CALLIGRAPHY
by Jim Stamp on January 23, 2022.
I always admired my Grandpa Stamp’s penmanship. I thought it was called “Calligraphy”.
So, for Christmas one year, Margaret got me a Calligraphy pen set. What a weird bunch of
pens. The were square on the end…which I learned were called “nibs”. I absolutely could
not figure out how my Grandpa could write the way he did with those pens. Well, the
answer was that he didn’t. He wrote in a style of Spencerian Script. I am too rigid to write
in Spencerian Script I guess because I have never mastered that script.
After a couple of years during which my “new” pens aged in the closet, I decided to give
them another try. I even joined the Akron Calligraphy Club. I found that I could make
pictures with words and no one else in the club could do that. But, even figuring out how
to use the broad nibs, I was still too rigid to write like the rest of the group. So, instead of
slanting to the right, my letters tend to be straight up. In my normal handwriting, I like to
write back-hand. My teachers from grade school would never have approved!
My first big project was to write the United States Constitution. Being a quick learner (???)
I found that you had better be very careful when doing a large project. If you are halfway
thru and make a mistake, well, you have to start over. There is NO correcting ink!
My next project was to make Christ emerge from the words of the Sermon on the Mount. My
hands are too shaky now and my eyes aren’t working the same as when I did Sermon on the
Mount… If I could, I would redo it and make some changes.
Sermon on the Mount
Various quotations from the Presidents to make Mount Rushmore
America the Beautiful – Statue of Liberty
Declaration of Independence
One of the Wedding Certificates that I did – this one for Shawn and Lisa
Code of Ethics done for the National Society of Tole and Decorative Painters, Inc
A shorter piece – “I Loved You Enough”
LOVE from 1 Corinthians 13:4 – 8
In the mid-eighties and during the 1990s, I did hundreds of calligraphy pieces. The larger pieces were
sold at the Yankee Peddler Festival. They were also offered through the Patriot Post monthly newsletter.
The smaller pieces were sold primarily at Art and Craft shows. For many years I have addressed our Christmas cards with calligraphy and many friends keep the envelopes instead of the cards.
I will continue to do the Christmas cards long as I can keep my hands steady.