Calligraphy for the Ballerina Wedding

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Holly

Last year, I was sitting at the drawing board, when Sue Corral called from www.DesignCorral.com She had been at a speaking engagement in NYC, when the Martha Stewart Weddings people asked her to design the stationary for “The Ballerina Wedding.” Tiler Peck and Robbie Fairchild, the two principal dancers in the New York City Ballet, were getting married! Willingly, she submitted samples from several calligraphers to the ballerinas, and unbeknownst to me, mine had been selected! Tiler and Robbie wanted lettering that was traditional, tailored and elegant. I was honored. So Sue and I put our heads together to come up with something special. Sue, had the design reigns and sent multiple mockups, but the ballerinas had simple, elegant taste. They landed on one, that incorporated the motif from the Cathedral floor in the picture below. Enjoy the professional pictures taken by Photographer Charlotte Jenks Lewis, www.charlottejenkslewis.com

Both the lettering and the tri-floral ends of the design were letterpressed in gold foil. Originally, the calligraphy was created in black…

Letterpressed type and “Dinner and Dancing” calligraphy was charcoal grey.I am sharing a close up with you….one might think that the gold lettering is typeset, the letterpress makes it look soooo perfect. But no, this was all done by hand at the drawing board, retouched in Photoshop and digitally transported to Sue. The calligraphy was much more delicate than it shows here. If you are not familiar with letterpress, the process always thickens the intended fine lines.Menu’s were letterpressed via Sue, as well. In an effort to elegantly use the Menu as a Place Card, I was asked to personalize each one with gold gouache. I used FineTec gold, but have to say that the marriage between the paper and the gold was a delicate one. I painstakingly went over each name a second time, so that the hairlines would 1). show up better 2.) while not losing their delicacy…so had to keep a light tough. I achieved the look that I wanted. (Perhaps soon I will post a closeup of a few of those.) Here is their extraordinarily romantic table setting. I was pleasantly surprised to see the calligraphy initials that I created for their names, foiled into the cover of Tiler and Robbie’s Guest Book.

The initials also appeared on their peekabo wedding programs. Again, the symbol from the Cathedral floor the cut-out on the cover.

Another surprise was to see the calligraphy delicately carved into the lid of the wedding ring box below. How sweet is this!?

The table numbers came towards the end of our project. Tiler and Robbie had the originals. I scanned them, so that both Sue and I could reproduce the table numbers, in case others wanted to use them. My Epson printer prints on two sided digital Entrada fine art paper, so it is easy enough to do.

The wedding favors, were two special little cookies in a box, that the Martha Stewart Weddings people hired out. My lettering did include a flourish, which I thought for sure would be perfect for a ballerina wedding. I had envisioned them reducing the design so it would fit on the box. Instead, it was removed. Nevertheless, I’ll show you! It’s below the last picture in this blog.

To see all of the wedding credits and pictures, go to www.MarthaStewartWeddings.com 20th Anniversary Edition > Tiler and Robbie wedding > Slide show > page 44, to see all of the fabulous people who helped to make their wedding a day to remember.

May these two beautiful ballet dancers, live happily ever after. What a fabulous couple they are…with a bright future! Again, check us out: Calligraphy: Holly V. Monroe, Stationary Design: Sue Corral, and Photography: Charlotte Jenks Lewis

Thanksgiving Place Cards with quick Brush Lettering

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Holly

Each year my friends, Tim and Teresa Cleary invite two families to join them for Thanksgiving at their Elk Lake cabin, Chateau Relaxo. It’s a fun several days full of puzzles, games, occasional polar bear leap into the lake, hot tubbing, paint ball, movies & reading, an annual pumpkin toss and just catching up with each other. The Thanksgiving dinner is cooked by all of us, so it’s delicious. We share the cooking load. Teresa reminds me to ‘bring your calligraphy pens’. She provides the colored paper and each year, we try to do something different with the placecards. Here is a sample from this year…I used gold gouache applied with a Kolinsky brush #4 round. Freehand!

And here is one of my favorite pictures from a past pumpkin toss!

Emily and Josh Monroe, Heidi and Phil Lofton, Mike and Kari Rogers, David Strife, Emily Cleary

Calligraphy in California!

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Holly

September 2014 – I continued my summer fun by heading out to teach in San Diego and Huntington Beach! Wendy Watson-Diedrick worked her little fingers to the bone arranging a fabulous line up of classes for me to teach as well as a talented group of people to study with. She also opened her home to me and drove me to Huntington Beach. Gracias! As you can see from the picture below, the San Diego crowd was a large one. Thank you to Terry Bajo for taking over the workshop duties, and to Victoria Kibildis for hostessing me at Wendy’s house, when Wendy had a family wedding conflict. A big thank you to Linda Mirth who orchestrated the Huntington Beach class…found the venue, rounded up the students, the housing and fixed a delightful lunch for Wendy and me at her home.

Back to San Diego. What you can’t see is that we started on a Friday afternoon with a 10 person “Business of Calligraphy” seminar. Topics in the session ranged from copyright, to workshops and retreats, taking the orders, pricing and scheduling our day. We all grew by sharing our insight and expertise.

Friday evening, the guild hosted my “Calligraphy Today” digital presentation to a group of about 25. I walk you through my personal calligraphic background along with pictures of my studio, my father’s and mother’s work and later, I promote colleagues of mine, by showing select pieces of their work with different applications….lettering on glass, clay, tables, walls, violin, logos, greeting cards, books, etc. The lettering arts are still alive and well in this current day and age. Nothing can replace the human artistic touch!

