Even After Years of Lettering, Calligrapher Continues Her Studies

Louisville, KY, April 25, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Jan Hurst, a calligrapher for decades, continues to study with master calligraphers to hone her skills. A recent trip to Nashville TN included a workshop with master brush lettering artist, Carl Rohrs, sponsored by the Nashville Calligraphy Guild. Next month Hurst will attend a workshop sponsored by the Memphis Calligraphy Guild featuring the Belgian calligrapher, Yves Leterme.

Hurst, a calligraphy teacher herself, says that to stay fresh with her lettering skills, she continues to study and learn from and with fabulous calligraphers from all over the world. “The calligraphy world is fairly small now with Facebook and the internet making communication so easy,” Hurst says. “Cyberscribes, a once private online calligraphy group, introduced calligraphers around the world. Facebook has continued the trend on an even larger scale.” Many calligraphers begin their calligraphic careers after having studied in college, but most of the best also train similarly to apprentices of old, studying with the masters. Opportunities abound, including an annual international conference (this year’s is in Portland, OR), a pointed pen conference, Iampeth (this year’s will be in Milwaukee), a few different retreats, including Cheerio and Ghost Ranch, among others. Various instructors travel to guilds upon invitation to share their knowledge with adult students, all calligraphers who enjoy the opportunity to study with exceptional calligraphers.

Hurst’s skills include pointed pen, which is traditionally used for wedding calligraphy, and broad edged pen lettering. In March she took a journal making workshop in Carmel IN, and bound a leather journal with a map liner. "Calligraphy has opened the door to many other arts for me. I have taken watercolor workshops, pastel workshops, have branched out into collage and mixed media and even figure drawing."

The Carl Rohrs workshop in Nashville was on brush lettering, as was the John Stevens workshop she attended at Camp Cheerio in North Carolina last September. She considers the Cheerio calligraphy experience one of the best of her life. Hurst continues, “I am friends with fabulous calligraphers from around the world, and know most of the best-of-the-best personally. I began studying calligraphy when my children were babies. Now I have a grandchild. I love the opportunity to study with instructors who are at the top of the field. It helps me improve, and I always learn something new.”

Connections in the field are rampant. Yves Leterme, next on her schedule of instructors, actually studied with Brody Neunschwander, a former Texan who has become one of the top tier calligraphers in the world. Hurst studied with Brody many years ago before he was such a popular teacher. She has studied twice with the British trained Sheila Waters, who is considered "the queen of calligraphy" by many. Ms. Waters will also be taking a workshop from Leterme, when he is in Washington DC next month. “Our connections are many. We are a fairly close knit group, even though we are spread across the world.”