Jane of all trades: Calligrapher?

Calligraphy is an interest I've had for quite a while now [as evidenced by the box of calligraphy books and various pens (mostly felt tipped) I collected during my crafting years (from about age 8 to 15) that my mother sent back home with me last month]. I'd tried many times to master Uncial and other such very traditional, blocky scripts, the kind you'd find on a diploma, but as with many of my interests I would get flustered or just distracted by something else and not progress much.

Since then I've dabbled occasionally with dip pens and nibs, and I even took a brush Chinese calligraphy class in college. When we went to Europe last year I bought some writing nibs in Paris (I want to go back and get some more!), and on my never-ending quest for the perfect client packaging I decided to play around with hand lettering. For a while I was creating my own hand, a loose whimsical script similar to others I've admired recently, but the results were inconsistent and the process of scanning them in and cleaning them up was a bit laborious.

I'd been told by my friend Holly Hollon (and a few other local calligraphers) to look into Deb Warnat's classes, and when another local photographer, Sunny Jones, mentioned wanting to take a class, I told her about Deb and decided to sign up too. I'm so so glad I did. Taking a calligraphy class was on my only mental bucket list but I never thought I'd take the time to do it. For the four weeks I had classes on Thursday nights it was a highlight of my week. We learned Copperplate, and I gifted myself with quite a few calligraphy related goodies for my birthday (a small light table, various nibs, some sumi ink, Dr. Martin's Pen White, and some high quality HP copy paper to practice on).

If you follow me on instagram you might be overwhelmed with my hand lettering attempts. I've really enjoyed writing out some favorite quotes and nonsense, and I've really loved following other calligraphers' instagram accounts for more inspiration. Above are some of my instagrammed doodlings, feel free to follow me @spindlephoto if you want to see more as I keep improving!