The weekend’s 2-day workshop was my popular Fantastic Flourishes class. Students learn the basics of flourishing on Saturday and then create a circle or a spiral, interlocking the flourishes on Sunday. What seemed to help most was, thinking-out-loud as I penciled in the flourishes on a circular design. I walked away without calligraphy pictures from this class (so San Diego…send examples to me when you can!)

Above, hostess Victoria introducing me to a San Diego beach! Glorious! Below is her penciled spiral complete with interlocking flourishes. Great job Victoria….now to finish!

Monday, Wendy and I drove up the coast to Huntington Beach, where we met with Linda Mirth, who graciously orchestrated the evening Decorated Letters classes there. It was hot, hot, hot! Still there was a wonderful attendance of about 18 students, putting their hand to creating beautiful letters. Here are a few…..first, Wendy’s decorated S with Seashells…..A very clever shoe makes the crossbar of a G, representing a family’s initial and interests…I need the name of the talented designer!! One of their exercises was to illustrate the letter.

Nancy Kazanjian created this lovely “H” below….she is planning on adding another ‘musical’ layer to her creation. This exercise was exaggerating a part of the letter.

Below, Carole Johnson created this flourished “B” combining a more Fraktur looking B with flourishing….

Stephanie Chao worked through the exercise of decorating “on” and “in” the letter. There were more, but these are a few of those who created the letters in about 5 hours or less.

And below is Stephanie, Carolyn, Chris and Wendy smiling in the front. Here we were in Huntington Beach. Thanks to all of them for a wonderful California calligraphy experience!

At the front table, Sandy and _________. Back from L to R, Linda Mirth, ______ and ______

THANK YOU THURSDAY calligraphy cards

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Holly

My art director, Susan Birnbaum, DesignDesign Inc., has started a movement for being thankful! She calls it, “Thank You THURSDAY” It’s a day every week, to specifically remember family and friends who have expressed kindness to you in any way with a handwritten greeting card. Personally, I place greeting cards at my kitchen table, with lovely complimentary stamps, so I’m ready to write!

The butterfly card, is published by DesignDesign. The variegated letters are formed by dropping watercolor into the wet letters, a technique that I’ll be demonstrating at the IAMPETH conference in Indianapolis, Thursday, August 7th – Round Robin evening event. You can use any number of papers but Lanaquarelle or Arches Cold Press watercolor paper work very well. I typically use Winsor Newton or M. Graham watercolor and love the vibrant results!

Below are several greeting cards that I’ve designed for DaySpring. All in black and white until their printers stamped foil on the colorful backgrounds.

The greeting cards can be purchased in my SHOP under the Card category.

Calligraphy Cruise Alaska 2014 – A good time was had by all!

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Holly

This June 21-28, 2014 we took our calligraphy pens and brushes onto Holland America’s msWesterdam and journeyed to Alaska’s inner passageway. What a treat to enjoy our artistic endeavors in the lap of luxury! Holly taught Flourished Italic while Gary Lord taught Decorative Painting on Glass. Students combined the two skills in their final projects. Come take a peek – I’ll share a few pictures with you! Get on my email list if you would like to join me on a future cruise adventure!

Marilyn Dietrich, Maria Medeles and Holly Monroe about to board msWesterdam

Thursday, before our Saturday sail away, we met at a downtown Seattle hotel and enjoyed some time getting to know each other. There were 22 total in our group this year! Friends, Debbie and Ray Story (top right in photo) surprised me at the hotel, I had no idea they were coming. All the way from Tennessee! Others were from CO, OH, IN, TX, and CA.

Gathering at hotel in Seattle

Thursday evening, we ate at The Purple, Seattle. Friday, many went on the 3 hour tour of the city, while others went off on their own.

Waterfall park in downtown Seattle. Peggy Whalen (travel agent), Holly Monroe (instructor), Maria Medeles, Debbie Story

Chihuly’s Glass and Gardens

Friday evening, we gathered at Salty’s and enjoyed the view of the harbor and mountains.

Browns, Judys and Marianne Lord at Salty’s

Ray Story enjoying a lobster at Salty’s, Seattle

Holly at Pike Street Market….original Starbucks after a power walk through town.

Saturday morning, we boarded the ship for our week long adventure!

Flowers on msWesterdam

Our calligraphy/decorative painting class was a serious 20 hour focus. Weather this week was a little cloudy and chilly, was a perfect excuse to be creative! The classroom, lined with windows allowed us to view the Alaskan landscapes as we worked. Here is Gary Lord showing Marilyn a painting technique.

One half of the classroom! The windows in the room gave us a perfect view of the scenery.Holland America provided us a beautiful classroom for the week. All of our supplies could be left there nightly. Daily, they provided us with coffee, tea and cookies. There was a Chocolate Beverage bar out the back door! Those of us who signed up early for the cruise had a $50 per day credit for beverages of any type! We were well hydrated!

As promised, everyone was able to enjoy all of the towns and excursions as the ship docked. Our first town was Juneau, Alaska where many went whale watching and hiked to the Mendenhall Glacier.

Totem Pole trail in Sitka

Here we are on the ship’s deck checking out Glacier Bay….

This was out of the Lido window as we overlooked the Ketchikan skyline. Can you see the sea plane landing? Such a beautiful sunny day….

And then there was an evening in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Took a water taxi over to the main part of town! Such fun….

So many amenities on the ship…from fine dining every evening

…to formal nights and amazing entertainment….from Dancing with the Stars, music (Recycled Percussion) and comedy

I have so many pictures, it was hard to decide which to share. Ask me to see others! I’ll close with our fabulous group of travelers on a formal night. (Missing are Abbey and Wayne Hutchison – they did not jump ship! 🙂