5 Ways To Use Calligraphy (that don't involve weddings!)

It’s quite easy to think that calligraphy is only useful for luxury wedding stationery given that images of wedding specific items are likely the ones that you come across most often. If you’re really lucky you will have been the recipient of a beautiful invitation or save the date featuring some gorgeous calligraphy or perhaps it featured on your own wedding invitations. However, there are a myriad of other ways in which calligraphy can be put to use.

Place Names

Nothing marks a special occasion like a place name, but too often they are considered only for weddings, or large occasions, or are hurriedly scribbled 20 minutes before the meal is served. I’ve been to two special dinners recently, one had place names (albeit, the hurried type that I just referenced) and everyone was able to sit down at their place, no questions asked. The second dinner didn’t have place names and, even though it wasn’t a massive gathering, everyone was hovering around wondering where to sit, who to sit with, not wanting to be the first to claim a seat (all very British I know!). It was just a bit of a faff getting everyone sat down. So place names have two purposes, a practical means of getting everyone into their seats, and also a way of elevating a meal to make it extra special. And it just so happens that calligraphy lends itself very well to a beautiful place name!

Gift Tags

A quick and easy way to jazz up a gift without having to get involved in complicated, fancy wrapping techniques is to get some handwritten, personalised gift tags. These can either have a generic greeting on, or personalised with the recipient’s name so there’s no doubt who it’s for. Either way, it shows you’ve taken that bit of extra care over their gift which I guarantee will be appreciated. NB: I’m the sort of person who only buys square gifts as my wrapping skills are poor, so I’m all about the gift tags!

A Unique Gift

One of my favourite things to create as a calligrapher is a bespoke, custom commission. This could be a quote, a poem, a collection of meaningful words, perhaps some names and dates, anything that can be written! I love being able to create something that’s incredibly personal, knowing that it will be treasured by the recipient. I’ve created pieces for birthdays, anniversaries, confirmations, celebrations of friendship, flower shows and memorials. I maintain there isn’t an occasion where a piece of calligraphy doesn’t work.

Menus

I have a very clear memory of a Mother’s Day years ago where my sister and her husband cooked a Mother’s Day meal for my Mum and my sister designed a menu for the table. It wasn’t anything fancy and didn’t even feature calligraphy (!) but the fact that there was a menu at all made it extra special above and beyond the many Mother’s Day meals we’ve had over the years and it means I could still tell you what we ate as I have a copy of it stashed away. That is why a custom designed menu is such a nice thing to have at a special meal, it adds that extra touch that takes it above all the other special meals and also acts as a souvenir for you to keep. It doesn’t have to cost the earth and calligraphy is the perfect way to add a luxury element!

Tattoos

As a calligrapher this one is on my bucket list, I would love to design a tattoo for someone (maybe me!) written in my calligraphy. It could be a single word, a name, a phrase or even a paragraph! You’d be safe in the knowledge that it would be completely unique. If any of you are keen, let me know!

I hope that’s given you some inspiration! If you’d like to talk to me about any of these options or if you have any other calligraphy based projects you’d like to chat through, feel free to drop me a message.

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Thanks for reading,

Sarah x