A Creative Year

What did you create this past year? Was it a productive year for you? Are you looking forward to more for the new year?

One of the creative things I did this year was to start this website. I've enjoyed the process of researching and finding all kinds of interesting links and projects to explore.

Almost more for my own information, I started the pages on uses for calligraphy and wedding uses for calligraphy. Have I ever been amazed at how many things are now on those lists.

One of my favorite finds was discovering the old manuscript sites. What an amazing wealth of letters and designs to explore there. I've spent way more hours than I should have writing out letters and drawing designs that I liked for my own resource book.

I'm thinking about starting a separate blog just for new letters for you to enjoy and use. I won't promise anything just yet - we'll see how things go.

Here's hoping the past year was a productive and creative one - and wishing you an even more creative and productive year ahead.

Happy New Year!
Evelyn

Latest Webpages Added

I've just added several more webpages that you will want to check out.

Another manuscript source at Codices Palatini Germanici - this one with over 800 manuscripts.

The first commissioned Bible in calligraphy in hundreds of years - The Saint John's Bible

Something to inspire you to write and mail someone a letter - Mail & Envelope Art

And something a bit different - Graffiti & Calligraphy

Enjoy!

More Manuscript Resources & A Video

I've just added several more new pages to the website. Check out these two manuscript resources:

Manuscripta Mediaevalia - Germany
Early Manuscripts at Oxford University
 
And then check out this video with a master calligrapher and font designer:
 
Hermann Zaph 
 
Enjoy!
Evelyn

Get Your Dose of a Daily Drop Cap

 recently found a blog called Daily Drop Cap. Every working day this typographer and illustrator adds another gorgeous capital letter to her blog.

And what's more, she invites you to use these caps in your own blog - as I did in this post.

This is a classy black and white one, but you should see some of the color ones she has - amazing!

So head on over to Daily Drop Cap and check it out.

Evelyn

A Change of Plans

When I started the Dancing Pen Calligraphy website earlier this year (2009), my goal was to create a newsletter to send out at regular intervals. However I am finding that doing a full newsletter is more than I can manage at this point.

This past year my husband's kidneys decided to quit working. That has meant months and months of medical and financial issues to deal with. So it's been a tough year in a lot of ways.

But doing this website has been one of those sanity-keepers for me. Something creative that I could work on and get my mind off of other things for awhile. While things seem to have settled down to a routine now and we're doing okay for the time being, I still find it hard to commit to doing the full newsletter I had planned.

So, instead of doing the newsletter, I am simply going to add posts to this blog as I find things of interest to share with you. I'll still have it set up so you can sign up for the newsletter, but that will just be so that I can send out notices now and again that there is new information on the blog.

This might even be the better route to go, as this way I am more likely to pass along the good stuff that I am discovering.

Thanks,
Evelyn