Tag Archives: lettering

Calligraphy for the Ballerina Wedding

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Last year, I was sitting at the drawing board, when Sue Corral called from www.DesignCorral.com  She had been at a speaking engagement in NYC, when the Martha Stewart Weddings people asked her to design the stationary for “The Ballerina Wedding.” Tiler Peck and Robbie Fairchild, the two principal dancers in the New York City Ballet, were getting married! Willingly, she submitted samples from several calligraphers to the ballerinas, and unbeknownst to me, mine had been selected! Tiler and Robbie wanted lettering that was traditional, tailored and elegant. I was honored. So Sue and I put our heads together to come up with something special. Sue, had the design reigns and sent multiple mockups, but the ballerinas had simple, elegant taste. They landed on one, that incorporated the motif from the Cathedral floor in the picture below. Enjoy the professional pictures taken by Photographer Charlotte Jenks Lewis, www.charlottejenkslewis.com

Both the lettering and the tri-floral ends of the design were letterpressed in gold foil. Originally, the calligraphy was created in black…

Invite-15-d21569Letterpressed type and “Dinner and Dancing” calligraphy was charcoal grey.invite-017-d21569I am sharing a close up with you….one might think that the gold lettering is typeset,  the letterpress makes it look soooo perfect. But no, this was all done by hand at the drawing board, retouched in Photoshop and digitally transported to Sue. The calligraphy was much more delicate than it shows here. If you are not familiar with  letterpress, the process always thickens the intended fine lines.invite-1747-d21569invite-1750-d21569Menu’s were letterpressed via Sue, as well. In an effort to elegantly use the Menu as a Place Card, I was asked to personalize each one with gold gouache. I used FineTec gold, but have to say that the marriage between the paper and the gold was a delicate one. I painstakingly went over each name a second time, so that the hairlines would 1). show up better 2.) while not losing their delicacy…so had to keep a light tough. I achieved the look that I wanted. (Perhaps soon I will post a closeup of a few of those.) Here is their extraordinarily romantic table setting. CL44c46-R01-006I was pleasantly surprised to see the calligraphy initials that I created for their names, foiled into the cover of Tiler and Robbie’s Guest Book. 
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The initials also appeared on their peekabo wedding programs. Again, the symbol from the Cathedral floor the cut-out on the cover.

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Another surprise was to see the calligraphy delicately carved into the lid of the wedding ring box below. How sweet is this!?

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The table numbers came towards the end of our project. Tiler and Robbie had the originals. I scanned them, so that both Sue and I could reproduce the table numbers, in case others wanted to use them. My Epson printer prints on two sided digital Entrada fine art paper, so it is easy enough to do.

theroom-032-d21569The wedding favors, were two special little cookies in a box, that the Martha Stewart Weddings people hired out. My lettering did include a flourish, which I thought for sure would be perfect for a ballerina wedding. I had envisioned them reducing the design so it would fit on the box. Instead, it was removed. Nevertheless, I’ll show you! It’s below the last picture in this blog.

To see all of the wedding credits and pictures, go to www.MarthaStewartWeddings.com 20th Anniversary Edition > Tiler and Robbie wedding > Slide show > page 44, to see all of the fabulous people who helped to make their wedding a day to remember.

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May these two beautiful ballet dancers, live happily ever after. What a fabulous couple they are…with a bright future! tiler-robbie-005-d21569 (2)ASweetPasDeDeux_1200Again, check us out: Calligraphy: Holly V. Monroe, Stationary Design: Sue Corral,  and Photography: Charlotte Jenks Lewis

Calligraphy on Church Walls

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In the Spring, Associate Pastor Nancy Ross-Zimmerman approached me with the idea of lettering and illuminating phrases from Romans 12, in Northminster Presbyterian Church’s Commons room. After meeting with the art committee-Rich Schafermeyer, Gary Lord and Helen Haberstroh, I was off and lettering! First I sketched 3 styles on graph paper.
Uncial was their choice, so on a long roll of brown paper I lettered the words, in a first attempt to see how the words might look.
Next, I traced over the letters on a 12″x 50′ white tracing paper, refining them as I went.
While standing on a rolling scaffold, compliments of Gary Lord of Prismatic Painting Studios, I taped the 50′ long sketch along each of the two soffits in the Commons Room.
Fifteen to eighteen feet off of the ground.
After tracing it onto the walls, the painting began. I used eight colors of Sherwin-Williams paint. Each letter was painted twice and a highlight was added.
Ten illuminated letters were also a part of the project, one at the start of each phrase. 23k loose leaf gold was applied as well.
After about 123 hours of work, the last flourish appropriately was put on the word ‘Love’. Then, it occurred to me how much this project was food for the soul. Matthew 4:4 says “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. How fitting that my palette was a church dinner plate!  
My hope is that those who read these Romans 12 words will find encouragement and strength. A big thank you to the dear people of Northminster Presbyterian – it was a delight and a gift to work with you on this project!