Our youngest calligraphers (Grace)

Grace is one of the newest members of WindWriters.  Like Claire, she just turned 11, and also like Claire she has a calligraphy piece in ‘Written on the Wind’.  Grace and Claire are the best of friends and do many things together.

Grace has not yet started learning formal calligraphy , although she has tried out the edged pen on several occassions.  Grace is a ‘lefty’, so she has several difficulties with the edged pen that most right-handed writers never encounter.  We had a guild meeting yesterday, and Grace had an opportunity to work with an edged pen during our practice session.  She seemed to be overcoming the difficulties quite well.

Since children learn so easily, and their habits are not ingrained, this could be a good reason to start them on calligraphy early.

There are many fine calligraphers who are left-handed; they just have to learn to position their papers and writing hands differently.  There are also special oblique-cut nibs made especially for left-handed calligraphers.  And there are two calligraphic hands that seem custom made for left-handed writers.  They are English Roundhand and Spencerian Script.  Left-handed writers can use a flexible pointed pen in a regular straight penholder, and don’t have to learn to use the awkward seeming offset penholder, nor do they have to turn their lines of writing almost vertical and write uphill from bottom to top, as many right-handed calligraphers do.

Two members of our guild (Shelly and Michelle) write beautiful roundhand, and I’m hoping they will be able to get Grace started in this lovely hand.  Grace’s older sister Abigail (also a member of WindWriters) would be able to help her at home, and in no time, Grace could be addressing wedding invitations with the best of them!

If this seems overly optimistic to those calligraphers who have never tried English Roundhand, let me just say that it is a mesmerizing, almost addictive, hand to write.  It’s hard to stop practicing!