So you evolved into teaching. The Postman's Knock Class at The Paper Seahorse. I guess I'm married to a rocket scientist. It's kind of like losing weight or whatever, when it's your every day you don't see the results. And then I've gotten to work on a couple of books. You have to really think about what you're writing. Could you describe the growth of a calligraphy and of handwriting and why you think it's happening and what it gives to people? We get about 300,000 page views per month. But you can use calligraphy for anything, for sure.-. Yeah, let me think for just a second Yes! by Tona Bell April 02, 2022 I'm writing, and I suppose I just feel completely relaxed at that point, and then also excited because if you're writing something, 95% of the time, it's because someone is going to see it, so even the place cards that I'm working on today, as I'm creating them, I'm thinking about the reaction that people are going to have to them, it's going to elevate the gathering that we're having from just to gathering in the home to something truly elegant. For Thanksgiving, we usually put brown paper on our table and then we'll create calligraphy on there directly onto the table that you're eating on. But if I sit down for two hours and I make you this beautiful handmade card and I write calligraphy and send it to you, it says is Happy birthday, it's the same message, but it's a completely different form of communicating, which makes it a completely different message. What do you think about all that? One woman I know is working on a piece right now for her daughter. I'm retired, I'm just making them in my spare time., Rodger Mayeda Examining His Hand-made Pen. Yeah, that's actually kind of an interesting question because we think about that a lot, being a couple where I'm from the United States and my husband's from Peru, which is a disadvantage country, my audience is largely women, but specifically women that are in their 30s to 60s, they have some disposable income because they can create calligraphy, so that's interesting to ponder because my in-laws in Peru never really saw the postman knock as a valid business because to them it was, you're trying to meet your basic needs. What are some of the most surprising things that have happened to you related to calligraphy or writing? So that's been a treat, Jodean Cooper is a calligrapher in Arizona, she makes gorgeous thing, she can write great Spencerian, which is a traditional script, and you know Kate Watson, she actually, I think got started with calligraphy because of the TPK blog - I could be wrong about that - but she recently did an event for Guy Ritchie, which I thought was fun. I mean, it was like a novel - if I printed it, it would have been three pages, just talking about how glad she was, she found my website, and it's funny because usually somebody's searching for one thing because we have a whole bunch of different tutorials, you know, there might be something about crayons or colored pencils or water color, but then there's a lot about calligraphy, so you sort of go down this rabbit hole, so a lot of emails will start off and say, I was looking for this, but then I also found this on your website. I'm 17, so I'm going, Oh yeah, that's a good point. Showroom Open (all other days by appointment only): 2022 The Paper Seahorse. Calligraphy Class at the Paper Seahorse in Tampa. Even if the email or message is of little consequence, I think that that can be really overwhelming, and so for me, especially when I became a mom and things were super stressful, it was amazing to just sit down put on a podcast and write. But yeah, it's mostly women that are older than 30. What's going through your mind? You already know how to do art. So, that funny term, Insta-famous really applies to you. When I say calligraphy, I'm talking about dip pen calligraphy. Of course, I only did commissions for two or three years, and then it evolved into more of like a teaching sort of website, but that's how I got started. I'm actually planning my son's birthday party and it's a lot of Ethiopian food, a lot of people don't know what's the difference between this dish or this dish, so I'm making place cards so people can know, you know what they're actually eating. That's so fun. Where we are right now? Anybody can create calligraphy. I started in 2012. So I think that calligraphy is a great way for people to really get into this mindfulness thing, but also create something beautiful and be productive. Luckily for me, he still continues to help me and teach me a lot of things pertaining to calligraphy, which sort of trickles down into the website. So to me, I guess half of my mind is on the story that I'm listening to, and then the other half of my mind is, I guess just paying attention to what I'm doing, so I'm drawing out guidelines, I'm making slant lines to guide my slant, I'm dipping the pen into the ink, making sure that it's at an appropriate level. So that's a good feeling. It's very easy if your mind isn't really in, it to skip a letter or mess up on the letter you're making, so you really have to concentrate on what you're doing. So yeah, it's opened up a lot of really cool doors for me. Like in the workshops I teach, there might be a couple of people in there who will say, Yeah, I'm here so I can learn to make money with my calligraphy, but mostly it's people that are there saying, I just need a way to learn how to relax, I need