Calligraphellie

I just received these shots of some of the signs I did for Christina and Seth's wedding.  There's nothing like a good photographer to make your work look even better!

Photos courtesy of Em the Gem

Left this fun message on Christina and Seth's doorstep for when they return from their honeymoon. Wasn't sure if I could fit in the trip, but there seemed to be a good moment on the way home from the kid's ballet class. And luckily I happen to keep emergency sidewalk chalk in my glove compartment. You know, for calligraphy emergencies. :)

The baby thankfully stayed calm in her carseat for this extra side trip. And the kid was happy to help me draw a smiley face and picture of Christina on the side. Too fun.

One of my best friends got married on Saturday!  She wanted the chalkboard look for table signs and a menu, so I thought I'd take a stab at it.  This was my first time using a chalkboard pen, but it turned out to be pretty easy and I'm quite pleased with how the signs turned out.  Who knew I could produce such good looking signs?

For escort cards, I wanted to experiment with a more modern yet elegant style.  I could not be more happy for Christina & Seth!

Paper: Paper Source (Gravel)

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White

Nib: Nikko G

I made some baby tags for a few friends, but I forgot to take pictures before I gave them all away.  Here's the original.

Paper: Paper Source (Sunshine)
Ink: Kaimei Sumi Ink
Nib: Brause 66EF

Now that my daughter is of preschool age, I've become acutely aware that my days of choosing her Halloween costume for her are quickly coming to an end.  Figuring this would be my last year to pick a costume, I wanted to make her something cute, easy, and easy to wear with normal clothing. After a morning at the zoo, I thought a peacock would be within my skill set.  

I cut out the felt and glued it all together - no sew! I figured I could make the peacock's tail feathers attach to her with elastic bands for her to wear like those fairy wings people buy.  The tricky thing was getting it stiff enough to stand upright.  For that, I bought some boning (like they use in corsets - ended up a little more $$$ that I expected) and glued it in along with some quilting padding to make it soft.  

For the headpiece I first thought I would make her a headband, but it ended up working more as a visor. She also happened to come home from preschool with an a paper she had glued googly eyes all over. She let me take two of them to add to the visor and there we have it!  An adorable, spunky peacock. It's amazing what you can do with felt and hot glue!

A friend of mine asked if I could write a poem in calligraphy for her.  There is this little poem that the women in her family like to recite, and she thought it would be a fun gift to give to her grandmother.  Since I didn't have any calligraphy projects coming up I was happy to help her out.  And it was kind of fun to imagine that I was being an artist being commissioned for a piece of work by some fancy benefactor, ha.

My family had a pretty rough May, so some dear friends helped us out by bringing us dinners and other kind things.  Now that summer vacation has rolled around, I was able to make some thank you cards to properly show some gratitude.

I think the cards turned out okay, but I realized that I'm not really into "design".  I just like writing things pretty, so designing thank you cards didn't end up as enjoyable as I thought it would.  Writing the envelopes was super fun though and I'm really pleased how they turned out.  I hope my friends enjoyed receiving them in the mail!

Cards -

Congrats to my friends Katie and Chris!

I had the pleasure of writing place cards for the wedding of my friends Jimmy and Aileen.  I was really excited that Aileen wanted to use white ink on slate gray cards.  So modern and classy.

Also, for Christmas my husband got me a copperplate calligraphy set that included an oblique pen holder, which is the legit pen to use if you're right handed.  An oblique pen holder is one where the angle of the nib is offset.  As you can guess, it takes a bit of practice to get used to but the offset angle definitely helps the nib to move more smoothly.  Anyway, this was my first major calligraphy project using the oblique pen holder, and I was pleased to find that I think I'm just as good with the oblique holder now as with the straight holder.

(Photo courtesy of Andria Lo Photography)

Congratulations Aileen & Jimmy!  It was so fun to be part of your special day!!!!

Paper: Paper Source (Slate)

Ink: Dr. Ph Martin's Pen-White

Nib: Gillott 404

My friends the Quartons had their second daughter this past weekend.  I though it would be fun to make something pretty to greet them when they got home from the hospital.

Writing with sidewall chalk is pretty fun and actually rather quick and easy.  I should do it more often.