Calligraphy

Kata-Kata Mutiara

You can, if you think you can, as long as reasonable to say can. Limitation of whether something makes sense or not, we'll see other people, if someone else has done or has reached his dream, the dream is reasonable.

Look back to your current trip, going to where? Is the direction of a better, or at worse, or stay just like today? Establish a decision and Live to the consequences.

Let us not be lulled to fulfill its worldly wealth is only temporary, until we forget our real task in this world that is collecting supplies for home towards the eternal afterlife. So good Enrich yourself with the material and the spiritual, and distribute wealth to the people surrounding you, especially the more needy.

Allah commands us to want to think about his creation was so amazing, complex, and complex. But all that has God Almighty for our bow. This as a sign that humans have the ability (of God) to menundukan what is in the heavens and the earth.

Barcelona

Out of the blue, back at the beginning of February, I received a delightful email message asking me to participate in a small project involving cities and type at Neue. How could I have said anything but "Yes!" to the person who offered such lovely words about my work.

Using a pointed pen, I crafted the name Barcelona to be somewhat rough, and based the lettering on Visigothic Versals, a style I had the pleasure of getting to know in a fabulous class taught by my friend, the ever talented Risa Gettler. Of course, I had to throw a few flourishes into the mix and here you can see the results. If you have a few minutes, do take a click on over to Neue and check out the Barcelona gallery, you'll be glad you did!

Inspired Bride

A quick note of thanks to Maddy Hague of The Inspired Bride is the first order of business today. Maddy posted some kind words about my work on her lovely wedding site, along with this colourful image she made of some black and white samples of hand lettering I sent over last week. Thank you Maddy!

Seating Rocks

A fellow wedding vendor and I were just now chatting about a post on The Bride's Cafe, since we had both done work for Janie and Gavin, whose wedding is featured today. As we were talking, I popped over to their photographer's website to look at more photos and after only a few clicks I was delighted to find an image of some seating rocks I did in 2003 for Max Brooks' wedding to Michelle Kholos, which was coordinated by Lisa Gorjestani of Details Event Planning.

This very beautiful photo was taken by Isabel Lawrence Photographers and, while I have not worked with them directly, I have had a bit of communication with them and they are just lovely. The word that I have heard, from those who have worked with them, is that they are wonderful!

Facelift

For awhile now I have been wanting to update "my look." Although still in the process, I decided to go ahead and post the best result so far. One thing is certain, I was completely reminded why my original logo was created using type (Charlemagne, with some finagling of a couple of the characters). Writing XYZ by hand, in capital letters, next to each other, in a script that is meant to be beautiful is so much more difficult that you might imagine! As a result, the final "final" design may be some time in coming, but it's a challenge that I am looking forward to.

Anyway, if you're inclined to comment I'd love your feedback, especially what you think about the website now compared to the old website, and the blog, too. I am particularly excited that I was able to discover how to make the favicon show up in the url! : )

Art Heart for Haiti

Laure Ferlita has put together a wonderful project to raise funds to help with the Haitian relief effort. Because I first heard about the project only hours before the deadline, I am so happy that it was extended so that I could participate. Thank you Laure for your big heart!

What's Your Name?

As I was going through images to use for the lecture that I will be giving this Friday evening for the San Diego Fellow Calligraphers, this little gem popped up.  I took a quick shot just before putting these name tags into the basket to take to Yves Leterme's workshop last August.  They are of paste paper and I made them for the students that would be attending the class.  The letter style is one with which I fell in love when I saw a piece created by Yves, that appears on his website. Since the piece did not have a full alphabet, it was an interesting challenge for me to come up with letters on my own that went along with the style!

I Am

For some time now I have been wanting to create some art for my father, a retired minister and professor of theology. This year for Christmas I found a little extra time to make a small piece. The verse is from the book of Matthew in the New Testament.