something meditative to do, and I think this is it for me.. So I think that that makes the medium and the message that much more special because it takes effort, and for me to take the time to make something like that, not only is it 15 minutes to make that envelope, but it's hours and hours and hours of practice before that, to be able to make that envelope, so I think it's something really special. I'm not thinking about anything. So how do you even get started in the calligraphy business? I've noticed in marketing that companies have started sending out things that have scans of handwritten notes, just to catch your eye. But I think that it's certainly my way of meditating and relaxing, and I think that that's true for a lot of people. They wanted handwritten components for a couple of reasons, first they didn't want any information leaking to the press, which is easier to control if it's just one person, and then second, they didn't want to print things for that same reason, it would have been 10 people working on a printing company. So I tried the Nikko G and I tried the pens, and I realized the Nikko was great for beginners. So I think it's just been a really good way for me to find my people. I would say that calligraphy looks very intimidating. When you go up to make an upstroke, you don't apply pressure to your nib, which is why you get a very thin stroke, when you go down, you do apply pressure and the tines split open and give you a thick stroke, so that's where you get that contrast. Absolutely, there's really no handicap for that, you know how to create letters, so why can't you do it beautifully? I'm getting pretty nerdy about this, so anyway, it's just been interesting to see that domino effect: I made the recommendation of them on my blog, and I said, Hey, you beginners should try using this nib, and after that, I noticed that both in books and online, either credited to The Postmans Knock website or not, all the calligraphy teachers say, Start with an Nikko G its the best beginners nib. But I think that to go with that, you also have to have some balance, and that's where the hand lettering comes in. I don't think that the two things, digital and analog are mutually exclusive, I think that they actually help each other to grow. Do you feel like you are helping to create some good in the world? Well, I really think that anyone can do it because you can write already - you know how to write a letter. Whereas if you're sending a text message, there's a lot of auto-correct or whatever, and you might write and send it and then think, Oh, I could have said that better, or whatever. Okay, okay, so we're in Boulder, Colorado, we are in my house We live here in Boulder because I'm from Western Kansas, which is three and a half hours away. Yeah, yeah, Jessica, she has Greenleaf and Blueberry, and they're the best watercolors, I do use them for calligraphy and of course for painting, but she is a pretty amazing artist. Why do you think that people are gravitating towards writing by hand? And as far as where I see it going, I really don't know. Second, you need to familiarize yourself with the instrument, which in my case would be a dip pen. So I had experience with blogging and I noticed that every time I blogged about calligraphy, there would be this big response, you would see a spike and views on the website, people would be commenting on these blog posts, and so then eventually my husband Hernn, who grew up in Peru, told me about this little booklet they have in Peru called Oh no, I can't remember what it was called, but it was, you know, some booklet to teach you cursive and you said, You know, it would have examples and stuff, I think maybe you should make a printable so people can learn calligraphy. Second, you don't need really expensive materials to learn calligraphy, really all you need is the Nikko G nib, a straight pen, some Sumi ink, and then some 32-pound laser jet paper, specifically HP premium brand, I would say, and some exemplars wouldn't hurt. It was pretty cool with my website because I was hugely inspired by Molly Suber Thorpes book, Modern Calligraphy, and I loved that book. As far as I'm concerned, and I think this is a big reason that people are attracted to the postman knock blog, there is no hierarchy for being good at calligraphy, it's all kind of a personal journey, and I know that there are some people out there that would like to really impose rigid rules and say, Well, this person isn't as good as this person because they just are not as disciplined to me. So I don't think that you can necessarily force somebody to learn, but if you're motivated and you want to learn it, you can. Really, it's been pretty awesome. My husband knows, I think. And that's kind of how it all evolved. I think that people are gravitating towards the analog writing by hand because we are just so inundated every day with technology, and I think technology is an amazing thing, my family has a group chat where we'll all say what we're doing, which is great, because they're in Kansas, I'm in Colorado, but I think it can also be very exhausting. And I guess I initially felt like I would get people attacking me saying, Oh, you know, your art isn't that good, your calligraphy is not that good, I can do it better. But what I actually found is the response has been overwhelmingly kind, and I'm not sure if I've just been profoundly lucky with that, but I have gotten