A Winter Eden

My latest client requested Robert Frost's A Winter Eden done in calligraphy.  

After a bit of practice writing and measuring, it went from this:

...to this...

...to finished piece...

...complete with sparkling snowflakes.

Next, I'll be doing another version with an illustration of winter berries.

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Monday's Child

I, and generations before me, grew up on rhymes like "Thirty days hath September" and "Monday's child is fair of face."  My niece and nephew don't know these.  They're not alone.  I'm constantly surprised at how many blank looks I get when I mention them.  

Many times, my mother and I have embroidered cute little squares of this poem for baby quilts.  I calligraphed it a while back, just for a fun challenge.  Recently, an Etsy customer asked me to make a 5 x 7 print with watercolor illustration.  I was most pleased with my sunrise behind the trees.

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A Matter of Pride

When I create a piece of art, such as a calligraphed poem, a lot of me goes into it.  It's not just the time clocked planning the layout, doing the math, measuring margins, running to Hobby Lobby when my ink suddenly runs out mid-word.  No, each piece becomes part of me.  Throughout the day--and often into the night--I'm thinking how to best shape this flourish, paint the flower, create this effect, blend illustration and words.

When it's done, I carefully pack each one, sandwiched in between two pieces of stiff cardboard to keep it safe.  I take it to the post office.  I track it's journey.

Yesterday, I received a message from one of my most recent customers in the UK.  She'd requested the Yeats poem illustrated with English bluebells.

She wrote:

The poem and artwork is beautiful and the gift card was a wonderful surprise!
The package made it all the way to my front door in perfect condition. Whereupon the postman bent it and forced it through the box. Its badly creased top and bottom to the point it can't be ironed out. I'll be making an official complaint tomorrow morning.

I feel bad for her. She asked for this poem, chose the illustration, paid for it and waited for it to come.  And now it isn't even fit to hang!  I also feel bad for me.  It's a piece of me that postman unwittingly destroyed.  

I'm going to make my customer a new one.  No charge.  This wasn't my fault, no, but it's a matter of pride.  

Creating a Custom Poem

I got a request to "decorate" a poem, Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats.   Reading and re-reading the poem, I pictured my calligraphy on a background of sky, with maybe the silhouette of a few grassy flowers in the foreground at the bottom.  "Make it a sunrise/sunset sky," my client suggested.  That did sound lovely.  I did the calligraphy (without a mistake the first time around!  How is that possible?) and loved this sky I created with pastels.

My client, who lives in the UK, wondered if I could make those foreground flowers be English flowers--English hyacinth or meadow buttercups.  The hyacinths are her favorites.  Looking at this poem again, I realized the sky is too dramatic to pair with a dainty flower.  

I went back to the drawing board (literally) this morning.

Which one would YOU choose?

To see more, or get your own custom calligraphed poem, visit me at www.thirdsisterhandmade.etsy.com

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