Wedding Calligraphy (2008)

I’m the laziest calligrapher when it comes to projects and commissions, so most of the work you see here was done a long time ago. 

This batch of wedding invitations and envelopes, however, was done fairly recently, in April 2008.  I almost invariably turn down such jobs because they are incredibly taxing on the mind and especially the eyes, and demand far more time than I can usually afford — but the person who commissioned these was very nice and extremely persuasive, so it was a pleasure to be able to do this for her and her husband-to-be.  It also helped that this was a very small job, just 22 or so sets of envelopes and invitations.

My greatest fear came true, however — the beautiful gold envelopes had their colour printed on them, not dyed in.  This meant I couldn’t write with my usual gouache and had to look for an alternative.  Fortunately I tried Daler Rowney Acrylic ink, and it worked beautifully for the most part, although the nature of the ink meant that I had to be careful to flush and wipe the pen every so often, and could not achieve the fine hairlines that good gouches like Talens produce so easily.