Meant to Be Calligraphy Workshop

Hi!

Two weekends ago I went to a calligraphy workshop taught by Michele Hatty Fritz of Meant to Be Calligraphy and it was so much fun!  I signed up for this ten-person workshop several months ago, so I've been looking forward to it for a long time!!  I found out about it on Instagram (of course!) and it was at Becket Hitch, an adorable store about 15 minutes away that I had actually been to once before.



The store was closed except for us to use, so that was fun.



There was a long table set up with everything we needed!  There were even pretty flowers from Petal and Print.  

Here are the supplies we got!

Four different nibs  

Pen holder  

Black ink  

A Dinky Dip ink holder

Plastic container to carry everything in

Worksheets/example pages

Pad of translucent paper  



We each got our own super-cutely-personalized folder, too :)

We started off by making our own guideline sheets.  We drew them on graph paper and Michele told us where to draw the solid and dashed lines that we would use when we started writing letters.  This sheet goes under the top sheet of translucent paper so you can see the guidelines (and reuse the guideline sheet)!  What a good idea.

Then we started using our pens and ink.  First we did simple things like draw short lines down, then up, then down and up continuously.  We did this to get a feel for the pen and how we should hold it, and also to practice having a thick line on down strokes and a think line when going up.  The nibs make this happen pretty much automatically, but you can control the thickness with pressure.  Holding the pen correctly and getting used to the feel of the nib on the paper is definitely something you have to get used to.

There were some snacks from a nearby restaurant (I can't remember the name!) and they were very yummy.  Two different kinds of tiny muffins and a plate of delish veggies and dip.

Next we went outside so we could all stand around Michele and watch her write the lower-case alphabet.  Watching her do this helped so much once we were practicing.  We practiced all lower-case for a while back inside, writing individual letters and also practicing connecting them.  Then she demonstrated capital letters outside, and we practiced those too!



While we practiced, she walked around the table and gave feedback and answered questions, fixing how we were holding the pen when necessary and demonstrating how to write letters/words for us on our papers.  She also showed each of us how to write our whole name so we knew how to do that when we left.

The workshop was so much fun!  It was the day after the totally crazy snow storm, so I was worried that it would either be canceled or that the roads would be too bad to drive there, but luckily neither happened!  Michele lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and she also does workshops in her home office for even smaller groups of people.

I'm so glad I did this!  I've always loved hand lettering and changing my handwriting and I've been wanting to learn how to do calligraphy!  Now I know how!  I've been practicing a lot since that day and each time I get a little bit better.  It would be so fun to eventually address envelopes for weddings and things like that!!

Thanks for reading!

Crafty Fun Things

Hello!

Yesterday I was invited to sell my hair ties and crafts at a craft fair in December!  I'm so excited!!  Today I worked on making a bunch of Holiday hair tie sets and I'm going to make some headbands next.  I also want to make cards, tags, and anything else I can think of so I have lots of stuff to sell!!

Yesterday I was near this outdoor mall so I looked around and I found a fun store called Becket Hitch.  They have so many cute things like paper goods, cute jewelry, things to hang on the walls, blankets, baby toys, lotion, candles, etc.  I didn't buy anything (it was all pretty expensive) but I got some good ideas of things I want to make for my Etsy shop!  

Alex and I were going to go to the American Visionary Art Museum tonight because they had free admission from 4-7pm and they were also doing a lantern-making workshop that sounded fun!  At 7pm they started showing Ghostbusters outside.  We figured parking may have been kind of hard and I'm a wimp so I thought it might be too cold to watch a movie outside :)

Somebody in one of the restaurants in our building apparently was mad and pulled the fire alarm that set off alarms on the entire block.  Thanks a lot!  This was about an hour ago and luckily we didn't have to be outside very long at all.  We never see anybody in our apartment so it was weird seeing how many people live here, especially on our floor!  Funny.  We got inside in time to watch Scandal now and How to Get Away with Murder next!

Tomorrow is Halloween and my first Moonbot improv show with Charm City Comedy Project!  That should be very fun!

Thanks for reading!