Margaret Shepherd, Artist, Author, Calligrapher

Allies in the letter-writing crusade

2012-02-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the people who write by hand can feel like they're the last ones left on earth who believe that pen and paper are the best way to communicate. Not true! There are a lot of writers and readers out there thinking on this topic--and publishing, blogging, speaking, giving workshops, and, naturally, writing letters.

I've been heartened by the tenacity of my fellow snail-mail support group. Here are a few:

Cindy Zimmerman, mail advocate, WritingInStyle.com
Jodi Smith, etiquette consultant, Mannersmith.com
Mary Robinette Kowal, puppeteer and author, maryrobinettekowal.com
Vimala Rogers, handwriting advocate, iihs.com/vimala-alphabet.html
Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty, handwriting educators, http://handwritingsuccess.com/

You can check out their websites to keep track of what they are doing. You won't need to bemoan that "nobody writes by hand any more" and "penmanship is a dying art" if you simply pick up your pen join the ranks of writers who send their words by mail. Join us!

Write a better envelope

2012-02-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Here is a gizmo that will take over the job of guiding the lines of a hand-addressed envelope. It lends itself to several different uses.
Size it up or down to suit the pen size, the letter size, and the envelope size.

Print it out on standard paper; cut it to fit inside your unlined envelope so it shows faintly through.
Print it out onto transparent acetate; lay it and the envelope on a light table.
Print it out onto stiff paper; cut slots; use it to rule pencil lines on each envelope; erase them once the ink is dry.
With thanks to Katrina Berry

You can lay out the address with each line starting just under the one before, or you can use the slanted lines to start each new line a little to the right of the one before.

Straight lines don't necessarily mean strait-laced designs.

If you don't have to worry about lining up your address, you can give all your attention to making the envelope a one-of-a-kind work of art. Here are two from my archives [not my current address, by now]. For ideas about gussying up your design, go to The Washington Calligrapher's Guild, which offers the winners from their yearly contest "Graceful Envelope" contest. http://www.calligraphersguild.org/envelope.html

The center of the world

2012-02-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

Vũ Thi Phim, self-taught Hanoi calligrapher.

Travel is good for you. It broadens your world, and reminds you that you are not the hub of the universe.

In this picture, I have just met Vũ Thi Phim, a calligrapher in Hanoi who hand-draws her own special style of letters shaped like characters. Look behind us to be reminded about how the Vietnamese prefer to see their world; the Americas are off to the right of the uninterrupted Pacific, while Asia is on the left near the center. This is just the opposite of the usual configuration in the West.

American and European maps split the world at the Bering Strait, group the continents around the Atlantic, place Europe at the center, and minimize the size of the Pacific.

When I was very young, world maps were even more obviously America-centric: they put our country at the center and divided Asia into two. Even then, I couldn't make it make sense.

USA at the center of the world, cutting Asia in two.

Day 14, Countdown to February 14, Special delivery

2012-02-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

If you haven't mailed your love letter, you can deliver it by hand to somewhere it can't be missed. Mail it ahead of time, slide it under the door, place it on the pillow, or slip it into a surprising spot such as a lunch box, keyboard, or dashboard. Use what you know: if he reads his email before everything else, prop it on his computer keyboard; if she checks her bangs in the rear-view mirror, place it there.

Day 13, Countdown to February 14,

2012-02-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

SWAK: the memory of a kiss can decorate your love letter or its envelope. Apply that lipstick sparingly to make a “print” that will resist smearing. If you don't usually wear lipstick, make a heart out of your two fingerprints, touching.

Day 12, Countdown to February 14, A symbol for two

2012-02-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Both illustrations from Calligraphy to Celebrate your Wedding
by Margaret Shepherd

Every great merger deserves its own logo. Mingle two sets of initials to make your own symbol.

This chart offers you a plain alphabet in the center, with decorative swashes in 8 different orientations, to help you find ways to weave your design together.

Day 11, Countdown to February 14, Your favorite age

2012-02-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

You can experiment with formats from an earlier age. If a Renaissance Faire, for instance, is something the two of you enjoy together, declare your love on a rolled parchment scroll and tie it with a red ribbon and gold seal.

Day 10, Countdown to February 14, Tag that bud!

2012-02-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a love letter has to share center stage with a gift of flowers, candy, or something to wear. To put it simply, you're writing "I love you" on a gift tag. But you can make this little detail add depth by choosing an apt quotation and writing it nicely. If you're giving roses, for instance, search quotations websites for something original about flowers such as,"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world." Leo Buscaglia.

Day 9, Countdown to February 14, Much better handwriting

2012-02-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Start with your basic ballpoint handwriting.

If you’re really ambitious about helping your handwriting speak eloquently for you, spend some time learning to use a “crowquill” pen. This flexible metal nib varies from thick to thin when you press down or let up.


Just varying the line width makes your script infinitely more appealing. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to write script when you have guidelines. You can erase them after your black ink dries. Add slant lines at 60° to keep your letters leaning the same direction.


