51: The Art of Calligraphy: Why (and how) to get started
Welcome to HobbyScool, the podcast that explores a variety of hobbies and interests to inspire and empower our listeners to explore new passions. In today's episode, "The Art of Calligraphy: Why (and how) to get started," our host, Dr. Destini Copp, is joined by special guests and Loveleigh Loops co-founders, Jillian Reece and Jordan Truster.
These twin sisters rekindled their love for calligraphy and have since taught over 40,000 students from 149 countries. In this episode, Jillian and Jordan share insights about the soothing and practical aspects of calligraphy, dispel misconceptions, and provide tips on getting started.
They also offer a free workshop for beginners. So, if you're curious to explore the world of calligraphy, sit back, relax, and prepare to be inspired to pick up a pen and get creative!
The Art of Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Getting Started
In this episode of HobbyScool, host Dr. Destini Copp and special guests Jillian Reece and Jordan Truster, the cofounders of Loveleigh Loops delve into the world of calligraphy. As twin sisters who fell in love with calligraphy at a young age, they have turned their passion into a thriving online community, teaching over 40,000 students from 149 countries. Now, they are taking their knowledge to the podcast to discuss the beauty and accessibility of calligraphy, and why anyone can get started in this ancient art form.
What is Calligraphy and Why Learn It?
Simply put, calligraphy is beautiful writing. Jillian and Jordan describe calligraphy as a relaxing and practical hobby that allows individuals to create personalized gifts, address envelopes, and impress others with their unique skill. Furthermore, they shed light on the potential for monetizing calligraphy, citing examples of students who have turned their passion into successful businesses, proving that calligraphy offers endless possibilities.
Misconceptions about Calligraphy:
The guests clarify common misconceptions about calligraphy, assuring that one does not need to have good handwriting or be particularly artistic to excel in calligraphy. They emphasize that calligraphy can be learned by anyone, breaking it down into basic strokes and simple shapes. The episode highlights the accessibility of calligraphy, emphasizing that it's not as difficult as it may seem, and provides insights into how even beginners can create impressive calligraphy in a matter of weeks.
Getting Started with Calligraphy:
The hosts discuss the materials needed to start learning calligraphy, dispelling the myth that specialized equipment is required. They introduce the concept of faux calligraphy, enabling listeners to begin with everyday pens and paper they likely already have at home. The importance of first learning the basic strokes of calligraphy is emphasized, providing a solid foundation for developing skills and unleashing creativity.
The Next Steps: Free Workshop and Tips for Beginners:
Jillian and Jordan invite listeners to participate in their free workshop, where they will guide participants through the basics of calligraphy, using simple tools accessible to everyone. They encourage anyone curious about calligraphy to take the leap and discover the joy and fulfillment it can bring. Additionally, the hosts emphasize that calligraphy offers a screen-free activity and an opportunity to engage in a creative, hands-on pursuit.
Conclusion
The episode concludes with the hosts sharing valuable resources for those interested in delving deeper into calligraphy, including the Loveleigh Loops website, YouTube channel, and email list. The episode provides a comprehensive overview of calligraphy, dispels myths surrounding the art form, and offers practical advice for beginners to embark on their calligraphic journey.
The episode "The Art of Calligraphy: Why (and how) to get started" serves as an inspiring and informative resource for individuals intrigued by calligraphy. It acts as the springboard for beginners to explore the world of calligraphy and connect with a supportive community that embraces creativity and the timeless art of beautiful writing.
Mentioned In This Episode
Where to find Loveleigh Loops: Website, Instagram, and YouTube
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Transcript:
Dr. Destini Copp [00:00:03]:
And my special guests today are Jillian Reece and Jordan Truster. They are the cofounders of Loveleigh Loops. And Jillian Jordan, they are twin sisters, and they took a calligraphy class when they were only 11 years old. And as adults, they relearned the skill for each of their weddings, then soon started teaching local calligraphy workshops. They fell in love with teaching and discovered the possibilities of teaching virtually and soon created their 1st online course in 2017. Since then, over 40,000 students from a 149 countries have learned with them, and they are more excited than ever to be leaders in the movement to take back the lost art of beautiful riding. And today, I am super excited to welcome them, and we're gonna be talking about the art of calligraphy. Why and how to get started.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:00:58]:
And, Jillian and Jordan, before we get into all the questions that I have for you because I'm actually new to this, so I don't really know a lot about this. I know I know I know what it looks like and that's about it. So before we get into all the questions I have about you, Why don't you take a second and tell the good audience just a little bit more about you, your your company, and how you help people?
