I’ve been keeping this one under wraps, but now I can show the whole piece!
It was truly an honor to be invited by Old School New School’s Copperplate Collective to participate in their Someday Is Now exhibition inspired by Corita Kent. It will be at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Australia from Nov 6-8. I wish I could attend in person, it will no doubt be wonderful. Thanks again Veronica and Madeline!
Photo courtesy of Beth O’Leary. Photo credit: Nicole Chan Photography
Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and I am so very thankful for amazing clients. I worked with Beth on her invitation envelopes and place cards for her November wedding. She was so sweet and thoughtful to share photos from her wedding with me this morning and totally made my day! The photos look so wonderful I couldn’t believe I was looking at my own work!
I used Schmincke’s Designer gouache in Gold Pearl on place cards from Paper Source, and Sumi ink on William Arthur envelopes lined with burgundy. Both written in Emily script.
Photo courtesy of Beth, photographer: Nicole Chan Photography
Thank you again Beth for sharing photos with me – it was an honor to work with you!
I have been active on Instagram (IG) for the past two years or so, and in the past year I have made so many like-minded friends who are just as enthusiastic (if not more) as I am about calligraphy!
Heber is one of the calligraphers I met on IG. Not only is he an excellent calligrapher and designer, he is also a skilled artisan. He has been hard at work making adjustable flanges by hand. When he decided to share his work, I sent the above beloved penholders to him and he gave new life to them by adding adjustable flanges! Now I feel like I just got three new penholders.
Thank you Heebs, you’re the bee’s knees!
Getting ready to start the Copperplate workshop. Pat is standing in the far right.
I had a wonderful opportunity over the weekend to visit beautiful San Diego, which is about a 2-hour drive south of Los Angeles, to attend a two-day workshop with Pat Blair, Master Penman & Chief Calligrapher of the White House. The San Diego Fellow Calligraphers invited her to teach the workshop, and extended the opportunity to members of the Society for Calligraphy. I heard about it through my teacher in mid-January and emailed Rose Smutko, SDFC’s Board of Directors Workshop Chair, to ask for more information. Lo and behold, she told me there were only two spots left! I signed up as soon as I could – how could I miss the chance to spend two days doing nothing but copperplate with a room of calligraphy enthusiasts, and most of all, with Pat Blair!
Starting with the basics
We began Day One by doing the basic strokes for miniscule (lowercase) letters. It’s been a while since I really did Copperplate, so it was great to warm up and get re-acquainted with the beauty of this classic style of pointed pen calligraphy. Pat would demonstrate the letters in groups that are similar, then have us practice on our own while she walked around to give us individual attention and feedback. She is a wonderful teacher who explained everything very clearly and showed us a lot of great tips.
I was visiting my friends Aaron and Anita’s house for the first time and decided to pick up some lovely Asian pears from the local farmer’s market. Refrigerated, it’s the perfect and refreshing fruit for a warm summer day.
Of course, I love adding a little calligraphy wherever I can, so I recycled an Amazon box with summery wrapping paper and made a little gift tag. There, much better!
My final project for the Copperplate class is to make holiday cards. I usually send out 50+ cards every holiday season, so I decided to make it a big project and have them letterpressed!
I wanted to give my business to a local printer, but everyone I could find around Los Angeles quoted me way over my budget. I found Enframing Press on Etsy and they were so wonderful and accommodating. They are located in Santa Cruz, so it also felt great to give my business to a California printer.
Practice Practice Practice
It’s been a few weeks since I started my first real calligraphy class in mid-September, and I can’t get enough! Last year, after deciding to be more serious about calligraphy (and Copperplate in particular), I checked out a few books, went online for instructions, but just couldn’t really get my writing to look the way I wanted. I really wanted to learn it the “right way” with a professional.
After finding the Society for Calligraphy, I emailed a few local calligraphy teachers in February, and one teacher wrote me back. She told me she wasn’t teaching Copperplate at the time and suggested I email a few others (who never wrote me back for one reason or another). In August, she contacted me again about starting a Copperplate class, and so I began my Copperplate studies with Yukimi Annand. I was really glad my friend Winnie was interested in taking the class as well and decided to join me. It’s so much better to have a friend along on this great journey.