hm. Maybe that's the next lesson. 

 

I love the blue T. 

And while I've been lesson planning, I came across an assignment online. Students need to design a glyph that does not exist, for a sound that does. I love this idea and gives us a chance to play around with type. I don't consider this one of those glyphs, but I still really like this one:

 

I like it because it plays with both of my initials.