emails from people all over the world and Because our number one viewership is the US, but that's only 60% of people to visit the website, the other two biggies are Canada, in the United Kingdom. Going back to when you write, when you send someone a hand-written note, aren't you also giving a piece of you? I wasn't having ink battering issues anymore, and it was kind of like having a bike with training wheels. You pick up books that look great, so why wouldn't it be the same when you're sending a greeting card or whatever you want to build up anticipation, and that's why brides and grooms want envelopes that are beautiful because what's inside is important, but the outside is what really sets the tone. Where do you think it's going with people returning to handwriting? But if you take a picture two months ago, and then now you'll see that you've really improved, so I've gotten a lot of photos of people's improvements and it's like, wow, that's amazing that you use the resources on my website to teach yourself how to do this, that's so cool! I've had a lot of cancer patients who, this is just a way to get their mind off of things and relax, because in the end, calligraphy is a very relaxing activity, it's not something that you do fast, so it's really something you should sit down and do with intention and quite slowly. I mean, it's a necessary thing. I really don't know, I'm just going to go wherever it takes me You have a friend that makes watercolor paints, right? Lindsey Bugbee:You know, when I first decided I was going to learn calligraphy, like I told you, it was, okay, I'm going to make these wedding invitation envelopes. What do you hear from your what do you call them? And so I think it's been amazing to know that the website has that kind of impact, and it's been surprising for me to see how wonderful people can actually be. So it looks like the popularity of the Nikko G nib is coming from me, but really, it's all coming from you know, this guy in Roger Mayeda in Albuquerque! That's a little bit more popular, I would say, than the dip pen because it only requires a marker to create, and then still others would argue that calligraphy is just pretty penmanship. This is actually the closest you can get to a metropolis if you're from Western Kansas, so it's a good compromise for us because my family is there, we can drive there and see them or we can hop on the bus just outside the house actually, and go to the airport and go to Lima, which is where our non-family is from, and we live here in Boulder for the geographical reasons, but also because my husband does this PhD here in aerospace engineering, and I guess we just kind of got used to the lifestyle. It's just you have to understand how to break it down, which is why I have courses on the website explaining how to do that, but I would say first you need to figure out the relationship between the strokes. Powered by Shopify, Free Spirit + Wild Heart TRAVELER'S Notebook Meet Up. If anything, it sort of keys me up a little bit when you get on Instagram and you're looking at people's pictures, or you get on your computer and you think, Hey, I'll just check Facebook or Pinterest for one second, in one second turns into 30 minutes. What does it feel like when you're writing? So needless to say, I don't have a huge audience in Peru, just a couple of Peruvians. So what is the difference between an upstroke and a downstroke. It's beautiful here. Yeah, absolutely. I can't sufficiently express how that email made me feel and certainly not matched the kindness of her email when I write back, but yeah, people will send me these really impressive things that they've done, and I really encourage learners to take a picture before - try doing calligraphy for a day, take a picture, see what it looks like, and then two months from now, after you've been practicing a couple of times a week, compare Because it's really hard to see it. But really, since I'm not on social media a lot, I haven't connected with a ton of people that I really should connect with, and those are the people that just come to mind, but there are many, many more who create gorgeous things that are worth mentioning. Thank you so much Lindsey. What kind of numbers of people are you're reaching? I think that's right. But I think anything is intimidating when you first start. Yeah, I think that some of the coolest utilizations I've seen have been in public On chalkboards, for example, if you go to a coffee shop, those are neat to see, a lot of people are doing bullet journals right now. So I went to a local craft store and I found a Speedball kit, and I didn't know anything about calligraphy, so I thought, Okay, well, these things -I didn't know what a nib was - look like they all work. I got them home and they were just awful. So if I text you happy birthday, that doesn't really say much. It's just different, and I notice I do have Procreate on my iPad, which is an app or you can write, but to me, it's a great practice tool because it doesn't require a lot of supplies, but it's just not the same as that tactile quality of sitting down with paper and dipping your pen into ink, and writing with it until it runs out. I guess, really think about the person and for me, I think about the reaction that the person is going to have receiving the envelope, it's just such a treat to get things in the mail, there's just an incredible difference between getting an email from someone and getting a hand-written note, especially when it comes in a calligraphed envelope really, that's why we have cool book covers. I have a website called The Postmans Knock, which is about art, but also a lot about calligraphy, and I think it's just a place that people go to find tutorials and to learn new techniques, and it's really exploded over the past few years. 