Sponsored: Valentine's Day calligraphy haikus
This post is brought to you by Pen Heaven, who, this Valentine's day, is collaborating with calligraphers to bring a little lettering love to the V-day spirit with calligraphed haikus.
I've never been great with Valentine's Day romance (or any gift giving particularly). I think one year JW got a small tin of (4) Ben's Cookies. I appreciate that people use the day to celebrate their love, but I'm usually not that organised.
This year, I got a little heads up from Pen Heaven, when they asked me to bring a love haiku to life with my calligraphy.
If there is one thing that I will profess love for any day of the week, it's haikus, so it felt right that Olive & Reid's first foray into an online collaboration like this would satisfy all forms of my word nerd tendencies. Pens, calligraphy, haikus!
I was asked to calligraph the following haiku:
Your precious delight
Turns shallow, simple trinkets
Into memories
When I considered which style I would go with for this piece, I knew that another contributor, Chiara Perano from Lamplighter London, had presented a stunning, simple modern white copperplate on black background, which probably would have been my modus operandi, so I decided to go out on a limb, and, working with what The Postman's Knock tutorial has taught me, bring a little floral watercolour into the mix.
Why love and calligraphy go hand in hand
As I got to work on the calligraphy for the haiku, I started thinking what it is about beautiful handwriting that is so well connected to the art of romance. I think, at the heart of it (do NOT excuse the pun) is the fact that handwriting is so unique and personal much like the way we love. Everyone can write, everyone can love: they are a perfect pair.