Dip the pen into ink just above where	the slit ends, and then wipe off the excess.

Choose paper with a hard surface, and be careful on the upstroke
to avoid snags that make splats. If you want to add pizzazz with colored ink,
put your guidelines on a thin sheet below your paper and backlight it to avoid
making pencil lines permanent where the strokes cross them.

Day 8, Countdown to February 14, Good-enough handwriting

2012-02-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

There’s no need to be shy about sending “I love you” in your own handwriting; it expresses you just as much as your voice or face does. Your beloved is probably less critical of you than you are.
Like your face, however, a few simple steps can enhance its appeal and help it look its best.

1. Here’s your handwriting, without any help.

2. Add a little weight to the line by using a wider pen.

3. Try a fountain pen with a point such as a “signature stub” that varies the line width a little.

4 A light calligraphy point will also vary the line width in a regular way.

5. A broader calligraphy pen point will let you experiment with historical styles like Italic...


...or Celtic.

Tomorrow, we'll progress from "good-enough handwriting" to "much better handwriting."

Day 7, Countdown to February 14, Mail it with love

2012-02-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

Although the U S Post Office is cutting back on all kinds of services, it continues to offer a “love” stamp design, now in its 39th year. When you mail your love letter, you should accentuate the stamp, with matching ink, extra framing, and even a cupid’s arrow pointing to it.

You can also find stamps with other people’s designs, or you can even commission your own design (either choice costs more than regular postage, of course) on websites such as zazzle.com.

Day 6, Countdown to February 14, Endless Love

2012-02-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

"Our love is forever; it never will end"

This simple paper loop is heart-warmer that also is a brain-teaser. You can write this promise on two sides of a strip of paper and fasten the ends, to make a one-sided Möbius strip that has no beginning and no end.
How to:

Choose any text of 35-45 letters and spaces, depending on the style of letters [Celtic is shown here];
Divide message in two;
Write the first half on one side of a strip of paper 3/4" x 6";
Start the second half of the message upside down on the back of the beginning of the first half, leaving 3/8" overlap to glue the ends.
Fasten ends together with half a twist

Those who remember meeting this paradoxical figure in grade school may also recall that if you cut it carefully in half the long way, it turns into two interlocked rings. It's especially nice for party favors or wedding souvenirs.

I have also seen this rendered in silver as a Möbius strip bracelet, and in a smaller size as a Möbius strip ring.

Day 5, Countdown to February 14, Love in any language

2012-02-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day has spread over the whole planet, touching the hearts of people in Japan, India, and South Africa. You can borrow the word for "love" from anywhere in the world to express yourself in exotic languages and alphabets. Some of these may have special meaning for the two of you:

Chinese "heart"

Korean "love"

Hebrew "love"

Georgian "love" [courtesy Alexander Mikaberidze]

On-line translation makes it simple to find the word you want. You can write virtually any script using either a broad-edged nib or a brush, both of which you can buy as markers. To learn the basics of every writing from Ethiopic to Mongolian, see my book Learn World Calligraphy, Random House. http://margaretshepherd.com

However you write it, you will find that there is a world of love beyond the English language.

Day 4, Countdown to February 14, Someone else's words, or your own

2012-02-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

Write in your own handwriting on note-size printout.....

...or print out a full page border and write with formal italic.

You can write a love letter using your own words, in your own handwriting--or take it up a notch.   You may want someone else's words to capture the feelings you have your heart. But rather than buy a greeting card with sentimental sentiments from a nameless wordsmith in a cubicle, you can search scripture, poetry, song lyrics, or prose for the very best words to use in your love letter.

Choose a quotation that sums up love for the two of you. For instance, shown here at right is “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine" from Song of Solomon 6:3. Copy it in your own handwriting or, if you're ambitious, in calligraphy.* To give it extra appeal, you can use decorative paper.   And go to my website http://margaretshepherd.com to print out this decorative border for free.

*Beginning calligraphers can start with my Learn Calligraphy, from Broadway/Random House, http://margaretshepherd.com/ or the now out of print workbook, Calligraphy Made Easy.

Day 3, Countdown to February 14, Tricks of the trade

2012-02-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Don't let the state of your handwriting stop you from sending a love letter. Since even the average person judges other people's handwriting much more indulgently than their own, the person who loves you is going to cut you a lot of slack when it comes to forgiving your scrawl.

Now that you've gotten motivated to use your own handwriting, you can spruce it up with a few simple tips:

Lay two sheets of plain paper underneath your stationery to pad it. [above]
Upgrade your pen, from ballpoint to rollerball, from rollerball to marker, from marker to fountain pen, from fountain pen to calligraphy pen. You'll be amazed at what a difference this makes. My favorites, and great value for the price, are the low-cost Pilot Varsity fountain pen, way under $10, and the Rotring calligraphy pen with a 1.1 nib, under $20.
Warm up your handwriting on scratch paper by repeating strings of loops and curls. [at right]
Practice a dozen different ways of writing your Valentine’s name, and of signing your own name.
Improve any awkward letter connections and capital letters.

