I have my own styles: straight up & down and slanted — soon I’ll offer ‘flourish’ — I don’t mean to demean the art of calligraphy by simplifying the terms. These are just the terms for my style. I’ve been doing calligraphy since I was 8 or 9 years old. I love print. I think of it as drawing and so when I started my own business 10 years ago, I included it. I wanted to honor the artform by continuing to do it. So most of the work I do in calligraphy is either addressing envelopes for weddings or doing calligraphy projects. I love doing the envelope addressing because it is so relaxing. Since most of my work takes place in my studio, I love seeing all the places in the world I address the envelopes to. The brides supply the list in Microsoft Word or Excel and either mail or deliver if they local, the envelopes to me. I like to have a couple of weeks to do a wedding. I use a dip pen, but when I first started I felt safer with a calligraphy fountain pen. Now I think the dip pen is much nicer and easier to use. Usually the envelope addressing is the last thing on the bride’s list of things to do, or so it seems for me. I don’t charge a fortune….$2.50 for the outer envelope and 50-cents for the inner envelope, so quite a few brides use my service so they have hand-written calligraphic invitations addressed. You can see my work at www.isabelsmith.com/html/calligraphy.html and there is a button for more samples too. Its a nice finishing touch for any occasion.
Visit: www.CountitallJoy.us
