The Calligraphy Pen blog had it’s first “birthday” on December 8, and I want to thank everyone for their encouragement, support and kind comments over the past year.
I hope these posts have been informative and inspirational to those who love the art of calligraphy as much as I do, just as it has been inspiring to me to watch my little calligraphy blog grow from that one, lonely view in December 2008 to over 30,000.
In the spirit of “looking back”, I recently found a “stash” of my early work. It’s always fun to look at early work as it’s a visual documentation of one’s learning process and progress – and it’s always encouraging to see that practice really works!
Sometimes it can be a little intimidating moving from just practicing lettering forms and painting to working on a complete, final project – but go ahead – jump right in! Nothing should be considered a “failure” or “waste” because one can always learn not only what works, but just as important, what doesn’t work, or what might work better the next time.
Here are a couple of pages from my very first, complete illuminated manuscript book, “Legends” on genuine vellum and bound with a beautiful, thin leather:
"Legends", A. Lucas Gold/Palladium leaf on raised gesso, patent gold, shell gold, ink and dry pigments on vellum
This is also a “sneak preview” of the next border post I’m working on, so get yourself a nice, gold gel pen, gold leafing pen or a tube of gold gouache!
Once again, a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read the posts and comment on my little calligraphy blog!
The Calligraphy Pen 
Congratulations on a wonderful first year! I’ve been quietly following along and have enjoyed the journey. Looking forward to seeing that border!
K
Beautiful pages! Congratulations on your blog’s first anniversary. I love The Calligraphy Pen. I learn so much and am always inspired by your thoughtful and detailed posts – and of course your incredible work. I have my gold gouache, and gel and leafing pens ready!
Thank you! Your work is beautiful – hope you don’t mind I’ve added your blog to my links!
Great job! Wonderful classic look. This inspires me.
Hi Wolfgangcat
It is 1:30 AM. I couldn’t sleep, so I did what I often do when Morpheus will not cooperate –make entries into my calligraphy notebook. Earlier today, I saw a rather unusual acanthus leaf design in a book on illuminated manuscripts. It has been a couple of years since I played with the acanthus leaf and I had nothing at home to use as a model. So I went online. Your blog site came up and after I examined the wonderful instructions, I began to dig around. In the back of my mind was the question, why had I not discovered this site before? I tapped on “A Look Back…” and my answer was given — it started up a year and a half ago. I am writing to commend you for posting this information. Too often one wanders onto a web site and has not way of knowing anything about it.