Day 2, Countdown to February 14, Choose the paper

2012-02-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

You can find specialty paper in stationery,
art, and craft stores, with flowers and
leaves embedded right in the fibers.

Paper is the most important part of any picture. Make your love letter an original by exploring beyond the standard medium of pencil on notebook paper, or ballpoint on copy paper. Even black ink on red background might seem too predictable if you want to be original. Look for off-white solid tones, luminous colors, or subtle background patterns.

Let the paper you choose appeal to more senses than just your sight by choosing an interesting texture, and add your own favorite perfume--lightly--if the paper does not have its own aroma.

Don't let an exotic surface scare you from writing. You may have to stick with a ballpoint pen or try out a paint pen, to write on very soft or absorbent paper surfaces. If you love a paper that is really hard to write on, attach a smaller piece of white paper, or translucent vellum, for the actual handwritten message.

You can find more suggestions in my books, about choosing paper, pens, and words: The Art of the Handwritten Note and The Art of the Personal Letter, both from Random House. margaretshepherd.com

Day 1, Countdown to February 14, Writing a love letter

2012-02-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

You may not be nimble enough to write on your lap while you sit in a garden, but at least looking at a view is good for your eyes. Here, an Arabic scribe envisions his beloved watching him. This illustration comes from my book Learn World Calligraphy, Random House.

Set the scene for writing words that count: provide yourself with beautiful materials, a cup of tea, favorite tunes as background music, and a comfortable chair. Keep a picture or memento nearby of the one you're writing to. Tomorrow, we'll think about the paper you write on.

You can find more suggestions in my books, about choosing paper, pens, and words: The Art of the Handwritten Note and The Art of the Personal Letter, both from Random House. margaretshepherd.com

Countdown to Valentines Day: 14 ideas that say “I love you” with pen and ink

2012-02-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

Cupid can shoot with a pen as easily as with an arrow.

     A love letter is like a hug that's delivered on paper; it’s welcome anytime, but especially for Valentine’s day. In the two weeks leading up to February 14, I'll offer you 14 different ways to express yourself on paper with sincerity and originality. You may discover something to make this Valentine's Day an occasion that you'll both remember for years.
    No love note will be exactly like another because you put so much of yourself--and your beloved--into what you write and how you write it. Compared to a greeting card, box of candy, or bunch of flower, nothing else can be quite as warm or as intimate as your own words, written with your own hand.  Although you can try these tips with materials that you have on hand, you’ll expand your creativity if you invest in an inexpensive calligraphy marker or two, and look for some appealing paper. Some of these valentines also make fun projects with children.
    Check every day for a new way to write, to tell the person you love about how you feel.    Try each idea, or just choose the one that best expresses your love.

Tet, the Vietnamese New Year celebration

2012-01-29T08:06:00.000-08:00

Calligraphers work overtime, in studios and on sidewalks, to write New Year greetings. Photo courtesy of Ngoc Chinh.

January 23 began the celebration of Tet, which lasts longer than a week and takes the full attention of everyone in Vietnam.
Chúc mừng năm mới! Best wishes to everyone out there for the Year of the Dragon.

These three traditional sages offer health, prosperity and long life, written in Vietnam's distinctive Thư Pháp script.

Part of the Dragon is formed here from letters.
Photo courtesy of Song Tran.

National Handwriting Day and your grandchildren's handwriting

2012-01-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

National Handwriting Day might seem like the perfect day to wring your hands and bemoan the death of penmanship, especially if you're a grandparent who has given up waiting for thank-you notes from grandchildren for the holiday gifts you sent a few weeks ago.

But please: don't just grouse about what they're not doing. Pick up that pen yourself.

Whenever I hear complaints from grandparents about how the younger generation don't write to say "thank you," I ask them to think about how many thank you notes those children have ever received in their lives. How can you expect children to give someone else a treat they've never experienced themselves?

Make it a project sometime this year to send children a thank-you note yourself, prompt and particular and written nicely by hand, for something--anything--they do for you. Model what you want them to do while you also let them know how it feels to be thanked on paper.

National Handwriting Day, January 23

2012-01-22T07:10:00.000-08:00

National Handwriting Day is the perfect time to close your laptop, dust off your pen, open your box of notecards, and treat some friends to a real note, to only them from only you. Maybe you could have thanked someone more warmly for a gift, or congratulated a young relative on an achievement, or sent your host a proper "bread-and-butter letter" for hospitality? Ink on paper is the gold standard for saying thank you in ways that matter.

A visit to master calligrapher Minh Đức Triều Tâm Ảnh, at his pagoda

2012-01-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Based on short syllables, the Vietnamese language, like Chinese, lends itself easily to comfortable layout on vertical pillars, left below, or on horizontal lintels--the natural wood slab here is a favorite format.

