Jocelyn Curry

Art & Joie de Vivre

The Art of Writing Letters

November 23, 2025

Did I need a deep plunge into a new blog site, right when such a time-consuming challenge really didn’t fit into my crowded calendar? The answer, no surprise, is “no” but at least I was able to navigate the mind-befuddling process of transferring the data from my old platform to this new, AI-enhanced version of good ol’ WordPress. My previous experience of working on good ol’ WordPress wasn’t stellar, so I’m hoping to improve my relationship with it asap. So far I have been able to upload my seasonally appropriate squash painting! But now, HOW do I get rid of “Hello World!” which was placed there by Good Ol. I’m not sure about this, but I think Good Ol’s default tips will stay on this, my First Post until I figure out how to discretely remove them without being told “This is not a good idea.” At least I got my squash up on this new site for your viewing pleasure! Happy Thanksgiving :-).

As an example of a "Personal Letter as Manuscript" the letter below was written by me to the students who had signed up for the mini-workshop I taught on May 2. Twenty students went right to work last Saturday at the Letters of Joy conference at Edmonds Community College. Watching these calligraphic artists launch into writing their letters was a moving experience. I took some photos of their work, but then realized that these were personal letters to real people so I will not post them. Kudos!! to all of my hard-working students.

 

Letter to students

A vintage Schaeffer calligraphy fountain pen (fine) and colored pencils were used on 8.5" x 11" Crane's stationery. I designed a lining guide that includes borders and boxes for placement of initial cap letters (versals). Gold gel pen was used to enhance the artwork and writing.
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