Scroll for a special occasion

This is a sneak preview of a calligraphy commission I've worked on this week. It's top secret, a gift for New Year's Eve. And while there's as much chance of the intended recipient finding it here as there is of me turning turquoise in the next half hour, I don't want to reveal all until next year... so watch this space!

Calligraphy with magnolia illustration

Another very original commission, for a poem authored by my customer to be written and decorated with magnolia flowers.

My customer chose simple italics for the calligraphy style, and the magnolia illustration to the left of the calligraphy lettering. This poem is going all the way to South Carolina!

(That's so far Google can't calculate the walking distance for me. Thought I'd try!)

I Will Be Here - with cornflowers!

The run up to Christmas is turning out to be full of original calligraphy commissions - some for anniversaries, some for Christmas presents. It's exciting wondering what I'll be asked to write next!

This handwritten version of I Will Be Here is in my simple italic calligraphy style, and illustrated with cornflowers in ink and gouache.

Calligraphy Poem Commission

My latest calligraphy commission is an inspiring poem I wanted to share.

The calligraphy is in 'Antique', with an illuminated letter and straight border in spring colours of yellow, green, blue and pink.

The full poem reads as follows:

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE
By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

1892

Calligraphy Scrolls

I'm often asked about handwritten calligraphy scrolls, and this has been a bit of an ongoing project for the last couple of years.

I don't advertise scrolls on the websites but I will make them on request - and I've had some of the best feedback from my scroll customers so I really should add them to the site!

I've been asked twice today about scrolls for calligraphy poems, and as a result I've had a rifle through my image files and found these to upload to the blog. I hope you like them.

Wedding Table Plan with Roses

This is the wedding table plan I was working on last week, inspired by black baccara roses. The calligraphy is in my Cinderella style, with guest names in black and table names in deep red to match the roses.
The black baccara roses have a two tone effect, so these were painted in watercolour and shaded in watercolour pencil. Stems and leaves are in black ink, which I blended with a wet brush to give it a bit of dimension.

New Poem Calligraphy Site

I think the new calligraphy poems website is looking much prettier, just in time for Christmas. I've put a lot of work into optimising all the calligraphy images and using keywords to help people find the site. Now I have to keep my fingers crossed to see if it works... which could interfere with the day job. Yikes!

Anyway, have a look and please tell your friends! I hope you enjoy the site.

Claire x

Calligraphy for Tiffany Event

A proud moment from October: I was asked to address envelopes for invitations to the launch of the Tiffany jewellery department at Selfridges in Manchester.

The envelopes were a gorgeous shade of blue, and of course the paper quality was fabulous. They'd been shipped over from the US for the occasion. I wrote in copperplate calligraphy, in black ink.

Tiffany jewellery is now available in store at Selfridges, Exchange Square, Manchester.

Want a Poem?

It's lovely to be asked to write a guest blog and make a new friend. Amy from I Want A Poem kindly asked me to write a few words about the benefits of calligraphy, and has posted them on her blog this morning.
Amy is herself a Creative Genius*, being the brains behind I Want A Poem. A calligrapher copies poems out - easy - but Amy will come up with the words for personalised poems for any occasion!

*See the blog post!

Calligraphy from Poems With Love

More updates to the Poems With Love website, all going on behind the scenes. Here's another new calligraphy poem you'll see on the new site very soon

This is written in the Antique calligraphy style, with a gold illuminated letter. The swirly border has red roses and creamy white stargazer lilies - these were in the wedding bouquet.

Calligraphy Poems

Not sure if the launch of Windows 7 has upset AOL or if it's the cold weather, but I've been cut off from the world for a few days, with the choice of doing my accounts or redesigning my poems website to keep me busy. Tough decision
So the website is coming on in leaps and bounds. It's going to be more image-led so I've been sorting through this year's work trying to find the best photos to work with. This is one and I'll post some more later. :-)
Lovely to be back on the internet. Feels like it's been a long time!

Wedding Place Card Calligraphy - Gold

Still catching up on this year's work, so here are some place cards from a few weeks back. I think the cards were from Cardlab - they're a lovely quality.

Calligraphy is handwritten in gold gouache, in the Copperplate style.

Lots more examples on the Wedding Calligrapher website.

Wedding Invitations

I've been looking for this photo for ages - a recent commission for wedding invitation calligraphy was a real treat. I don't know where these invitations were from, but they were a beautiful texture and looked amazing with the white ribbons. Pure white can be a gorgeous colour scheme for a wedding.

Wedding Invitation Calligraphy

Letterpress wedding invitation with Copperplate calligraphy.

Please forgive me, readers... I have broken the internet.

Well, I changed the website, it's all new and shiny, but all the images showing up in Google search are from the old site. You click them, they go nowhere.

Except the ones from my blog! Which are appearing for the first time. Hence this quick upload of some wedding invitation calligraphy :-)

Claire x

Why I love my job

I've just had an email from a customer who ordered her wedding banquet table plan last week.

"Wow! We received the plan and it's absolutely brilliant - I am thrilled to bits with it and think it will be a talking point on the day!
Thank you ever so much for the plan, for sending it early and for your excellent service in general - to be honest I have found dealing with some wedding suppliers like getting blood from a stone, which is bad in times of a recession when people should be falling over themselves to help, but I have found you a pleasure to deal with and will be recommending you to everyone!"

... and that's why I work so hard at this. I love a happy bride.

Andrea if you ever read this - thank you.

Claire x

Wedding Table Plan with Venue Illustration

While updating the website I've found lots of calligraphy work I did for summer weddings when there just wasn't time to blog - so I wanted to show off a few bits and bobs here.

This table plan was for a wedding at St Audries Park in July. Here's a close up of my illustration of the venue:

There was a period of a month or so where I was commissioned for lots of wedding venue illustrations on table plans, more of which are shown on the Wedding Calligrapher website under Venue Table Plans.

At the moment these plans are priced the same as any table plan, the illustration is included in the price you pay for calligraphy... so if you're interested, book early!

New Stuff at Wedding-Calligrapher.com

I've tried to add plenty of categories to the new site - recently I've been commissioned for more poems than anything else - even through the wedding season it was mainly anniversary commissions! (There was one three-week period I did 15 poems)

So I've added more images to the wedding invitation calligraphy section for starters. Here's my favourite pic - lily from my own garden.

The Brand New Wedding Calligrapher Website

The new website is online! I'm delighted. Still a few bits to iron out, but it's an improvement on the old one and it's so good after all the hours I've put in to see it on the interweb. Let's hope it helps with business a little!

The Buachaille Etive Mor

It's a mountain. I was commissioned to create an illustration to go with the poem The Last of the Grand Old Masters. Masking fluid worked well for the fast flowing stream in the 'classic' view of the Buachaille.

New Calligraphy Poem

I loved this commission and the feedback from my client was fantastic. I've been over the moon ever since!