Inspiring stuff!
I'm one of the sorry generation of students subjected to a series of handwriting experiments in teaching in the 1960s.
But I love fine things, arts. craftsmanship. The preservation of beautiful writing, for its own sake, despite everything that technology has thrown at it, is miraculous indeed!
Thanks for your work!
Sou fã de vocês, pois passo horas assistindo videos de suas aulas, eu estou aprendendo pois tirei muitos exemplos de vocês, até a caneta que aqui no brasil(Curitiba ) não encontro eu à fiz!!
se pudrem me mandar mais algumas tecnicas eu agradeço Vocês são de mais
Thank you so much for the amazing books and lessons on this site...I am currently learning to improve my penmanship using the information available on this site..Once again thank you!!!
Wonderful site. I am learning a lot with the lessons and videos. Thanks for your great work. Saludos desde la isla de Puerto Rico.
After losing my teaching job (which I deeply loved) due to this economy and school restructuring, I am left to reconsider my profession. I loved teaching and worked to implement a handwriting program for my students because I felt that learning proper and correct writing was essential. My students loved it and wondered why they had to wait until fifth grade to learn handwriting. Unfortunately, stepping into another classroom during these tough times seems virtually impossible at this time.
I was left asking "now what?" I have always had a passion since I was very young with handwriting and calligraphy. My earliest calligraphy books date back to my early elementary years. I have been asked why I never went to art school or developed my artistic talents, well, now I have an opportunity to develop a hidden talent and hopefully develop my own business doing so. This website was found just by searching calligraphy and I am pleased I found you. Your information is exceptional and hope to intensely study this site so I can move on to bigger and better dreams! Thank you for being a stepping stone into my future!
I suppose I should have done this some time ago, as I have been using the information here for quite some time, but being late is better than never soundly at all.
I have been interested in penmanship since I can remember. When I started 3rd grade, I thought it was going to be the greatest time of my life because I was finally going to be taught cursive. Unfortunately, the next year, and from then on, all of the teachers I had virtually required all of us in class to use generic print, and I virtually forgot it due to them.
However, when I started college 3 years ago, I started to relearn it due to my new interest in fountain pens (even without cursive my handwriting was always neat and I was very picky about it). I spent so many hours a week just scribbling. Like many things, after a while, I became very proficient with it and wanted to be able to write like the declaration of independence (one of the reasons I was so intrigued by cursive, which I thought was the same thing at that age), or rather, in a not mature outlook, I wanted to be able to produce the graceful beautiful art that I saw in many of the historical documents I was studying for my major in history.
The way I eventually reached this site and real calligraphy was very roundabout. Through many searches and time I finally found it, and, wanting the thin-thick contrast, I sought the thing I knew (fountain pens) that could produce them, thus flexible nibs. The search for nice, working pens of this age was a very expensive and time consuming job, and once I found one that worked, it was destroyed by a coworker. Once I found another, I was far enough along to realize that it could not truly produce what I wanted to do. In a way, I wish that my arrival to true script hadn't been so roundabout, etc., but at the same time, it gave me some foundational skills that helped once I finally reached the wonderful oblique holder and pointed nib. I have been with it for a few months, and practicing script in general even longer.
The point is, this site was here for me every inch of every step of the way. If it were not for this site, I wouldn't be able to produce the script I can now, or have had the interest to do so, as well as to continue.
Now I have a love for calligraphy that is very profound. I spend hours a day studying and practicing it if I am able to, because I have a burning passion for it. My dream is not to become rich, not to find a great career (although I look forward to that after college), not to become a professional athlete, etc, etc. My greatest dream now is to become a master penman. It is something I am striving towards, and will continue to for as long as possible.
Calligraphy isn't just a hobby to me, it is a huge part of my life, a great pleasure, one of my most proud achievements, and even part of my dreams for the future.
All of this could never have been possible without this organization and its resources.
