Art of Calligraphy

The very first thing we are taught in school after learning to speak is writing letters. In the age of text and typing, the soothing art of creating elaborate decorative script is gaining legions of fans. The art or practice of writing letters and words in a decorative style is what Modern Calligraphy is. The following story is about a Calligraphy Artist from Italy I met on Instagram, her name is Chiara 🙂

I always love handmade letters for the uniqueness that everyone writes unique lettering. I like typography but I think lettering succeeds in giving a soul to letters, just because they are not perfect as a font. When I was 16, I attended a calligraphy course because I had been spellbound by medioevalis miniatures (Calligraphy) reading the book – Il nome della Rosa by Umberto Eco. Then, I put this passion in a drawer since last spring. I picked the nibs and I made practice with copperplate bringing back my old book. In the meantime, I started to follow many different pages with my personal account. This is how I found @inkandlise @herhazeleyes.studio @leslie.writes.it.all @addmanilla @oraarts and @stephsayshello. And thanks to these artists, my love for handmade letters grew up day by day. So, I started making practice with lettering: I watched many tutorials and I tried to reproduce some post of my idols. These are my secrets ingredients for all the newbie of calligraphy: Youtube, Pinterest and Skillshare are the best places for learning and daily practice is the best way to improve your style.

Initially I spent many hours watching and studying the posts of my favourite page then, I read many books trying to learning new styles and techniques. I always kept looking for interesting pics about lettering on Pinterest. I sometimes found the inspiration in unexpected ways – from a flower, a feelingI felt some days ago and so on. I lettered a thought I got while I was walking with my son. My husband gave me the support to start my page and he always encourages me when something goes wrong. And there are my followers, some of them became my friends. I share with them my success, my fears and my doubts.

My Family

By my Instagram page and from my satisfied clients.

Almost anyone with a steady hand and decent penmanship can be successful at starting a home calligraphy business. Calligraphy lettering does require learning and daily practice to make the final product into a beautiful design. You need to develop your own style, this is very important and then you can open your Etsy Store (suggesting even though I don’t have one).

For the first time, it was in September 2018 I got an order to make 60 invitations for a wedding through a friend, I was worried about the opportunity I was given but, eventually everything went well and the couple were very happy on my work done. They also said that many guests have appreciated my handwritten invitations making them feel special.

Calligraphy for me isn’t a work, this is the point that keeps my mind refreshing like meditating. It bring me in touch with my soul and when I’m writing every problems, every doubts goes away 😀

I’m currently working in a Bank as Risk Manager, even if it sounds quite strange but my work has a lot in common with Calligraphy – it helps me to study, practice stay focused & be patient. Thanks to my Husband who has always been around to organize my workshops, edit videos, help me answer to email messages and spends quality time with my son when I’m working on my Calligraphy.

The Italian Law doesn’t help artists i.e., we are not salaried. Although Italy holds two-thirds of the world’s artistic heritage, more and more often the creators of our home are forced to emigrate and I chose to work on both of them as it’s a necessity for my Living & thirst of my interest in Calligraphy. You can read an interview given by an artist who has emigrated to another country for his career in art here.

I’m going to open my Youtube Channel: I wanna share some tutorials and I wanna help my followers to get better with me and learn Japanese Calligraphy (Shodo).

I wake up early in the morning at 6am, make & have a long breakfast with my family talking about our day and what we have to do, sometimes (if have the right inspiration) I write something to stay inspired for the day and I go to work by a walk by the sea. Work until afternoon. If it’s a sunny day I would like to walk around my town with my son (he’s 2 years old), before making the dinner & I finally spend 2 hours dedicated to calligraphy.