Jillian Reece [00:01:24]:
Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having us. We're excited to be here. We don't often do podcast interviews, so this is great. We're excited to talk to your audience. Hi, everyone. So I'm Jillian, and then Jordan is the other one. We're gonna kind of alternate answering questions so that you can, tell who's who.
Jillian Reece [00:01:40]:
But, but yeah. So we help people learn calligraphy. We teach calligraphy online courses covering all different styles, all different levels from beginner to, experienced and advanced, our students have gone on to do some amazing things, which I'm sure we'll talk about today. But, really, our goal with what we do is to help Anyone who's even has, like, the slightest interest in learning calligraphy to be able to believe and know that they can do it and they can learn it. You just need a little bit of help.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:02:11]:
So thank you for that. And, like I said, I am completely new to this. I, you know, I know what it looks like and that's about it. So Before we kinda get into some of the meet and grid of all of this, can you tell us what is calligraphy and why Someone might want to learn it. I have some ideas in my mind, but I'm very curious to hear what you have to say.
Jordan Truster, [00:02:34]:
Yes. This is Jordan speaking now. So calligraphy, that just means Beautiful writing. And many people want to learn it, first of all, because it's just a very relaxing creative hobby, But it's also practical, so you can use the skill of beautiful writing to make gifts for friends and family, to address envelopes. People always love receiving calligraphy envelopes. Usually, they hang it up on the refrigerator. It's also really impressive. So you might, so when we first started posting on social media, people were super impressed just seeing the skill because it's a skill that not many people have.
Jordan Truster, [00:03:09]:
And then once you get good at it, you can actually go on to make money with it. Lots of our students have gone on to sell their work at craft shows. They've created, Etsy shops, made custom orders. One of our most successful students, Sophie, she actually does luxury, and event calligraphy, and her her work was actually shown on TV. And then another student, Amanda, teaches calligraphy workshops. So there's so many reasons to learn it. Most people get started just for the passion and the hobby and doing something creative. And then, of course, like, one of the ways that I use it is making a last minute thank you card for someone.
Jordan Truster, [00:03:44]:
I've I haven't bought a greeting card from a store in years.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:03:48]:
So, you know, when I was thinking about this, I was like, you know what? I'd love to use it for, like, my Christmas cards or putting together a Special birthday card for somebody or thank you cards like what you've mentioned there. But I was I didn't even realize that people were making money by doing this. So that's very interesting to me. So we definitely wanna circle back to that. But the other question I have for you is When somebody's thinking about, you know, getting started in this and learning about this, what are some misconceptions that they have about it? How easy is it? Is it diff I I'm thinking that this is gonna be very difficult for somebody like me who's older, and I have it, you know, I have it Even even cursive, I don't really use that anymore. So tell us a little bit about that.
Jillian Reece [00:04:34]:
Well, I'm glad you mentioned cursive because that's Actually, one of the common questions people have when they start to get interested in calligraphy is, like, is it the same as cursive? It's not. We can talk about that in a little bit. It's not the same as cursive, so you don't need to worry about, like, having that as a prerequisite or anything. You don't need to have good handwriting. Like so you mentioned before, you can kind of picture what you think calligraphy is in your mind, and there are lots of different styles and, like, lots of different, hands or scripts that you can learn. So everyone listening here Probably has, like, a different picture in their head of what calligraphy looks like. But so that's one thing you kinda need to narrow down when you do wanna learn calligraphy is what what style or what What hand do you want to learn? And and we can help with that. We'll talk at the end about a workshop we're doing.
Jillian Reece [00:05:20]:
But, yeah, you definitely don't need to have good handwriting, and it's really not, Like, super difficult to learn. Jordan, what do you think about? Like, do you need to
Jordan Truster, [00:05:29]:
be artistic? Or yeah. That's another people think that they have to be super artistic. We the way we approach calligraphy and I actually studied engineering, and Jillian also is very analytical. And neither of us really consider ourselves to be, like, super Creative or artistic? Like, I can't draw to save my life. But calligraphy is different in that it's built up by basic strokes that are just Simple shapes. Like, if you can draw an oval and a u shape, then you can make the letter a in calligraphy. And that's how we like to approach it and make it super simple for someone wanting to learn and Break it down. And like Jillian said, it doesn't really take that long to learn.
Jordan Truster, [00:06:06]:
Like, we have students that transform from never picking up a before to creating very, very impressive calligraphy in as little as a couple weeks, like 6 weeks.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:06:18]:
So I'm glad you mentioned that you don't have to be good at cursive because I can tell you my cursive writing is atrocious. I don't know what I was learning, you know, years ago when they They taught courses in school. I know a lot of schools don't even teach it anymore. So that is good to know. And I also am glad to hear that you don't have to be particularly creative because I'm I'm probably a little bit more analytical like you guys. So that that's also good to know. So let's say that somebody is interested in Getting started, what materials would you suggest that they start with?
