Weddingbee Blog

I know that I’m not the only one that lusts, has lusted, or will lust over fabulous calligraphy. The swirls, curls, swells, hairlines, terminals, and flourishes are enough to do pretty much anyone in. After getting engaged, it was only a matter of time before I would fall for the siren song of calligraphy-adorned envelopes, cards, paper goods, what-have-you. Rather than continuing to yammer on about calligraphy, and blah blah blah, words words words, and obsess, obsess, obsess, I think I’ll just go through the major points in my calligraphy (love) affair.

January 2009

• Not on my radar

February 2009

• Fell into wedding blogs

I probably should just stop here, blame every crazy wedding obsession or idea I’ve ever had on the wedding blog world, and call it a day, but I can’t. Or won’t, rather. Not going to bite the hand that loves and feeds.

Spring 2009

• Found Love, Jenna

Finding this turned me from a normal, non-caring human being into one who had a serious wanting, pining, and needing for beautiful calligraphy. I’d never seen anything like it.

June 2009

• Realized expense

“These people want what for whooowaat?! Oh, heeellllllzzzz to the naw.” I believe I said something remarkably similar to that upon finding out how much calligraphers charged. Little did I know how much time, work, and effort went into the whole calligraphy process. I just thought it was a nice pen and a lot of free time.

• Decided to DIY
• Bought the damned calligraphy markers
• Failed

“Umm, I don’t think these things do what I want them to do.”

“Oh, they do ma’am. You just need years of practice.”

[Insert the extreme want to make some sort of arm/fist motion]

• Gave up

I was choosing my battles, and not going to try to take on something crazy. Tried to use good sense. (Oh, ha ha, ha. Ha.)

August 2009-January 2010

• Not on my radar

I gave up, remember?

February 2010

• Found Queen Quills

I think I sent out about 20 emails with the subject line reading “!!!!!!!!!” after I found QQ. Bad, bad, bad. I loved their stuff entirely too much, and it was dangerous.

• Crazy letterpress dream was gonna happen, why not add on calligraphy?

OH YAY! Let’s do calligraphy again! We can find and use someone FABULOUS! Oh, we can do this for only 80 cents more per line…

• Oh wait, expense

Stuff adds up REALLY quickly. For those of you who are still in the early stages of planning, TAKE NOTE. Things get out of control. I’m proof. Anyway, back to the points…

• “I’m an artist. I draw, I should try this.”

Yeah, seeing beautiful calligraphy makes you lose your mind. Remember how up there I failed? I thought I could do it this time? Mind lost.

• Bought an expensive-ish calligraphy pen

…because surely those ten-bucks-a-pop markers were just trying to sabotage me! Those fat jerks! With their mean felt nibs and just… dumbness. Yeah. I was prepared. But just in case, I…

• Did a little IAMPETH research

“DAMNIT. MR. S, I BOUGHT THE WRONG KIND OF PEN.”

“What? Why is there yelling? What’s wrong?”

“Pen. Need. Oblique. Hate. This. Why. Doing. Am. I?”

“…?”

• Gave up again

March 2010

• Bought nib-holder and nibs in a moment of weakness at the art store

I practically live at Binders and Sam Flax, so this was inevitable. I just couldn’t help myself. I came home, played, and, well, there is good news and bad news.

The good news is that I didn’t totally fail! After about a half-hour of piddling, things were starting to look a little legit. After two weeks of playing, I’ve improved a crazy-lot. I’m not a pro by any stretch, but I’m do-able. Or whatever.

The bad news is that instead of hiring one of the many talented and much-more-capable calligraphers out there, I am doing it myself. For real. No go-back-sies this time. I blame peer pressure. (Mom? Mr. Scissors? Ribbons? Do you hear me?)

So yes, this is where we stand…

Blob.

Spatter… and forgot to re-dip.

Present, March 15, 2010

• I’m crazy and a masochist. And doing all of our calligraphy.

Did anyone else ride the roller-coaster-of-love with calligraphy? Are you going to DIY, or are you going to hire someone? Anybody have any inspiring stories about DIYing and coming out the other end… alive and well?