Bella Figura calligrapher Sarah Hanna recently taught a custom map workshop at The Windmill Paper Boutique in Boca Raton, Florida, and took some beautiful photos of the class! Today we’re sharing a recap of the workshop – take a look! 

Sarah developed her class to help other artists create personal, hand illustrated maps like the ones shown below. She designed it to help artists expand their business by using technology without losing their artfulness. Each student received a personalized workbook with the class notes and space to take their own notes during the lecture. 

The workshop curriculum was designed to blend fashion and function – a love story, a wedding, a family history, or, as the above commission illustrates, a personal story. Each student came to class with a storyline prepared.  The class was split 50/50 with professional artists and students who were interested in using the techniques for personal gifts. It was a fantastic group of creatives!

Blending the artist’s human touch with the digital world was the order of the day….an artist in Colorado even took the course via FaceTime! We love how Sarah coordinated her outfit with the workshop theme (thanks to the Gap in California!). 

       

Sarah got in touch with her catering roots (the kitchen is the only place she is happier than in an art studio) and catered lunch. After all, food is art, isn’t it? We love the artist’s palette cookies that Sarah had as a treat for workshop participants – she worked with Kathy Scharmann to create them and they were so cute!  

 

At the end of the class, Sarah provided an art supply petting zoo, where the students had hands-on time to play with pigment, brushes and various types of archival paper.  Sarah also went over her recommended art supplies to use for master copies and which techniques to use – and the ones to avoid. 

Many thanks to Sarah for sharing a peek inside of her beautiful workshop at the Windmill! 

Our Designer of the Month Nicole Black recently offered a penmanship class with Southern Fried Paper, and she’ll be offering more classes again soon! Today we’re sharing details on what Nicole’s class entails, along with some quick tips for how to improve your own penmanship. We love how the class began: out of a love for beautiful, heartfelt words, carefully crafted with patience and pride. We’ll let Nicole take over from here!

This is a traditional penmanship class.  One that will teach you how to write with the grace of our grandmothers or great grandmothers. To slow down and think about each letter and each word and make them count to make a meaningful statement that the recipient will enjoy reading.

We spend some quality time on the foundations: doing warm up drills and learning the basic hand motions. Lower case and capital letters are covered in this class so you can leave able to write notes. Not to leave you hanging there, we go over connecting letters, making words, writing sentences and how to write a traditional letter (by hand!).

Everyone gets a one-on-one progress review to help work out any trouble areas. For those afraid you will forget what we have learned — a wonderful class booklet is provided along with a pen, notepad and pencils. 

We end the class with a pen round table where the participants get to test out different pens to find their favorite… because what works for your neighbor may not be your favorite. 

Quick and easy tips for improving your penmanship at home – slow down! Develop a rhythm of writing and stick to it, slow down with the pen and you will see an ease of flow with the letters develop. Also, it is okay to write on lined paper.  I’m a seasoned letter writer and still use guides to keep my lines straight. If you want to write on unlined correspondence paper – just place a piece of notebook paper underneath and follow the lines.  When you are finished, you have written in straight lines without them being there and your recipient will be soooo impressed!

Many thanks to Nicole for sharing a peek inside her penmanship workshop! Looks fun, doesn’t it? Be sure to check out Nicole’s designs this month – they’re on sale through the end of February (and Bella Figura customers save on calligraphy addressing from Nicole, too!).