A Weekend of Calligraphy

Our spring season in the Studio for the Imagination begins tomorrow with Bill Kemp's Calligraphic Flourishing and Introduction to Spencerian classes. Bill arrived from Albuquerque this morning to prepare everything for the weekend, and we couldn't help but notice the gorgeous turned wood oblique pen holders he'd laid out on the table. Our students this weekend will get first crack at these beauties, which he picked up from a maker in Colorado, and we plan to carry them in the store soon.

Advanced Spencerian Saga

When I took my first look at the classes our teachers had assembled for this spring, I knew it would be the most fantastic season Castle in the Air's classroom had ever seen. We've got gypsies, marionettes, hedgehogs, Pysanky eggs, enchanted teapots, an octopus, and more.

At the heart of all our springtime classes, though, one course in particular stands out and is already getting quite a bit of attention. We're proud to announce that this April 18-23, master penman Michael Sull will bring his world-renowned Advanced Spencerian Saga to Castle in the Air. Six days in length, and accommodating 24 students, the Saga is the most ambitious class we've ever hosted. Sull will be joined by longtime Castle in the Air calligraphy teacher Bill Kemp, and will go beyond the basics in Spencerian script, flourishing, and accents. Color, composition, and alphabetic combinations will also be explored.

Visit our Advanced Spencerian Saga page for more information, and to sign up just click over to the Online Shoppe.

A Testimonial

This weekend Castle in the Air is welcoming back master calligrapher Bill Kemp, who flies in from Albuquerque a few times a year to teach classes in the studio. Bill will be teaching copperplate script this time, and when he returns the weekend of July into August he'll teach Spencerian script and flourishes.

Spencerian script was developed by the American calligrapher Platt Rogers Spencer in 1840 as a writing hand appropriate for business and social correspondence. It was the standard into the 20th century, when it was edged out by the Palmer Method (which most of us remember from school days) and the rise of the typewriter.

As we were preparing the summer class mailer (which is on press as I write this), we came across a fun old "testimonial" from a Spencerian student back in the script's heyday. You can click on the picture to get a closer look. Mr. Morgan's had quite good success with just five weeks of practice!

Lovely Little Letters!

Castle in the Air is very lucky this weekend to have the World's Smallest Postal Service helping us with the holiday rush. Postmistress Lea Redmond is stationed just inside the front door, transforming customers' regular-sized letters into miniature mail. Each missive she completes fits onto a 1" by 1.5" piece of stationery, which is then folded and placed inside a stamped envelope smaller than a thumbnail!

Lea has been operating her petite post office since this summer, setting up shop at stores and cafes in San Francisco and the East Bay. She says she gets lots of requests for transcriptions of love letters, notes to Santa Claus, and even notes for the Tooth Fairy. The Castle in the Air gnomes could learn a thing or two about calligraphy from her!

You can learn more about the World's Smallest Postal Service and Lea's other projects at: http://www.worldssmallestpostalservice.com