Along with the "penmanship" forum on Fountain Pen Network, they are indispensable resources with a wealth of knowledge and information that help me as best as can be possible in the modern world that no longer has an avenue for an apprenticeship under a great. I wish that were possible, or at least lessons widely available, but since it is not, IAMPETH is sort of the teacher of us all in the modern age.
Thank you.
I have to say that pens are what drew me to this site. I've been interested in fountain pens and other writing instruments for sometime. By extension this has led me to calligraphy and a desire to improve my penman ship. I work in IT and spend the majority of my time typing, but as with many other arts that I fear are becoming lost, I know the power that a hand written letter or note can carry. As with so many things the fine details can make a world of difference, allowing for the exercise of feelings and emotions. Giving your written word the inflection your voice would normally carry. I believe this to be a great website and that it provides a wealth of information. You can expect me to be joining the group and more than likely pestering those here for tips, hints and help in bettering my penman ship and furthering my ability.
My late wife was into calligraphy and since I have the materials sitting around I thought I would give it a try
I came across your website when I googled "penmanship," I was saddened and disturbed to hear that schools are not teaching kids cursive handwriting anymore. Penmanship has been around for centuries, for it to disappear in a short period of time is really sad. As young people really truly are missing out. I will soon become a member and hope to take classes to improve upon mine. Thanks!
I found your website while googling penmanship. I was looking for some assistance on inproving my penmanship for a genealogy project I am working on and found your site to be helpful. I was taught many years ago that how one writes is as important as what one has to say and I believe that is just as important today in the internet age as it was 50 years ago. Thank you so much for a wonderful and useful site.
i suppose to go on dinner with someone & i came across this web site & i feel like i arrived to my destiny. it was amazing...! i been searching this material from my entire life. it's just superb, i don't find the word for my gratitude. thanksssss lot....!
When I first stumbled onto this site I was floored by the grace and beauty of the art of penmanship. I always thought writing was writing, but wow was I wrong. I immediately picked up a pen and starting practicing. In the past 10yrs. my writing improved 150%.
Thank You IAMPETH for everything.
greetings!
I'm overwhelmed for this beautiful and elegant art of calligraphy, I'm in love and probably... obsessed with typography, that took me to your website, but this is another level of art, i would do anything to learn this art but unfortunately for me there is nothing like this in my country, this is so elegant and unique, thanks for sharing!
Extremely interesting. Once, in my younger years, i held a facination for Caligraphy, and learned just enough to get very bored. Now, that i have matured some, i wish that i had continued this art form more intensely. How typical i must be. For those, like myself, with a yearning for art. This is something that we can use and retain for all the years of our lives. My only advice is to stick with it !
if anyone has a copy of american penman or westernpenman please email me! thanks :-)
Happy to find the site. Thanks Doc~
KJ
Hello everybody, i'm from Spain. Thank you for this page. I love it.
Un saludo desde España.
Hello from Zuerich,
i just want to say that i like your website very much.
I will come back soon.
Yours Ivy
What an interesting website and organization! I am the Education Director of a Montessori School which introduces cursive letters before print letters. Our Elementary students practice their cursive handwriting every day, copying poems and other literature. The children only use pencils, dip pens, quills and fountain pens. All of the children in my class (ages 6 through 9) have beautiful handwriting. I have been told that our local school district will be phasing out cursive writing - I think that this is just tragic. I've been using cursive exclusively with children for nearly 17 years and can attest that concentrating on beautiful cursive, copperplate, or calligraphic writing has helped every student I've had in many different areas including reading (less prone to reversals), composing text, planning, organization, and general neatness. Thanks for promoting these valuable skills!
I am a humble Scientist of Tropical Agriculture and Brain-Bio-Chemistry, and I have had a sincere desire to lear you pritty Art of the Calligraphy. I found your excellent page and I am very much delighted to see such a disntinguished and eminant group performing more than well. I hope to learn and to grow up besides the "wisdom center" that IAMPETH represents for me. God bless all of you.
Dr. Guillermo E. Martinez
Costa Rica