Please e-mail Holly to schedule any of the following workshops in your area.

THE BUSINESS OF CALLIGRAPHY

You're a calligrapher, the entrepreneurial spirit has struck and now you need to fine-tune the business aspects of your profession!  First, you will evaluate your calligraphic, business and entrepreneurial skills.  Then topics such as determining your market, finding clients/advertising, setting prices, and creating a business plan will be addressed.  Small group discussions and hands on activities will help you gain insight into setting up your studio, creating various business forms, working at home (or outside the home), managing your work and using a planner (paper or electronic).  In addition, we will cover licensing your work, copyrights, taxes, developing a financial plan and anything else you can think to ask about!

FLOURISHING

The elegance of the flourish is what many individuals love about calligraphic artwork.  Come explore the beauty of a variety of different types of flourishes as we analyze, dissect and execute them on ascenders, descenders, and capitals.  You will form them free and contemporary, controlled and refined.  Learn to add decorative enhancements to your flourishes.   Also discussed will be the tasteful placement of the flourish within the art.  After careful practice, you will try your hand at completing a finished piece with the incorporation of flourishes.

THE CONTEMPORARY DECORATED LETTER

The Decorated Letter has always been a beautiful cornerstone in a calligrapher's repertoire of skills.  In this class, the student's scope of the decorated letter will be broadened as simple to complex styles will be covered.  You will examine and learn from the historical letters and we will break down these old letter forms and look for components that we can contemporize, creating letters that will fit our times.   A rich collection of slides will inspire you while discussion of design elements, colors, materials, shell gold and tools will assist you on your way to producing exquisite alphabetica.   Lastly, several practical exercises will spark your imagination and will help you design letters based on skills and ideas that are uniquely yours. 

LETTERING YOUR LINEAGE

Have you gathered your treasured family history and want to design an impressive original to display it? This is a class that will help you to do just that. We will begin our workshop by exploring a smorgasbord of Family Tree examples, contemporary and historical, lettered by Holly Monroe and others. Included in the layouts are wreath, tree, round, shield charts and books with clever ways to show your family history.  In addition, we will closely analyze the traditional ascendant/descendant chart and the circular chart. You will learn creative ways to place titles, illustrations and photographs on these layouts. The remainder of the class will be focused on your personal family history layout.  You will choose ideas from the earlier examples and begin to carefully organize your lineage onto your selected paper. Genealogical research will be briefly discussed and slides will been shown.

LETTERING STYLES

Italic, Double Capitals, Flourished Italic, Foundational, Uncial, Copperplate, Old English