How calligraphy can help you find calm
In the age of AI, what we’re learning to value most is what sets us apart from machines, so it’s no surprise that the handwritten word is being embraced again. Handwritten words take time and effort, they’re unique, they’re imperfect and you can hold them in your hands.
A new generation of calligraphers are encouraging people to put pen to paper, and companies are once more hiring them for their skills, from creating signs and window displays to sending invitations and even personalising products.
Alice Gabb is a lettering artist and banner maker based in east London, where she started selling her wares at a local market. She now creates stationery, holds workshops and has worked with Anthropologie, Harrods, Selfridges and Barbour.
“Most people who come to my classes don’t have creative jobs, but they feel like they are creative souls and so they are coming to feed that streak,” Alice explains.
“It takes a high level of focus and patience to recreate the lettering correctly with a nib. You can’t really be thinking about anything else. This sounds stressful, but most people say how therapeutic and mindful it is to not be able to worry about anything else.”
Value experience over things
This is part of a much wider trend for spending time and money on experiences rather than objects. Research into what makes people the happiest shows that ‘learning something new’ ranks very highly. And, of course, we’re not learning to write from scratch; the beauty of modern calligraphy is that it is a development of your existing skills. Alice’s style embraces imperfections.
“Modern calligraphy and brush lettering are much less formal and more playful than the Copperplate calligraphy script that we see on very traditional British wedding invitations,” she explains.
“It celebrates the perfectly imperfect, which is what my particular lettering style has always been about. Copperplate calligraphy takes years to master, whereas modern calligraphy can be learnt in considerably less time; with the right amount of practice, around six to 12 months.”
One of Alice’s students, Maisie Cheong, has gone on to embrace the craft fully. “I cherish the quiet suspension of time while I craft a letter and focus on just the person who receives my words and thoughts. In today’s society of Instagram perfection I think calligraphy is not only calming for your senses, it’s also calming for your soul, as it teaches you to appreciate and value your differences and see them as your uniqueness rather than flaws.”
Enter a meditative flow state
Taking a break from screen time and the fast pace of modern life, writing by hand might feel good for the soul, but it’s also proven to be good for your brain.
Science writer and neuroscience expert Ginny Smith elaborates: “Some kinds of activities can encourage us to enter a state known as flow, where the rest of the world seems to fall away and you are entirely focused on what you are doing. Artistic activities, such as calligraphy, can induce the flow state, which can be an almost-meditative experience.”
And this is before we even start to consider the content of what you’re writing. List making and journalling have long been coping devices for those suffering from anxiety, and letter writing is beginning to be acknowledged as therapeutic too, even if those letters are never sent.
How many of us have learned the hard way that you should definitely not reply angrily to that 2am email, DM or Facebook post? Write difficult thoughts and feelings down in a letter. A day or two later, you probably won’t even feel the need to send it.
Writing letters to our younger or future selves can also feel hugely healing and hopeful. Graphologist Tracey Trussell observes, “People are more inclined to want to tune into their humanity and individuality and find value – personal satisfaction, inner peace, meaning, mindfulness and relaxation – in expressing themselves creatively and personally, and there is nothing more individual and unique than the handwritten word.”
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A merging of past and future
While we may brand the resurgence of calligraphy as part of the analogue revival, thinking these artists are out of touch with modern life would be a big mistake. Indeed, the rise of Instagram and Pinterest played a large part in the renaissance of many such art forms.
However, some people still prefer to find inspiration offline. San Francisco calligrapher Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls says, “I am obsessed with packaging. If I’m at a grocery store, especially in foreign countries, I meander down the aisles looking at the packages of tea, chocolate and jam.”
Maybelle loved writing letters from exotic locations when she was a flight attendant, and when she was made redundant, her husband bought her some calligraphy lessons – the rest is history.
In another twist of fate, she received the contract to write her book The Gift of Calligraphy on the same day that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Throughout her successful treatment, she says she found the work “a beautiful distraction. An art practice can impact your life in such profound ways.”
History in our hands
It seems that whatever the world throws at us, handwriting is something we should hold onto, both for our own mental health and for posterity.
It’s hard to imagine future generations bothering to trawl through their ancestors’ old emails, but discovering a crumpled handwritten letter, or pages filled with faded ink in an unknown hand; that’s the sort of thing that makes history human.
Top tips for calligraphy beginners
New to calligraphy? Here are some top tips for beginners from Oh Wonder’s Lauren Cooper
Get the right equipment
There’s very little equipment you need to get started with calligraphy, so once you’ve got your kit you’re ready to go.
I recommend a Nikko G nib, a Speedball Straight Penholder, Higgins Eternal Black Ink and a Rhodia pad or Layout paper. It’s worth remembering that you’ll need to buy the parts of your pen separately – the nib and holder.
Before you get started you need to prep your nib, as they come with a factory seal that stops the ink flowing correctly. You can do this by cleaning the nib with toothpaste. Then place your nib in the holder (push it in as far as it will go), dip in the ink and you’re ready to go!
Keep your ink topped up
When you’re dipping your nib into the ink, you want the vent to fill up with ink as this is where the ink is held. Wipe off the back of the nib gently on the side of the pot so that you don’t get any big blobs of ink when you start writing.
When the vent has emptied and you’ve run out of ink you’ll need to re-dip into the ink. This may happen quite often to start with but you’ll soon learn how to spot that you need to re-dip before actually running out of ink.
When re-dipping, try to do it on a downstroke rather than an upstroke as it’s much easier to rejoin a thick line rather than a thin one.
Practice your strokes
The letters in modern calligraphy are made of thick and thin strokes.
To create thick lines for downstrokes you want to apply more pressure so the tines of the nib spread to release more ink. Don’t be scared of putting the pressure on – these nibs are strong!
For the thinner upstrokes, release the pressure so the tines return to the original position.
You want to hold your pen with a nice relaxed grip – too tight and you’ll get cramp and struggle to get your letters to flow. Try to move from your arm not your fingers, keeping your wrist and arm moving together so that you can make smooth movements.
Turn the paper, not your arm, to get the correct position – you want the nib to be flat to the page so the split can open correctly. If you’re putting the pressure unevenly on one side then you won’t get the nice thick downstrokes.
Make even more mindful markings with our beginners guide to Chinese brush painting.
Find your reason for writing
Whether it's hand-crafting letters that'll be treasured forever, adding special flourishes to gift tags or making text-based artwork, calligraphy is a skill that you'll always be glad you took the time to learn.
Develop a love for calligraphy with Gathered
If you're feeling inspired and can't wait to get started on your creative calligraphy journey, you'll find loads of advice, projects and calligraphy kits in our complete guide to calligraphy on Gathered.
