Calligrapher for Team USA - 2016 Rio Olympics
Houston calligrapher and wine bottle engraver
I love it when I wake up in the morning to see that my city likes my work :) The Houston Business Award Program has awarded Slinging Ink (my commercial hand lettering side of business) with the Houston Best Calligrapher Award for 2015. I'll take it. Here's the press release:
http://houstontx.houstontx.local-best.com/PressReleaseub.aspx?cc=DE3E-RBFH-69QQ
The older I get the more I love jewelry and I have always had an affinity for silver. I recently had a bride request something simple, but cool for herself while I was working on her wedding stationery. We landed on engraving a silver bracelet. I figured why not offer something like this to all of my clients. Here it 'tis! Available on the website and the Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BellaGrafiaInk?ref=l2-shop-header-avatar
#houstoncalligraphy #houstoncalligrapher #weddings #engravedjewelry #personalizedjewelry #engravedbracelet
I recently had a stationer out of New Orleans (one of my favorite cities) contact me for samples of my work. Love her company's name --- Box.Paper.Scissors. She was interested in the agate stones in various hands and a few envelopes. Here is the one that I sent with a calligraphic bird. Hope she and her clients like them. Cheers!
This year has really been my "anything but paper" year with my work. These laser cut wood names were created for a client out of St. Louis for an event. I think that these came out nicely as she will be using them as placecards. Cheers!
#houstoncalligrapher #houstoncalligraphy #weddings
So if you know anything about me, you know that I get bored very easily :). For place cards this year, I started using things that weren't paper. It just so happened that I had a client last week along the same wavelength. In the past, I have used a bouncy modern hand that is popular right now however she wanted something different. So I figured why not keep the lowercase, drop the bounciness and connect it. Why not? I think that they turned out nicely. Below are pictures of 2 of them. Cheers!
This is a wonderful article from the New York Times on the poetry of calligraphy. Courtesy: www.nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/arts/design/calligraphy-as-visual-poetry.html?_r=0
Great video from the Huffington Post on modern calligraphy from one of the best: Courtesy of www.huffingtonpost.com
http://videos.huffingtonpost.com/how-to-write-modern-calligraphy-517029779
Is it really football season if you don't have an engraved flask? I think not. You let me know the message and the hand that you would like and I'll engrave it! Done!
Over the last few months, two friends & clients (Jenn Meznarich @jennmeznarich and Justin Vann @public_services_bar) requested engraving in metal. They revitalized my interest in engraving metals. With that said, I decided to start offering engraved items. One of the first items is stainless steel rings. I LOVE stainless steel for multiple reasons. 1) It engraves like butter 2) I love the look of silver, steel etc. It's so chic in my opinion. So here it 'tis! Any name or short message can be engraved in pretty much any hand that I calligraph in :). These will be available in the website shop and the Etsy shop. Cheers!
My style with calligraphy is pretty traditional and clean, however I am a sucker for a little flourish here and there. Nothing too flashy, but just a little for fun. I was recently asked what the secret is to flourishing. The answer is that it is so simple that you will be annoyed. Wanna hear it? Here it goes....
1. Keep the lines that cross perpendicular. I have found that this is one thing that I do pretty well. You can look at my work and find that pretty much each crossing is at 90 degrees or pretty close.
2. Keep the lines that don't cross parallel.
3. Two dark lines cannot cross each other.
That's pretty much it! These pictures provide close-ups of my work to see how the lines cross. Cheers!
So this project was for a Houston bride that wanted something a little toned down from my norm. I can do toned down.... We went with copperplate in gold ink on eggplant paper. Copperplate is definitely that hand that separates the wheat from the chaff. You can't really hide behind fancy capitals and flourishes when a client wants copperplate without many flourishes. Similar with wine, I have had an evolution with calligraphy. With regard to pointed pen, I started out with traditional copperplate, became enticed by Spencerian with all of its sexy flourishes and semi-angular serifs and then looked back at copperplate as if it was the "old boyfriend that was so 5 years ago". However, I now know that copperplate should be respected for what it is. My first dynamic calligraphy teacher referred to it as "the mother". And that is exactly what it is. It is beautiful in its simplicity and you can't hide with it. If you are good, copperplate will show that. If you are not, copperplate will show that. In all honesty, when I have a day where I jump between 4-5 hands because I'm working on 4-5 jobs at the same time that require different hands, copperplate is the one that demands respect and I must acknowledge that in my warm-up. Always the constant student :). Cheers!
