Growing up my grandmother had a habit of giving gifts that, if not particularly exciting for a young girl, were nearly always quirky and interesting. I look back on them now with so much fondness and laugh at how uninteresting they seemed at the time.
She liked to give us gifts that we could place in our “hope chest” and save for the day when we had homes of our own. I remember a few Christmases in particular. When I was eleven she gave me a wine rack, which has definitely come in useful as an adult. As have the grapefruit spoons! If you’ve never used a grapefruit spoon to eat grapefruit, you should. It will change your life.
One of the gifts I found most interesting as a pre-teen was a calligraphy set. I used it probably a handful of times for this or that craft, and then realized I didn’t have the patience or stamina to actually learn hand lettering techniques.
But when I learned about the Modern Calligraphy class at The Mill all that old initial interest piqued up again! The art of hand lettering has come a long way since the stuffy old English calligraphy instruction manual I had as a preteen. It has evolved into something very beautiful. Or, more likely, it has always been beautiful and I just didn’t recognize it until recently.
I went into this event hopeful and excited. I met our instructor, Kristen Stansell, of Crafted By and she was just a lovely person. I knew immediately this was going to be good.
I guess without realizing it I had expected the class to be more free form, because I was thrilled with the real instruction and constructive criticism. We walked through the entire lowercase and uppercase alphabets. Kristen broke down each stroke and shape, even offering alternatives for certain letters that have more than one look. Tips and tricks that you can only get from people with real experience made this class very valuable.
The best part was that Kristen printed out workbooks with all of the class’ content for us to take home! I won’t lie to you I definitely plan on using this newfound skill for Christmas gift tags and these class notes are going to make all the difference in helping me remember what I learned. My gift wrapping is going to be on point this year.
Let’s pause for a second. Can we all just take a minute and thank The Mill for hosting such fun workshops? How often do you get the opportunity to learn calligraphy or floral design from professionals like Kristen Stansell and Luke Harwell? Or dance in high heels for that matter. Can we all collectively agree that The Mill is helping keep Abilene awesome? Yes? Okay, great.
And on the topic of floral design I am incredibly bummed that I won’t be able to attend the final creative workshop with Luke Harwell. Boo, responsibilities. Boo, real life. Can’t we all just play and have fun?
But that just means that you have to go for me.
There is still time to get your tickets and plan your evening. Do it. Do it and let me know how awesome it is. Because it is going to be awesome. Just look at this bouquet and tell me it’s not going to be awesome!
Get your tickets today at themillwinery.com.
Follow Bailey and Scene on Instagram and Twitter. Stay up to date on your local Abilene activities with our #EventsToBeScene series.
@bajaelsol & @AbileneScene
Leave a Reply