PRINTThink Ink: Calligraphy
Keeping the ancient art of calligraphy alive
Courtesy of Michele Keele
A close-up shot of one of Michele Keele’s hand lettered invitations.
May 13, 2010 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Michele Keele says she was an anomaly in grade school because she loved learning cursive. Now she puts that obsession to use through her calligraphy business, The Artist’s Hand.
Keele hand letters invitations and paper products for social events and is especially busy now: It’s wedding season. She started calligraphy in high school and says she’s “had a somewhat compulsive, oddball enjoyment of paper textures and how the ink flows on the page.”
Calligraphy is based on the history of the handwritten word and societies craving connections. The most requested style from clients is fine point letters that require a sharper nib to control the shapes. Fine-pointed lettering is used for cursive styles like copperplate or Spencerian scripts. Broader styles like Olde English (think The New York Times masthead) are made using a blunt, rectangular-shaped nib.
Keele originally focused on getting the lettering right, but she now adapts existing styles to broaden her artistic expression. The flow of ink is meditative, she says.
