Miss Peacock, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, PhD Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Internet Whiz
Engagement Date: December 5, 2006
Wedding Date: September, 2008
Blogging Since: December 13, 2007
Venue: St. Clement Church, Cafe Brauer (or a big church wedding and a fancy party at a cafe in Lincoln Park.
About Me: I am a grad student with a secret obsession for all things wedding related. I also love to read, travel, drink champagne and go for walks with our dog, Maisy, and Mr. Peacock. We are planning our very vintage wedding in the greatest city in the world, our hometown of Chicago. I am so proud to be a Bee!
Mission: Calligraphy
May 15th, 2008 @ 2:03 pm by Miss Peacock
I have always had a fascination with nice handwriting. I think it began in third grade when I saw my friend Melissa dot the “i” in her name with a little heart. Fortunately for me, there is also an “i” in my name. This led to good grades in handwriting- until I decided to write my name in entirely lowercase letters because I thought it looked better.
I often scrap a complete thank you note because I realize that the text had a slight slope. I will spend long periods of time playing with the pens at the Paper Source, trying to find the best tip. This obsession has created a nagging voice in the back of my head, begging me to learn calligraphy before the wedding. So, I bought a book and pens and here I go!
I bought the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Calligraphy.
I need to do a little more reading and a little less cheating by going to the pictures of the letters and the little arrows rather than learning the technique. I was going to post pictures but I would rather hold off until I am a little more confident. A class may have been a better route. Has anyone had any luck with this book or one like it?
12 Responses to “Mission: Calligraphy”
Good for you to try your own calligraphy! I tried some copying over of computer text and failed miserably, so I passed the job off to my mom with her perfect schoolteacher penmanship!
I can TOTALLY remember signing my name with a heart over the i. Blast from the past 
I used this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Calligraphers-Bible-Complete-Alphabets-Draw/dp/0764156152/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210874797&sr=8-1
I liked it because it was spiral bound and I could keep it open while I worked. They also included directions on strokes and the order you should do them, plus lots of alphabets to choose from.
I also started right in!
Not a comment regarding the book, but since you mentioned a class. Paper Source in Lincoln Park has calligraphy classes. Four classes, I believe $100 or $110. I planned to try it but I was busy, so maybe this summer. Might be an option if price is right for you.
My handwriting can be all over the place–I’d be interested to hear what you think of the book, if you, ya know, read some of it 
I will have to check out that book. I was interested in taking a course to learn calligraphy b/c i think it would be so nice for my invitations. I just don’t know if it would take too much time to address every label…what do you think?
“I often scrap a complete thank you note because I realize that the text had a slight slope.”
Me too! I’m glad I’m not the only one who does this!
@katya: If this one doesn’t work out, thank you for the recommendation!
@lilpetunia: They kept offering the classes on Monday nights, when I had grad school, and now they aren’t offering them 
I am keeping an eye out, but the clock is ticking!
@Diana: I think that it will definitely take awhile, but the more that I practice, the faster I will get!
@Liene at Blue Orchid Designs: There should be a program for people like us.
Any idea how much it would cost to have someone write out my invitations using calligraphy?
I just wrapped up a calligraphy class tonight through the Learning Annex in NYC. Alot of talented calligraphers will give you 1 on 1 lessons. It is worth it to learn the technique.
GOOD LUCK!
http://www.serendipityandspark.com
I played around with books a little bit and finally just started looking at fonts I liked and trying to imitate the letters with a calligraphy pen. I just finished the calligraphy on my envelopes and borrowed the Miss Donut’s calligraphy template. I also have the slope problem and the template really helped keep things aligned. It also helped to do a mail merge on my address spreadsheet to lay out the addresses line by line in a font I liked. I started out just copying them down while looking at the spreadsheet and found it was too easy to accidentally jump lines. Good luck!!
Diana:
The very cheapest you’ll find is $1 per envelope (not counting shipping charges to send the invites to non-local calligraphers). Most are $2 or so per envelope.
I almost used this one (her prices have gone up from $1 to $1.25)
http://www.prettypenjen.com/
@mikala: Thank you for your comment! I just went back and found Miss Donuts post. I should have searched Weddingbee first- duh! I probably would have used another title for my post, too
