The European Pointed Pen Year in Review 2020
So, this is our second YEAR IN REVIEW!
It’s time to look back to what happened in 2020. Let’s start by saying that last December 2019, we had great expectation for 2020: we were all set up for workshops in London and Rome with Rachel Yallop, Iampeth MP John DeCollibus, Heather Victoria Held, Anne Elser.
Well, as you may know, mid February with Rachel Yallop in London was the only workshop we were able to host in person.
Then the pandemic came and we all know how it affected our lives.
Chatting ONLINE with Masters
Watch all of our video chats with calligraphy experts
It soon became clear that we would not be able to host in person workshops and while we thought about how to rearrange everything, we thought the best way to stay connected and benefit from technology was hosting a series of live chats through the Instagram platform with people from the pointedpen calligraphy community.
We hosted 16 free InstaLiveChats in the first months of the pandemic.
Chats covering the history of different scripts, pointed pen calligraphy tools, personal presentations. Your feedback was amazing! We had great testimonials from people enjoying the chats. And WE had SO MUCH FUN! ;-)
You can rewatch all of them on our Videos wepage or our IGTV on Instagram.
From one online student to many!
Last November 2019, during Heather Victoria Held’s workshop in Rome, we tested the workshop live broadcasting with a student who was connected online from home in The Netherlands and it worked perfectly. This was a wonderful chance for us to offer a limited amount of students a virtual seat at our in-person classes. Little did we know then that the pandemic would have us offering virtual seats to calligraphers worldwide when we switched to online classes.
From the summer of 2020, we hosted:
a wonderful online series with Maria Helena Hoksch on Pointed Pen Composition & Layout (a topic which is rarely taught!)
a class with Rachel Yallop especially focusing on The Swelling Line
a workshop for Copperplate improvers with Joy Daniels
The Poetic Pen with Heather Victoria Held on Italian Hand.
Almost all these teachers were new to online teaching and it was a pleasure for us to start them to this new way of connecting to students in the safest way. And they all did a wonderful job!
We had students from over 25 countries! What a blessing to be able to reach so many of you who would never attend an in person workshop with us.
Exchanging warm hugs and well wishes via post
We organised two envelope exchanges open worldwide. So many people registered for these exchanges, bringing joy to people they did not know before. Generosity is surely something calligraphy students have in common!
how your calligraphy journey can evolve in 2021
We’ve been brainstorming a lot about how to go ahead from here.
As we write this in December 2020, in-person workshops don’t seem to be a short-term possibility, so we wanted to keep our workshop offer online, but at the same time adding more value to what we offer.
Taking a short weekend workshop is a good solution, but we know that we are alone practicing a new skill after the workshop and we are often distracted by our daily routine. So we thought of offering also a new formula of workshops: an extended course over several weeks/months with the teacher following the class progress on a private dedicated social platform (we are working with the Facebook Group as our solution).
Heather Held tested this new feature with her Italian Hand Bootcamp of six weeks and people liked it a lot.
We’ll have two amazing courses in 2021 with this formula:
Jan 3 - Mar 14 Rachel Yallop teaching her YALLOPLATE: A different look at Copperplate Variations
(book your place up until 1 Jan 2021)Jan 16 - Jun 19 Michael G. Ward teaching A FEAST OF SPENCERIAN
(book your place up until 15 Jan 2021)
What an amazing way of starting the new year! Pick the hand you want to study and have these wonderful teachers at your side to teach and guide you for respectively 3 and 6 months!
Besides these extended time courses, we’ll still keep the weekend workshop formula!
Heather will be teaching her new workshop NOTES FOR THE NEW YEAR on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th of January. A weekend to start learning the beautiful Vicotrian art of sending personal notes!
Book your place until 8 Jan 2021.
2020 has been a year of new things, new opportunities, new friends and new collaborations. There’s something special happening when people generously come together and share. And we want to keep sharing! Because sharing is the key to progress!
We can’t express how grateful we are for the wonderful teachers we hosted and for the amazing people we had the pleasure of having in class! You are a fantastic community!
WITH HUMBLE THANKS, WE LOOK TO THE YEAR AHEAD
We wish you and your families the happiest holidays season!
Stay warm and safe, enjoy every moment with your loved ones and squeeze in some pointed pen practice!
We’ll see you all in 2021, hopefully in one of our new amazing workshops!
Thank you!
Cecilia & Kate