Jillian Reece [00:06:52]:
Yes. So that's a great question. A lot of people who wanna get started want to, like, go out and buy a calligraphy kit. I would say the first thing you should know is the type of calligraphy you want to learn. So we have we we have, like, tons of guides on our website because it is, you know, pretty visual to figure out what style. But, For example, if you wanted to learn a broad edge script, then you would need to buy a broad edge pen. If you wanted to learn a pointed pen script, you need to learn that, buy that type of pen. But the cool thing is you can actually start doing calligraphy right now with Any pen that you have, it's called faux calligraphy.
Jillian Reece [00:07:29]:
And this is actually actually where we recommend beginners start is, just grabbing any pen and lined paper that they have, and then you can create the look of calligraphy with just like a regular ballpoint pen, by adding, shades to certain parts of the letters. So that's I think the coolest thing about this hobby is, like, unlike other hobbies, like, you can't just start, I don't know knitting if you don't have yarn, but for calligraphy, you probably already have in your drawer, something that you could use to get started.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:07:57]:
So that's good to know. So most of us are gonna have those, maybe even the paper and the pens at home sitting on our desk right now where we could go ahead and get started. So let's say that somebody is completely new. Where do you suggest that they begin? What are the 1st steps that they could they should start with?
Jordan Truster, [00:08:15]:
The first steps that we always recommend in our courses is to learn the basic strokes of the script that you're learning. Like I mentioned before, it's just Very simple shapes that make up the letters. And once you get the confidence with those shapes, then it becomes so much easier to write the letters. But once you start learning calligraphy, there's just like, You can get really good pretty quick, but then it opens up a whole world of different techniques and different styles. And we've been doing this for years, but there's Still so much more to learn. So it's really exciting, and being a beginner is a really, really great place to start. We are teaching a Free workshop, and we'd love for you to join anyone that's listening, as a really, really great first step to get into this world. And, during the workshop, we're gonna be doing some calligraphy together.
Jordan Truster, [00:08:59]:
So like Jillian said, you can just use any pen that you already have. You don't need anything fancy. We'll show you how to do it with a regular Ballpoint pen on paper. We'll show you step by step how to create, some cool techniques. And even if you have 0 experience Joining in, you'll walk away at the end of the workshop with some beautiful lettering, and this will be a great introduction to get you started with calligraphy.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:09:23]:
And we will make sure that that link is in the show notes. And before we wrap it up here, any last minute tips for the listeners you guys have.
Jillian Reece [00:09:35]:
I would say that if this is something you're even a little bit curious about learning, just give it a go. I know that, like, this year, Specifically in 2024, I'm trying to do a lot more lot less of just, like, thinking and deciding, like, what do I wanna do and actually go for what I'm interested in. So it's a skill that like, if you don't like it, then that's fine. At least you gave it a try, but a lot of people have surprised themselves with how far they can go with Calligraphy just by just by giving it a go. No one likes to be bad at something at the beginning, but, I promise you, we can we can help you through it.
Jordan Truster, [00:10:05]:
Yeah. And it's because it's so easy to get started with it, like just a pen and a paper. It's also a great, like, a great Screen free activity. A lot of people have been telling us lately, like, they wanna do something that's not scrolling on their phone, not sitting on their computer, and this is a great way to kind of Detach from that and do something physical with your hands.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:10:24]:
And I know a lot of people in our audience going back to what you mentioned before, a lot of people in our audience Love trying out new things and new hobbies, but they also want to monetize them if they can, if they're interested in it, and some people are. And you you, You know? And what you said earlier, there's people that are making money from doing this. Something so very simple out there. So we'll make sure that that link is in the show notes. If this is something you wanna try out, I encourage you to sign up for their free workshop. And, Jillian and Jordan, can you let people know where they can find you?
Jillian Reece [00:10:58]:
Yes. So our website, www.loveleighloops.com, has tons of in-depth guides and articles that you can find on all sorts of calligraphy related topics. We also post regularly on YouTube, and Our, like, featured homepage YouTube video is about the basic strokes, which we mentioned before, so you can look, for Loveleigh Loops on YouTube. And then the best place would always be joining our email list so that you can get our email newsletters and resources. If you end up signing up for our free workshop that's happening, then you can you will be added to our email list. So we are so excited to get to know you, and thank you so much for having us on this podcast. This was great.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:11:35]:
Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me. And like I Said I will make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so they can sign up for your free workshop and they can go to your website and your YouTube and your Instagram account. So thank you ladies for joining me and, thank you know, I'm I'm looking forward to your workshop.
Jillian Reece [00:11:52]:
Thank you.