Hilink Calligraphy and Things

A Gift for an 80 year old

2012-01-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

I was asked to do this verse for a wonderful woman who just turned 80 and is doing great.A sound mind and a love for God.

More Baby Plaques

2011-11-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

I am getting more orders for these after a 10 year lull. They are very time consuming but very fun to do.It helps when they tell me what they like. One of them loves monkeys so I had to draw a monkey.I put them in the frame for the photo but they are shipped with the mat but not the frame.

Another Mirror

2011-10-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Another wedding that is using mirrors for their seating assignments. I used acrylic craft paint because they wanted an ivory color.I used Nikko G nib for the tables and Brause nib for the names. Once I got the right consistency with the craft paint so thatit would flow, it worked really well. I was surprised and it did not rub or flake off. Yay!There were 3 mirrors to do but I only took a picture of the first one.

John 3:16

2011-10-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

The Christmas rush has started, that is addressing envelopes for clients cards but before that I was able to do this for my wall.I love this verse and whoever wrote the extra words really makes it live. Read it :so loved...to the greatest degree, the world...thegreatest number and so on.

On-line watercolor class

2011-10-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

I have had some down time so I have been taking this class and it has been a lot of fun learning about color. The colors are so vibrant I had to take apicture to share.

A Wedding Gift

2011-09-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

My friend asked me to do this for her brother. It is 8x10 on Arches cold press.

I'm back

2011-09-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

I know it has been awhile since I posted but I have a good reason. We finally moved out of Los Angeles and we arenow living in a smaller town about 3 hours north of LA. I had to set up my new studio which is huge and I am so happy.I love being out of LA and thankfully, I am getting a lot of work from there even though I moved.Hope everyone is well and happy and looking forward to the holidays. Here are some thing I did recently:

Menu Board

2011-05-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

Another challenge! Writing a menu on chalk board. Last week I did one in chalk or rather white charcoal pencil, this week I decided white ink was a better idea. Dr Martin's bleed proof white. We all know it and love it!! After the wedding you can wash it off with soap and water.

Something Different

2011-04-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

These were for a wedding last week. Done in silver metallic on grey slate.
They picked this font which isn't really calligraphy or is it?

Two more commissions

2011-04-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes,(most of the time) I would rather be addressing envelopes. I can jell out. But lately people have wanted keep sakes.

Old English

2011-03-05T18:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't done"Old English" or whatever it's called in a long time but I did 2 jobs that asked for it. It was fun but a challenge and if I looked too close I saw serious flaws!

Freebie

2011-02-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

I found this table out on the street. It was painted a deep turquoise green but I thought I could spruce it up and use it in my studio. I used some zentangles, painted a flowers bouquet, glued some rhinestones on it,

bought a new knob and a piece of glass for the top and voila!!

The Latest

2011-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

I promised myself I would post more blog stuff in 2011. Well, you can see that I haven't but I am going to start!
This was a letter I did last Sunday for the guy who wrote and produced "Poker Face" He is giving his grammy that he won to the King of Morocco. He is from Morocco and he wanted to give back. It is
done on Fabriano watercolor paper, with Peal Ex gold and Brause nib. In the past whenever I had to do these type of things, I would always make a mistake at the very end and have to do the whole thing over.

I am happy to say that those days are over.

More Meri Meri place cards

2010-12-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show the latest cute cards from Meri Meri. They have such a great imagination. Also a shot of my ink wells. It must be the holidays if you have red, green and black inks at the ready.

Three Pieces

2010-12-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

This week I needed to complete 3 different "pieces" for 3 different ( and I mean different ) clients.
One was for a someone who wanted to give a gift to her friend that has a horse, one was for a girl who wanted wall art for her boyfriend about greed (Yikes!) and one was a gift from a man to his ex sister in law
who gave him one of her kidneys!! I don't usually like these jobs because I actually have to think and most
of the time what people want to write about is strange to me but I am glad they like what I do but the hardest part is when they first see it. Will they like it:? Will they hate it? You calligraphers out there know what I am talking about....and then you wait while they read it and you are hoping you didn't miss a word or spell something wrong. Whew!
On a side note, the one with the horse, the client specifically asked for the font "Legend" designed by

Ernst Schniedler. I never did it before. It is in the book "Written Letters" by Jacqueline Svaren.

