Did you know that they no longer teach cursive writing in public school? It's damn crime really. I remember being totally obsessed with handwriting as a kid.
I still am.
I loved practicing my signature and trying to emulate my mother's beautiful lettering. At the beginning of each school year I would spend hours in my bedroom writing my name over and over and over until I felt I'd nailed it.
No cursive?!
It's just flippin' ridiculous!
What's Clementine going to do when she needs to autograph her first best selling novel? How is Griffin going to sign his name on his first recording contract?
With an X? No child of mine.
So it's decided. I'm just going to have to take on the task of teaching my kids to write. I'm not kidding around.
Which brings me to this awesome workshop I co-hosted this week.
Introduction to Modern Calligraphy with Joanne Lauzon of inDetail.
I met Joe a little over a year ago in the shop and we just never really lost touch. She's a creative, entrepreneurial spirit, and we folks just seem to stick together. She's also super thoughtful, and when I turned 35 this year she surprised me with a little personalized piece of artwork.
Is this the nicest or is this the nicest?
When I was lining up my winter workshops here at the store, reaching out to Jo was a no brainer.
What I love about Joe is that she has shit locked down.
From the beautifully hand-lettered welcome sign, to the starter kits she put together for every student, the girl put my other slap-happy workshops to shame.
We started with the basics. As much as I wanted to drive right into my ink well (which I later spilled all over the place), Joe walked us through pencil drills like a hard knocks nun.
As a (late) 70s child, I still wrote my final high school exams double-spaced on foolscap (did you know that's the spelling of that word? I had to Google it three times to believe it) until my hand cramped into a tiny baby fist of pain.
I know how to hold a writing utensil.
But, as I looked around the room during this class, I was amused to see how so many of the young bloods held their pens. Death grips! But I digress.
Nothing a little practice couldn't fix.
We had a huge, colourful group of people attend (we even added a 2nd night) that included shop owners, graphic designers, interior designers, diy'ers and general hobbiest.
Look at them go!
All in all Joe taught 38 aspiring calligraphers.
And me. ('dems 'da perks)
By the end of the three hour class, I was a calligraphy monster. I can't even write normally anymore. I practically calligraphed (not a word) this whole post, scanned and posted it as a picture. But I didn't have 72 hours to spare.
Phase TWO of this workshop is Composition and COLOUR!