On my recent trip to Vietnam, I was fortunate to visit Minh Đức Triều Tâm Ảnh, a calligrapher who contributed his work to my book Learn World Calligraphy. I had written to him using paper and ink, more than a year ago, and had then exchanged email arrangements with one of his students, Tran, who offered to act as translator plus take me to Minh Đức's remote pagoda on his moped.

The 40-minute trek took us over some very muddy, bumpy roads, but the effort was repaid by the absolute beauty and tranquility of the grounds and buildings. Many hand-lettered signs in the Thu Phap style blended brush techniques with Roman letters--a unique Vietnamese specialty and the reason I'm so interested in the style. It looks like he was one of its first practitioners, or at least one of its earliest exhibitors, in the Hue Festival 1985.

Minh Đức spent several hours with me, and sent me off to a simple lunch [the monks' single daily meal] at 11:00. I'm hoping to follow up on his generous invitation to come back for longer next year.

A metaphor from days of yore

2011-12-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

In today's New York Times, Robert Miller at Workman Publishing is quoted on the topic of nicely printed and bound books, which he feels will be a key characteristic that will help conventional book format to survive the advent of e-books and audio books. "When people do beautiful books, they're noticed more. It's like sending a thank-you note written on nice paper when we're in an era of e-mail correspondence."

You can picture many of his readers nodding yes only because it sounds like something good, because they themselves have not received a handwritten note that they can remember.

Those of you who do still send handwritten words through the mail--there really is something about paper that adds a crucial dimension to what you say. Paper is part of the picture; look for it, use it, and appreciate it when you read and write.

The article, "Selling Old-Style Books by Their Gilded Covers," is on the front page of Dec 4, 2011.

The calligrapher’s prayer

2011-11-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

Everyone has a ritual for easing into a task. Runners stretch, Chinese calligraphers grind ink, writers make a cup of coffee. Calligraphers who write in Arabic have a special prayer to recite--students before they practice, and scribes before they work.

I like this prayer. Every scribe--Muslim or Zen, trained or amateur, ambitious or humble--knows how difficult it is to maintain focus and bring experience to bear on writing well. God’s help is always needed, and often found.

Alphabet follows empire VI China

2011-11-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

Mao Tse Tung had to maintain a balancing act, drawing on roots from the Chinese past while prying people loose from them. Historically, the figure of scholar/poet/calligrapher inspired respect; Mao was esteemed for his skill as a calligrapher at the same time he pilloried intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. He mandated simplifying the complex characters to aid literacy, or as his detractors insisted, to cut people off from what had been written before the 20th century.

Chinese calligraphers nowadays still copy out Mao's sayings as sacred texts. His own writing style has been immortalized in a typeface. (Then again, who would want to be the first to say that the emperor has no clothes?)

15th-century scholar with long fingernails, a badge of the non-laboring class

Mao Tse Tung

Book party cake

2011-11-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Eleven sweet ways to write "book"

Here's yet another way to work calligraphy into your life. Refreshments at the recent party to launch my new book Learn World Calligraphy featured a great chocolate cake; when I was asked for suggestions on decorating it I found translations for "book" into eleven languages. See if you recognize Georgian, Armenian, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Devanagari. You can learn how to write them all in the new book, of course. And the cake was delicious. (Kudos to Susan Pravda for finding a multi-lingual frosting artist!)

How--and why--to teach handwriting

2011-10-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

    Don’t get me wrong; I’m no fan of conventional cursive handwriting. People increasingly prefer to type, which is fast, readable, and easy to correct. Once children learned to write the alphabet by hand, they are equally eager to master making it on a keyboard. In contrast, trying to connect letters into cursive script gives many 8 year olds students their first taste of drudgery, failure, punishment, and a bad self-image.
   Even though I am a calligrapher by profession, I can make a good case against teaching children to write traditional script. Most of what we used to write by hand really can be done with a keyboard.
    But I’ve begun to think it’s a mistake to phase out handwriting in grade schools.   Teachers insist they need the classroom time to teach computer skills, but these computers may look different in 5 or ten years. It’s likely we won’t even be using keyboards and mouses put down our thoughts and send them to others. Progress is taking us towards voice input and output, touch screens, and handwritten words on a pad.
    If we are going to keep teaching children to write, let’s teach them a better system:

Introduce them to Italic script, which is easier to write, easier to read, and more historically significant than Palmer method and its offshoots.
Include more book arts in the art curriculum, where calligraphy will connect students with their creative skills.
Introduce students to calligraphy in the study of other cultures, where it provides an important window into other cultures.

Today’s students are shaping the future--redesigning publishing, creating new art, inventing new ways to communicate, and redesigning computers, not just using them. We should make sure that the writing they get taught in school will help them with these tasks.

