Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Thing 4

Learn calligraphy.


My Mother had the most amazing handwriting I have ever seen.  The thorn in that truth also came from the fact that her writing was so unique and definite that it absolutely screwed all of us children when it came to needing her signature; it was impossible to forge.  Believe me, I tried.  I cherish the things that I still have from my Mother that were hand-written.  In fact, years ago I designed a tattoo around her signature.  I have no idea what will ever come of the whole tattoo, but I am fairly convinced that at some point I will (at least) get her signature on me.  That is another story though.

Perhaps it was part of the artistic flare that came from her side of the family; it seems like most of her siblings excelled in different medias of art, and each of them had unique, legible, and in my opinion beautiful handwriting. 

My handwriting bugs me.  Every few years I completely change my writing.  The only thing that stays the same is my autograph. 

When I was very young I remember sitting at the table and coloring as my Mother practiced the art of calligraphy.  Hours spent on achieving perfection with each letter.  Pages and pages of individual letters filled sketchpads and notebooks.  In the end, her perfect cursive became an even more stunning print.

Calligraphy is an art I never mastered.  I made attempts through the years but those attempts were just plain lame. 

Sitting on my couch, with Beans and Ivy dozing beside me, I taught myself Calligraphy!  Thank you, Instructional Booklet from Hobby Lobby!






WARNING: If you are a beginner and are attempting to write something brilliant and beautiful, DO NOT START AT 1AM. Calligraphy-ing(?) in the wee hours of the morning leads to horrid spelling. The word 'definitely' does not contain the letter 'a'. Apparently at that hour of the day, however, it does. I saw that writo (get it? typo/writo? Gah! I'm a nerd.) when I woke up and thought "are you kidding me?" I think I just wanted to write another 'a' because the letters 'a' and 'm' are my favorites to write using the art of Calligraphy.


One more challege met.  Yes!

That's about all I have to say about that!

6 comments:

Avo said...

Hey, that's pretty good! Your artistic nature must be a good platform to start from!

I used to play with western calligraphy in high school. The margins of my notes where loaded with it... I'd use a shaped match-stick that I would dip into the ink cartridge of my fountain pen.

Calligraphy is an unusual hobby, why did your mom take it up? What kind of tools are you using?
And have the cats been helping you? Cats are natural masters of pawligraphy, have been for ages. ; j

Miss Taken said...

My cats are most definitely helpful. Ivy just wants attention, whereas Bean constantly criticizes me. He walks over to me and watches for a moment, and then he takes his mammoth paw and grabs the pen and pulls it. Clearly he is unsatisfied with my technique. Sometimes he gets so frustrated with my lack of skills that he will then proceed to bite the pet until I shoo him by my feet to take a nap.

As for why my Mom picked it up, I believe it was for school. She worked as a school secretary at a Nursery School for many years. Throughout my childhood (and my siblings who were older than me) she was involved in Parent Teacher Associations etc. What this meant was that she made a LOT of invites, letters, posters and so on. Back then computers didn’t do those things justice and she did them all by hand. I still come across photos that other people have of events where there are banners in the background and I can immediately identify my Mother’s handiwork!

I'd need a lot more practice before I ever did something to actually send people - but at least I now know it's possible!

I love that you shaped a match-stick. THAT is commitment! ;)

Lily Cate said...

The handwriting gene skipped me too, ironically.
I have fair to middlin penmanship skills. I can write legibly, but not consistently, which is weird because writing seems like it should be just another form of drawing, but no.

Ben is the one with the fantastic handwriting. I always ask him to address letters for me. The once every five years when I have to actually mail a letter...

Avo said...

Ha... Your description of your cats' behavior is... very catlike and totally recognizable: j
I happen to have furry fiend in my lap as I type this. I am not entirely foreign to felines mores.

BTW, using a match isn't any harder than using a reed calamos. It just takes one diagonal cut. It had the advantage of being small and super discrete. : j

Avo said...

Cat tails:
http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/comic/well-this-happened/

http://i.imgur.com/rsQ93.png

Miss Taken said...

I'm loving that link!!!