Felt & Wire

It is exciting for me to tell you that I have been selected to offer my calligraphy and products at Felt & Wire, a curated shop. Stop by and take a look when you have a minute or two. My passion is custom lettering and design so if you have an idea brewing, for a personal monogram or stationery for example, please don't hesitate to contact me to see what we can accomplish together. I am looking forward to my new venture as a shopkeeper!

Love and Kisses

When I was asked to make some signs for Elizabeth Messina's A Lovely Workshop this past year I was quite delighted to say the least. Ever gracious, she sent me some of the photographs she took of my work. I will share a few images today, and will post some more as time goes on.

Pirates

This past weekend I was going through an old hard drive and found the original scans of my lettering for Pirates of the Carribben II. I wrote in walnut ink on Arches Textwove with a pointed pen. The scan is kind of funky but I hope you'll like looking at it anyway!

Joy!

It's not easy to feel joyful with a sore throat and fever, but because I am a bit under the weather today I gave in to some time for play. On this little 2.5" x 3.5" canvas I daubed and painted and brush lettered (even though it's not my strongest lettering skill) but now that it's done, I made a little Joy after all!

The Bride & Bloom

Last year, I was asked by the lovely Lisa Vorce of Oh, How Charming! to help make special a destination wedding, and since she wanted lots of flourishes I couldn't say no! Photographer extraordinaire Aaron Delesie beautifully captured my work and a couple of shots appeared in the latest issue of The Bride & Bloom. All of these photos did not appear in the magazine, but I was fortunate to have received a few that didn't make the pages, so I can to share them with you here.

Birthday Gift Book

A dear friend, who is a talented artist and is always making lovely things, recently had a birthday. For a while now I have been working too much (a boring mantra, for sure) and although my lettering gets better from all the practice, it's hard to find time to do fun and artistic things. So, since I received a beautiful handmade book for my birthday from her one year I wanted to reciprocate with a handmade gift. The cover was made using some paste paper that I painted. The project took longer than I had expected but it was fun finding the ribbons, sentiments and embellishments. Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Gestural Writing

Two weekends ago I had the great fortune to study with my new calligraphic hero, Yves Leterme. He is a wonderful teacher, so organized and helpful in his critique. It was a lot of work but so rewarding, and I had a blast! Most days my work requires that I mainly write pretty script letters and pull swashy flourishes for a wedding something-or-other. Yves, however, had us thinking outside the box (one of my favourite things to do). Here are some of what I consider to be my best words of the weekend...

That Guy

Here's the Helzberg Diamond television commercial that features my calligraphy. Any work that I had done for film prior to this was done alone in my studio, so it was fun to be on site to do the lettering, and on camera, too! Well, at least the pen on the other side of my hand was....

Chocolate Love

You must admit, chocolate is popular, and here is a stamp to prove it! They are available for purchase on Zazzle today. Feel free to contact me if you want a colour to coordinate or complement your event (a variety will be offered in the near future).

Always & Forever

This was one of my favourite weddings for may reasons but here are just three ... it was a complete joy working with the bride and her mother, Rosalie; the event planner, Linda Howard, is the consummate professional, and I love flourishing! Inside Weddings magazine also liked the wedding of Randie Rubaum and Alan Kleinman as it was featured in their Summer 2008 issue and an image, showing the monogram I created, is still used as an image in the flash frame on their website. Here are some images of my contribution to the festivities, courtesy of and with many thanks to John Solano Photography.

                                           Photos : © John Solano

Chandelier "Seating" Crystals

Making beautiful letters on paper is one thing, but making them on chandelier crystals brings calligraphy to a whole new dimension! From a 2007 wedding that was planned by Lisa Gorjestani of Details Event Planning, these crystals were presented on a chandelier for guests to find their seating assignment.

Fresh From The Archives

Just yesterday I found a wicker basket tucked away that held a couple of cute little dishes I was asked to hand letter on a few years ago. They were originally for a layout in Brides magazine and were later published in Maria McBride-Mellinger's book The Perfect Wedding Details. Here they are filled with confetti, but what would you fill them with to make the perfect wedding favour for your guests?

                                           Containers : Industrial Plastics