Alphabet follows empire Part V: Armenia and Georgia

2011-10-17T08:26:00.000-07:00


A special medallion commemorates 1600 years of the Armenian alphabet.

The final stop on our guided tour takes us to another corner of the former USSR, where the Cyrillic alphabet tried to follow Soviet empire but met a wall of letters. Many people are surprised to find that the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Georgia never abandoned their distinctive alphabets. Probably the Soviets were surprised too.
The alphabets of both Armenia and Georgia actually predate Cyrillic. Armenian emerged around 405 CE; its letters resemble Ethiopic, which also grew from common Greek roots. The Armenian alphabet, in addition, has been a key element uniting the Armenian diaspora following Turkish atrocities of World War I and in keeping the culture of this minority alive.

A Georgian "L"

Georgian letters have beautiful swashes.

Georgian lettering can be traced to around 320 CE, part of the same missionary effort that eventually reached Russia six centuries later. Unlike the compact Armenian calligraphy, its distinctive lowercase letters have long, decorative ascenders and descenders.

Alphabet monument to Armenian culture, Providence, RI

Because of their deep roots in history and their strong connection to religion, Georgian letters survived the imposition of Cyrillic during the Soviet era.

Alphabet follows empire Part IV Korea

2011-10-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hangul is the name of the phonetic Korean alphabet

It's National Alphabet Day in Korea, where a phonetic alphabet appeared, armed and fully operational, in the 15th century under the inspiration of King Sejong. Like so many other alphabets in human history, this one served a political purpose; by letting everyone learn to read and write it undercut the power of the elite. This upper class, which held a monopoly on government employment through the antiquated Chinese system of memorizing hundreds of characters, was threatened by the elegant, logical simplicity of Hangul letters. The Mandarin establishment tried to disparage the new Korean alphabet with nicknames like “One Morning” or “Just for Girls” because it was so easy to learn.
The ten vowels and thirteen consonants of the Korean language are formed out of half a dozen simple brush strokes. The shapes of the letters themselves suggest how to hold the mouth to pronounce them. They are combined systematically to make syllables, which each occupy a box. The Hangul system, in fact, is so logically designed that today’s linguistics experts recommend it for recording newly-discovered spoken languages that have not been written down yet.

Koreans are proud of their sturdy Hanji paper. It can be folded into a simple candle shade.

A footnote to the story of Hangul: in 1945, after almost half a century of occupation by Japan, South Korea re-established the use of the Korean language in schools and government. In North Korea, all foreign words and Chinese characters have been weeded out of printed documents; in South Korea, some remain. Both countries commemorate King Sejong with statues, and celebrate National Hangul Day, October 9, in Korea and in ex-pat Korean communities abroad.

Alphabet follows empire Part III Mongolia

2011-10-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Ghengis Khan.

    We saw last week how the tides of alphabet change washed in and out of the former Soviet states such as Uzbekistan, where political upheaval brought Roman, Arabic, and Cyrillic writing systems in and out of official favor every few decades. Central Asian languages and alphabets shifted along with politics all through the 20th century.
    Two more writing systems added extra complexity to Central Asia a little further east of the “Stans.” In Mongolia we see the Arabic calligraphy of Islam, the Cyrillic alphabet of Russian, and the Roman letters of English interweaving with indigenous Mongolian vertical script and Chinese ideograms for centuries, in a constantly shifting landscape of religion, economics, politics, and art.
    Even though it combines elements of five different scripts, Mongolian remains unique as the only connected script written vertically.

Half a dozen scripts are visible on this Mongolian bill, including Soyombo, an extinct script that survives only in this national symbol, and a “folded” version of Mongolian.

Both Cyrillic and Chinese, as well as Mongolian, can be studied and practiced in Learn World Calligraphy from Watson-Guptill, Random House, 2011.

Delger, a Mongolian historian and master calligrapher, stands next to a scroll he wrote especially for Learn World Calligraphy. It combines vigorous "Virtual Mongolian" brush letters, gray shading, Mongolian tents and their round skylights inside O, G, and A, a horsehair banner flying from a trident-topped L, vertical Mongolian script, and three red signature stamps [including the artist’s face].

Alphabet follows empire. Part II in a series: Three traditions co-exist in Central Asia

2011-09-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Historians use an adage, “alphabet follows empire,” to sum up how those in power stay in power by imposing not just their language and politics but also their writing system on those they rule. For a different example (last week's post was about the creation and destruction of the Bamum syllabary of west Africa), look at the checkered calligraphic history of the Central Asian “Stans,” the half-dozen republics that constituted the southern extent of the Soviet Union 1930-1990. The official language and writing of Uzbekistan, for instance, follow a kaleidoscopic progression: Uzbek was written in Arabic script until the mid 1920’s; Roman letters were briefly introduced in emulation of the modern Turkish example of secularization through alphabet reform; Uzbek was supplanted by the Russian language and written with Cyrillic letters from the Stalinist years until the fall of the Soviet Union; now most of Central Asia is back to using Roman letters.
When I visited Uzbekistan in 1999, my hosts described families where each generation had learned a different alphabet--Arabic, Cyrillic, and then Roman--with the result that some grandparents could not read aloud to their grandchildren.

