If you have been following me on Facbeook or Intstantgram, I have literally sent myself back to pre-school practicing bloody annoying WRITING. There comes a point where I can’t lie to myself anymore that I have bad handwriting – my mum telling me so when she read my postcard to her.

I took time from my holiday, sit myself behind a desk and started writing. I can’t say surely that my handwriting changed for the better but I am sure that my calligraphy has improved heaps. Hence, I want to write this post to give you a short crash course on where and how to learn Calligraphy. Most importantly, not to make the same stupid mistakes that I do.

1. You can learn most things for free or very little money – don’t need to attend a class every time.

2. Don’t be a cheap skate and buy some good paper – it makes a different.

3. There is no such things as talent. It is called practice.

INTRODUCTION

Before you start, choose what want to learn. There is basically only a few types of styles. The picture below will give you a general idea. This will prevent you (not me) from waste your time or money. I have personally tried 2 kinds of Calligraphy – Italics and Modern. In this post, I will be focusing on Modern/Pointed Pen Calligraphy. If you have question, just post it on the comment sections.

FINDING MATERIALS

Before I started, I head to the local art supplies store and thought it would be an easy purchase of a calligraphy set. I was wrong! Calligraphy is an lost art in the most part of the world. Simply going in an art store and ask for advice would probably get you confused looks and shrugged shoulders. I admit of being a cheap person and to try calligraphy with the least amount of start-up capital as possible. Just follow closely the list I provided for you, it will only cost you less than $20. If not, it would wasted effort, resources and piles of crumpled-up paper with bleeding, amateurish “scripts” all over the page or a lot of junk you don’t need. (see picture below)

1. Black Ink
2. Pen Holder
3. Nikko G nib
4. Dinky Dips for easy dipping of nibs instead of dipping into the whole jar of ink. (good to have)
5. Pipettes for filling ink into your dips (good to have)
6. Manuscript ink calligraphy pen for writing Italics

Resources

• Lloyd Reynold’s: 17 hours of tutorial for Italics on Youtube
• Skillshare Class: A very complete and easy class to get started on pointed pen Calligraphy. There a $10 discount if I invite you, just e-mail me if you want it!
• Calligraphy for Dummies: The books gives a in-depth details and practice into many forms of calligraphy.
• Copperplate Calligraphy Video: Complete video series on learning Copperplate.
• Collection of beautiful calligraphy photos: to get you inspire.

I hope I’ve given you some tips if you fancy having a go at calligraphy yourself. When you get to a certain standard, send your friends a surprise letter with your new found hobby and blow their mind away.

I can’t help to brag about my good friends, Silvia. She brought me an old school stamp that is made with metal, they don’t make it anymore! If you are in Mexico City, please come visit her thrift store/cafe! 

Practice!!!

and have patience..  

My last wedding in California. I have been introduced by Caroline to help Yelena Johnson, The Stylish Soiree in this wedding – thanks again! The wedding is held out in a beautiful estate surrounded with lots of greenery and even a pool.

There is so much more designing and DIY in this wedding which means so much more work to do. But, the more the better right? In the midst of busy styling, I managed to take some time out and snap a few photos to share with you guys.

In case you are wonder who did the beautiful flowers, it’s Audrey Chaney!

Click here for more photos.

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Remember my artist friend, Chris Granillo. I drove him to his studio one day and discover this wood studio beside it that makes wooden panel for the artist. It might sound stupid but that is the biggest and most beautiful wood workshop I have ever seen. This would be such a dream come true in Singapore. *Ah.. One can only dream. But I would definitely be owning some of these tools at home. So, my next birthday gift 😉

I am a big sucker for tools. To me, tools represent the pursuit for better in society. The reason why we make tools is because we want to create more. When I learn about a new tool, it opened up a world of creativity. It is almost like learning a new punctuation mark in a language. The owners agreed on giving me a short tour of the workshop.

Let me introduce you Ryan and Jamie, the driving force behind wood workshop and Faultline Artspace.

I was very fortunate to have a private tour with Jamie on the studio explaining the magic each tool can create. It is so inspiring to learn all these tools.

The router is one of my favorite machines usually used to rout out (hollow out) an area of a wood or making patterns on the edge of the workpieces. You can purchases different router bits for patterns and uses. Remember the smooth rounded edges on the side of your cutting boards? This is yours truly.

This monster machine is called the Guillotine Chopper aka by Jamie “The Angle Chopper” basically cuts stilts of wood at an angle. In this case, a 45 degree angle, gluing it together to form the frame of the art panel.

This is a tool used to smooth surfaces by abrasion with sandpaper. The sandpapers could be change to offer different results. The big tube that is coming out is attached to a vacuum so you won’t have a horrible time cleaning up at the end of the day.

The Table Saw looks like one big scary machine able to easily chop your entire arm off in an instance. After Jamie’s explanation, it is much smarter and can do so much more than I thought. The machine uses small electric current to detect if it was cutting anything more than the wood and would immediately stop the machine. I am not in the mood for trying it out that theory but it is good to know. Other safety features including preventing kickbacks, a push stick and plastic protective covering around the blade.

Other than chopping your wood into 2 perfectly straight pieces, it also cuts a small dent the wood piece by putting more blades together. (look at pictures below)

Click more for more pictures of the studio.

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