1 min read. And it's just so relaxing. I'd like to share that. I mean, because if you would have asked me in 2011, well 2012, I guess is when I officially started, what is this business about, I would say, Yeah, I'm just going to make custom wedding envelopes. What kind of audience do you have and where do you see it going? So I started The Postmans Knock with the idea that I would be creating these envelopes and people would get excited when they heard The Postmans Knock because they'd be getting these beautiful envelopes. Okay, so the story of the famous Nikko G nib Do you want to take it from the beginning? When was this, by the way? When you are sitting at your desk and you're making calligraphy how does it feel? Where do you think it could go? If I'm putting a picture on Instagram, because for me, it's about the art and it's about the calligraphy, I think really the Insta-famous thing, which again, I'm not even sure I would classify me as that, I would just say that it's been good because I'm finding these super nice people who are into the same thing that I'm into, whereas I have a great group of friends in my everyday life, but they're all aerospace engineers, are working on wind farms or whatever, nobody is really into calligraphy, and one of my aerospace friends did take a workshop for me, and that was fine, but you know, they're just not into it, like some people around the world are that are writing to me. So I think that calligraphy and handwriting has become hugely popular, and I think that it is in direct response to all of the technology that we're surrounded by, and I'm not going to sit here and tell you that technology is bad and we need to get back to our roots and just communicate via analog, but I do think that technology can be very overwhelming, it's really tough to be plugged in all the time, so it would be really easy for people, for example, to open up a Google Doc and keep a diary there, but I think that it is hugely more satisfying to open up your tangible notebook, hand letter, keep a bullet journal, keep a regular journal or sketchbook. And as far as what I see for The Postmans Knock specifically, I would just like to be able to share more of what I know with people. I've gotten a few of those. And he, like I said, has his PhD in aerospace engineering, but during the course of his PhD, he did a lot of coding, and particularly he coded our website, so he's really sort of the mechanic, I guess, behind the website, so if something isn't quite right with downloads or orders aren't going through or whatever, he really comes to the rescue with that and looks and sees what's wrong and he fixes it, and in fact, right now he's working on a new version of the website, but he's just really good aesthetically. We appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with all of us.Lindsey Bugbee: You are very welcome. The difference between a sketchbook and a bullet journal would be that sketch-booking is more general, whereas the themes of my bullet journals pages are more specific - either specific to a day or keeping track of goals. And it was one of the reasons I got into calligraphy, and then she reached out to me, she's reached out to me twice now to review her books, which is so neat because when I started, I was a nobody and I wouldn't have been on her radar at all but now she's asking me to review her books. Now when I see this actor or actress in movies, I think how I created their wedding materials, and I know that when they go home and in the evening, they have this invitation framed in their home, so that's a really cool feeling. So I studied English and got out of college with this English degree What do you do with an English degree? So I think that that's why we're sort of returning to that because it's relaxing, it's intentional. I hope that I'm helping people to express themselves artistically, and I know that there are a lot of people that read the blog and they'll say, I'm not an artist, but I made this, or I'm not an artist, but I learned calligraphy, and here's what I have and you know, I think it's sad when people have this label that they're not an artist because everybody is an artist in their own way, so I know that the website has encouraged some people who have reached out specifically to me, and I hope that others who haven't reached out, I've been impacted too. I think Molly Suber Thorpe did a great job with her Modern Calligraphy book, and I think that got a lot of people into calligraphy initially. I'm not going to lie and say, Yeah, you could learn - I don't know, just in a day. I'm a blogger, calligrapher, artist and entrepreneur. Well, I think that I was always under the impression that you cannot have art as a career. Just people use it for different things. I've been featured in my favorite magazine ever, Flow Magazine, which is a magazine that is published out of the Netherlands and super cool, and it gives me opportunities to do interviews like this one, which is justreally neat.

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