Cyrillic takes on an Arabic accent in the Russian word “kalligraphia,” by Uzbek calligrapher Habibullo Saviev. Scribes have similarly "Uzbekified" the Roman alphabet as it displaces Cyrillic.

An overarching Central Asian style has endured while regimes come and go. With the confidence that comes from centuries of absorbing ideas from outside, calligraphers have found ways to blend Arabic style with Cyrillic and Roman letters to create a distinctive hybrid way to write.

Both Cyrillic and Arabic can be studied and practiced in Learn World Calligraphy http://margaretshepherd.com/calligraphytitles.html: Watson-Guptill, Random House, 2011.

Alphabet follows empire. Part I in a series: African alphabets: Bamum

2011-09-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

French colonial reading instruction, Cameroon, early 20th century.

What’s wrong with this picture? This hand-drawn work of art shows little kids in Cameroon learning the alphabet from a French teacher in the early 20th century. At first glance it looks like an uplifting example of French colonists sharing the best of European culture to inspire the illiterate Africans under their benevolent governance.
Reality is not so nice. Like an invasive species, those ABC’s displaced a local treasure--Bamum, the writing system invented in 1892 by King Njoya
specifically for writing his subjects’ language.

A Cameroon artist’s painting shows King Njoya introducing his subjects to Bamum letters.

    In fact, the Bamum syllabary was for a few decades virtually the only phonetic writing system that hadn’t been brought to Africa from somewhere else, [imports such as the Arabic script of Muslim north Africa, or the Roman letters for Swahili in east Africa and the European languages of the colonies]. Like so many cultural resources in Europe’s colonies, however, Bamum was viewed with distrust by those in power, and was soon outlawed as too nationalistic.
    Historians have long observed that “alphabet follows empire,” and that conquerors who impose their own way of writing use it to strengthen the propaganda they publish and weaken the words of the people they rule. Forcing people to read and write with your letters helps you force them them to accept your words. Bamum writing fell into disuse until well after independence. Now being revived by a consortium of scholars and artists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamum_Scripts_and_Archives_Project, Bamum script offers adventurous calligraphers all over the world the chance to immerse themselves in a fascinating way to write, one whose time has come, and gone, and come again.
    These pictures and characters come from Learn World Calligraphyhttp://margaretshepherd.com/calligraphytitles.html, where the Bamum syllabary is explored in detail along with three other authentic, distinctive African writing systems. They are supplemented by Roman letters with African visual style.

A selection of Bamum letters.

New source for crafter projects

2011-09-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Detail of "Precious Baby" quilt.

I’ve just begun to post calligraphy projects in a new venue, on a website my publisher’s has specially tailored for crafters. My first project is on view at http://crafternews.crownpublishing.com In it I suggest a list of the Swahili words for "joy," "yes," "food is life," and "together," that will help you celebrate occasions. It links to 27 printable African-themed letter templates on my website margaretshepherd.com.

As a sample, I’ve created a quilt with the words “Thamani Mtoto” (Swahili for Precious Baby) appliqued in African fabrics.

I’ll be adding more projects based on my new book Learn World Calligraphy, in response to reader interest and my own favorite themes. Let me hear from you about calligraphy projects that interest you and what you have made with letters.

From the author of The Art of Civilized Conversation: How to have a civilized conversation with an author

2011-09-07T05:48:00.000-07:00

    I live in Boston, where you could make a fortune selling a bumper sticker that says “Ask me about my book.” Even though an awful lot of people seem to be writing a book, however, most of the folks who meet them still don’t know how to talk to an author. I’m going to give you a short introduction to the topic.
    Writers work alone, out of sight. the general public doesn't really know what they do or how they do it. Or why they do it. If you can avoid asking dumb questions, you might get some insight into their lives, learn about their fields, understand the book world better, and make them feel happy in their work.
    Part of the difficulty in talking with authors comes from not understanding the life cycle of a typical book. A book takes from one to three years to go from idea to reader. Writers who have other sources of income (very few authors make enough from their books to live on), such as teaching or a day job, may take longer. Just because they don’t have a title, a publisher, or a publication date, doesn’t mean they’re not working on the book.
    Like a child, a book goes through a sequence of different development stages. And as with a child, some of these stages make more sense to outsiders. It’s a different book when it is a heap of clippings in their file drawer, or a distant dream on the horizon, or a proposal sitting in an editor’s to-be-read box, or suddenly a product under contract with a deadline, or a manuscript deep in rewriting and editing, or a debutante just about to be published, or an also-ran slowly going out of print. Different authors do better during different phases; some prefer to talk about the book that’s just come out and how it’s doing, while others are truly only interested in what to put into the book that’s years in the future. If you can sound interested in newborn babies, and you should, then you can sound interested in an author's book.
    By the way, here's a link to my newest book, and my previous titles. margaretshepherd.com
    Of course it’s easy to make conversation if you’ve heard of the author you’re talking to, or have read the book, or (especially) have bought the book. The tips offered here are for all the other writers you might encounter.