Addresses have been obscured for privacy.
I had the pleasure of working on a wedding this week where the bride provided paper that was ABSOLUTELY DIVINE .....AND she decided on my favorite hand, ornate roundhand. The paper was from the Grosvenor Stationery Company in London. When I tell you that this paper was soothing to calligraph, I'm not kidding. While living in London, she came across my work on a website and I am so glad that she did. It was truly a pleasure working with her.
Addresses have been obscured for privacy.
This year has been an amazing year for Bella Grafia Calligraphy & Engraving in Houston! To add to that, I am happy to announce a new partnership with http://www.100LayerCake.com This company is a leader in the wedding industry and I look forward to working with them. Cheers!
These monograms were cut for a client a few weeks ago for 1 beautiful little girl and another beautiful little girl-to-be. The burgundy one was cut to 11 inches and the coral one was cut to 18 inches. Love these to hang on the wall. Cheers!
It is always a pleasure to engrave. Metals have become my favorite this year. I mostly stick to glass as I have a soft spot for wine & spirits, but earlier this year I was reminded of how amazing engraving metals can be and decided to revisit them. Stainless steel engraves like butter. These bottle openers were for Public Services Bar in downtown Houston. I hand lettered their sign at their entrance last year before they opened and was tickled pink when they contacted me for the bottle openers. I really like how these came out and was OVERJOYED that they let me choose the hand to use. Cheers!
So yes, clearly I had become ridiculously behind on my thank you notes. When I was at the penman's conference (yes, we have those), I met a gentleman that was kind enough to promise to mail me engraving burs that I had yet to try. Within a few weeks of being home, they arrived. My work schedule was insane to say the least and I sent an email to convey thanks just so that I didn't seem like a complete savage. However, I take my stationery very seriously and committed to send a proper thank you note when the work schedule slowed down a bit. Here it 'tis.
Played around with the lighting a bit to make it show up better on camera. However, iridescent jade is clearly one of those colors that looks better in person than it photographs. Who knew? :) Here we go! Cheers!
Quick thank you note (that is incredibly late) to an extremely talented letterpress stationer in Dallas. Sending this along with a few requested samples. Cheers!
Cotton Paperie www.cottonpaperie.com
I must admit that I do LOVE commercial hand lettering (my Slinging Ink side of business). The avenues for creativity are endless. Here is something that I'm working on for a client that sells.....you guessed it: DRESSES! Cheers! #HoustonHandLettering
Earlier this year, I was contacted by a client to write something simple & to the point that they could use on their website to announce sales events in a hand lettered way. Literally, the word "sale". Nothing crazy, but since they wanted to use this for years to come it needed to be cool. I thought......BRUSH LETTERING. I'm not asked to use that often, but I do love the look of it especially when it is allowed to be "free" and unstructured. Here is the raw version of what I sent them & am was so happy that they were pleased. Looking forward to seeing this on their site and I'm sure that their graphic designers will make it even cooler. Cheers!
I have been very fortunate to maintain a full calendar with jobs. As anyone will tell you, that is a blessing but every blue moon it is a curse. When your calendar is booked you usually don't have wiggle room for 'unforeseen circumstances'....such as power outages. Today, my electricity went out due to the storms that we have been experiencing here in Houston. At the same time, I was working on a job that needed to be completed today as there are jobs booked directly behind it on the calendar. That meant that I needed to work in the dark. Thank goodness for my trusty battery operated laser.
I am happy to say that I did finish today and it also made for a cool picture on my phone. #MakeItWork. Cheers!
