Friday is usually a free day for me. Nothing scheduled. No certain place to be or by a certain time. This doesn’t mean that my day isn’t filled with the obligatory duties of laundry, dishes, and errand running, but I have a little less structure to the day.
I began this journey to find myself around last September when the school year started. I decided to push the comfort zones, even more, beginning in 2016. While I love being a mom, I did not set aside time over these past 16 years to discover what I like and seek what hobbies or passions interested me.
I decided to try something new and wanted to give it a little name to make it more exciting. After much thought (yes, I spend way too much time analyzing and pondering these things) I decided on “Follow the Wind Friday”. I opted for this name because I don’t know what each Friday will hold (wherever the wind blows).
I have been admiring a lot of calligraphy work. I decided that I wanted to make an attempt at some beautiful handwriting. In my search, I learned that apparently being left-handed makes this task very hard, but not impossible. I watched some YouTube videos, bought some speedball elegant writer pens (I was a little intimidated by a true pen with a nib) and set to work.
Well, I just couldn’t get it. I understand the concept, but can’t get the lines to be thin for the life of me. My local A.C. Moore has a pitiful selection, but I went back and bought a beginner calligraphy set. I didn’t opt for the other choice because it said on the package that it was for the right hand. I decided to try the medium point. It still seemed very thick and I couldn’t get the thin line thing. Plus, the pens spread and bled once they touched paper. Even with the paper included in the packet. I tried the fine point nib. The pen was definitely flimsy and wouldn’t really screw together; the ink wasn’t going into the right area either. I finally got it to work and still no successful handwriting.
I wrote some fancy cursive because I really just wanted to scream. My husband came home during my fiasco with the fine point nib. I had also purchased a gel pen and a brush pen for fun because they were pretty blue colors that reminded me of the sea. Guess what?! They didn’t work! The chromatix was dry and the other probably was too because no amount of scribbling would make it work.
My husband commented about everything seeming to be stacked against my calligraphy venture. Not to be dissuaded, I went to the internet for more research. I came across this post for “faux” calligraphy and thought I’d give it a whirl with my gel pen.
Now it didn’t come out perfect, but I’m happy enough that I may not just chuck it all out the window and never try again. My daughter wanted to try the pens and she was impressed by my normal cursive. Impressed enough that she asked me to write out a quote for her. So that was success enough!
Maybe I’ll keep practicing the “faux” version and if I love it enough opt for a better pen. In the meantime, I’ll be looking for more videos and tutorials. And I’ll see “where the wind blows”.
~Amy