Do say:

Congratulations!
How’s the book doing?
What are you working on now?
Tell me where the initial idea for the book came from.
How long have you been working on it (be prepared to hear “25 years”).

Do say, but only if you can say it truthfully:

I loved your book. I bought your book. I read your book. [Don’t say any of these to an academic: if the average person can understand their book their colleagues will despise them.]
I read [something positive] about your book. I heard about your book [say where].
I saw your book at the [book store name]. But then of course the author will start worrying about why it isn’t selling.
I’ve always been interested in [that topic].

Maybe say:

I checked it out of the library.
It sounds fascinating.
What are you doing to help people find out about the new book?
Would you come and give a talk about your book to my group? (Don’t offer this as if it were a favor from you; it only does the writer some good if you help him get publicity, offer him a fee, pay for his transportation, and make it easy for him to sell book copies.)

Don’t say, because the author will take it wrong:

You have been busy. As if I only write to keep my hands busy, no ideas or labor involved.
Did it ever get published? That’s mainly what motivates real writers.
That’s nice. Thanks for the condescension.
I got your book for $1 at a thrift store. So I didn’t get any royalties out of you AND someone threw my book out? Thanks for sharing that.
I’d like to write a book too. Can you give me some suggestions? If you’ll teach me all about how to succeed in your profession in 3 minutes.
Where do I buy it? Have you heard of a little website named Amazon?
Oh, you write? Well, I have a friend [name] who writes. Do you know each other? Trust me, authors are busy, alone, at their keyboards.
Oh, I heard that books and bookstores are going to be obsolete soon. Thanks, and I just heard that your neighborhood got vaporized.
Does the publisher come to you with ideas? As if! The only idea any publisher of mine has ever seemed to have “Can you write something for brides?”
Can you sell me a copy? Authors write books, not sell them. They don’t carry their books around with them, or even have extra copies on hand for people who can’t be bothered to click on “buy.”

Ask about the profession of writing, publishing, and publicizing, as well as the topic the book is about, and you will have a good basis for a better conversation with the next author you meet.

The best of both worlds

2011-08-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

East meets West when calligraphers render each other’s script with their own tools, or borrow each other’s techniques to re-imagine their own script. Nowhere has this cross-fertilization turned out so well as in Vietnam, where the brush strokes of classical Chinese are employed to write the Roman alphabet.

“Hieu Hoc” means "Study hard!" Written in Roman letters using Chinese red brocade paper and brush techniques, this message is a common New Year’s gift in Vietnam. It offers good advice at the beginning of the academic year, too.

The Vietnamese language was transliterated from Chinese-based characters into Roman letters as early as 1720 by French and Portuguese missionaries. As in many other countries throughout history, writing became a political issue, with Quốc Ngữ script reaching full flower in the 20th century as both a symbol of national identity and a weapon in its struggle. Trained in both traditions, today’s Vietnamese calligraphers now provide the world with calligraphy of the highest standard--expert brushwork applied to the shapes of the ABC’s.
I plan a return trip to Hue and Hanoi the first two weeks of 2012 with artist David Thomas of Indochina Arts Partnership, to meet more calligraphers and gather more research about this unique script.

Revisionist history; a confession

2011-08-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

I came of age in the college generation that coined the phrase “tell it like it is.” I’ve grown up into a person who would rather tell it like I wish. So now I’m ready to come clean; I’ve indulged in a bit of revisionism when it comes to showing how people write. Here are a few things I fudged in the illustrations of Learn World Calligraphy. I'm sure that any well-informed calligrapher can pinpoint a half-dozen more.

I adapted this chapter title page from a children’s book of Russian fairy tales in the graphic style of Ivan Bilibin, redrawing the figures in the poses of calligraphers. The picture itself is a fairy tale; those peasant girls, like the row of kulaks across the top, would all have been illiterate. Maybe we could pretend they are practicing the X mark they will need to sign their names.

Continuing in the spirit of sanitized history, this Japanese scribe, pausing to think about what to write next, is redrawn from a happy little guy who is actually smoking a pipe full of who knows what. I took the liberty of touching it up to look like a calligraphy brush.

That’s Mao Tse Tung for real, however, pausing mid-sentence in a Chinese poster. He was widely praised as a calligrapher (although you have to wonder whether anyone in China in the 1950’s and 1960’s would have been willing to pipe up and give him a bad review). Ever the revisionist himself, the simplified characters he advocated made it easier to reach more people with propaganda.

Correct

I’ll have to revise at least one illustration next time my new book is printed: a misspelled syllable in the word for “light” on one side of a Korean lamp shade. Calligraphers call that a “write-o,” similar to a typo. Here is the lamp in both versions, with my apologies. Thanks to Seung He for careful proofreading.

Incorrect

While we’re revising, here is a missing part of the illustration that ends the Introduction on page 10. Calligraphers pray for protection from Titivullus, the demon who sprinkles their work with mistakes.

Someone else’s handwriting--today’s version of the singing telegram

2011-08-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

    I just heard about a project [Snailmail Your Email] going on during July and August that gives people a taste of the pleasures of receiving mail by letting you send an email message in for a volunteer to handwrite and put into the mail. I don’t know about your loved ones but I’m pretty sure my own mom would have felt baffeled, not thrilled, to receive mail from me transcribed by a total stranger. A big part of the excitement of a letter in the mail is seeing the handwriting that belongs uniquely to each person you know and care about. I don’t even feel I know someone well unless I’ve seen her handwriting!
    Your loved ones are not dummies. They know when you put effort into staying in touch and when you take the easy way out instead. You can’t connect by wearing a mask. I suggested to the reporter from CNN that it’s like the difference between real stunts in a movie and CGI. You can’t hide the fact that one took skill and courage while the other took the click of a mouse.   How much are your favorite people worth? Let's hope it's 5-10 minutes with pen and paper.
    That evidence of effort is what makes the worst handwriting better than the best email. It’s not that hard to keep a box of stationery and a pen and a roll of stamps next to your keyboard. Stop every now and then when you’re pounding out standardized email in generic Courier type, and think about how much better your words would look if you wrote them in your own hand. It’s like having them show up in a party dress rather than T-shirt and jeans.
    Nothing can replace a piece of mail written in your own penmanship (whether you make chicken tracks or museum pieces) with words you have chosen. Your reader knows that just for a few moments nothing mattered but the two of you and the connection between you.

Which way up?

2011-06-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Everyone likes to try ambigrams

I've enjoyed experimenting with inverting the alphabet for years. Ambigrams* are ingenious written figures, introduced by Scott Kim in his 1981 book Inversions. Like many people, he had noticed that W turned into M when rotated 180°, b into q, n into u, and d into p. But he also noticed the less obvious rotated resemblance of e to a, f to j, and h to y, and so on. Using this unique propensity of the Roman alphabet’s letters** he worked miracles of perception for his readers and inspired many other artists to try their hand. Over the following decades, ambigrams expanded to 90° rotations, mirror images, and beyond. Today Scott Kim's designs unfold in animation on his website http://scottkim.com/inversions/index.html and for his many clients.

    Ambigrams spell out something that letters already teach without words; that perception changes with orientation. Reading teachers know that young students with dyslexia, for instance, run into trouble because to them the mirror forms of d and b or q and p are indistinguishable. This makes reading problems much more common in Roman-letter languages than in others; most of the world’s writing systems don’t have letters that turn into other letters (or numbers) when mirrored or rotated. In another field, paleontologists have long theorized that early printers could make 26 letters from a limited stock of capitals. E can rotate to make M or W; D becomes C or U. Calligraphers are taught early on to look for family resemblances and to group letters by the strokes and proportions they share.

    Ambigrams were an idea whose time had come. Hundreds of designers, engineers, and artists continue to try their hand at inverting their names, the alphabet, their holiday greetings. I’m including two of my own designs here and urge you to try rotating, yourself.

Caption: When rotated 180°, the word ALPHABET turns into into itself, above, whereas my first name turns into my last name, below.

*About the word AMBIGRAM, Kim writes on his website, “Douglas Hofstadter coined ambigram as the generic word for inversions.”
**Also Gothic, Italic, and to a lesser degree, Celtic.

On page 90 of Learn World Calligraphy, ambigrams contributed by David Moser and by Haji Noor Deen turn Chinese characters into English words and Arabic into Chinese with a simple 90° clockwise turn.

Artistic rights are universal human rights

2011-06-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued by the United Nations in 1948, makes special mention of the arts? It’s spelled out in Article 27, Section One :

“Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” [Emphasis added]

This document is available in over 300 of the world’s languages, and holds the Guinness World Record for “most translated.” It appears in dozens of scripts, so that the ambitious letter artist who does not read Mongolian, for instance, can nevertheless use passages from this universal text in calligraphy designs. I explain how to write most of these scripts in my new book Learn World Calligraphy.

It's inspiring to think that art has been formally enshrined as a basic human right. This statement adds support to the many educators, parents, and politicians who advocate for arts in the curriculum; art is not a luxury to be added on when there’s extra time and money, but a necessity at the core of our cultural identity.

Caption: "Everyone has the right to enjoy the arts” written in Swahili and Georgian calligraphy, from Learn World Calligraphy: Discover African, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopic, Greek, Hebrew, Indian, Tibetan, Thai, Korean, Mongolian, and Russian calligraphy, and beyond. Watson-Guptill, Random House, 2011.