The Difference

2010-11-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

Living in Southern California, it never occurred to me that my greeting cards with horses saying Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas may have looked a little funny..they are standing in green grass...duh!

So I changed some of them to standing in snow and it looks a lot more like the holidays.

The most Original Place cards

2010-11-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

The company Meri Meri does the cutest place cards. These I just did for someone's Thanksgiving
dinner. They come up with the best designs. Anyway, happy Voting Day! So glad the commercials are

over and the phone will stop ringing unless it's a calligraphy job of course!!

Escort Cards

2010-10-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

This week I had 4 different escort card jobs. They were all relatively small ( around 80 per )

Each one was different. Italic in black on a black tent card. Copperplate in brown on a small thin card, Copperplate in black on a small square envelope and Rook in black on a large textured card. It just shows how different people's tastes are!

Custom Greeting Card

2010-10-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe how fast the time goes. It's been over a month since I posted! Thanks to everyone who
comments. It means a lot!
Someone asked me if I could do a greeting card with their Yorkies on it and even though I can draw horses, I never considered trying dogs. She sent me some photos and here is the finished product.

Zentangle Fun

2010-09-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

I have been having a lot of fun between jobs these days with this. It's fun because anything goes!

Couple of new cards

2010-08-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

Had a little time between jobs and made one new card and redesigned two older ones.

Too much time on my hands

2010-08-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

After a busy summer, this week was quite slow. I tried not to think of everyone at Iampeth but
do hope they are having a blast. I tried to paint this flower that a blogger from Montana gave me. It was a photograph. I never could capture the light and the vibrant colors so I gave up and just doodled or

"zentangled around it.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Scripture order

2010-08-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Some nice lady ordered 4 scriptures from me. She told me the ones she wanted and then I got to

happily paint flowers around them. I love those orders the most.

Packed and ready to ship

2010-07-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

Here they all are ready to go. 213 place cards and 35 table numbers. Huge! The brides like flowers on the table cards but rarely do they want the matching flowers on the place cards. I'm flowered out but thankful!

A sea of flowered Table cards

2010-07-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

This week I am doing 35 tables cards. Each one has a different flower and this bride wanted all the
place cards from each table to match the corresponding flower on the table.. I hope that made sense.

Here they are before they get the final touches, folded and shipped.

It's been awhile!

2010-07-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

6 weddings later I am finally able to post something! I had one wedding in particular where I had to learn to write in Russian in about a day. There were only 17 to do but it took me hours! Finally a day off and decided to refresh my switch plate by the front door. Hope you all are well. Happy 4th!!

Rock Wedding

2010-06-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth wedding that I have done rock escort cards. They look cool and usually, I've heard, are

placed in a bed of moss for the guests to pick up. The table # is on the back.

A strange font for a wedding

2010-05-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile! I have been busy but I thought you would like to see this font called "Pendulum" that I had to do for place cards. I had to learn it in a week and to me, it was a little hard to read. I talked the client into at least using a more readable lower case. The bottom photo is the actual font that I had to download, next to that is some of my practice.

Big Big Wedding continues....

2010-05-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

Thankful to be working. This is 350 menu/place cards 230 escort cards, 33 table cards.

Custom baby Plaque

2010-04-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

I've been doing these off and on for years but this is the first time a client wanted the colors in brown for a baby girl. I kind of think it looks fine.

A Giant Zentangle

2010-04-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

I had a big blank canvas in my garage, a bunch of black sharpies and in about 2 months for an hour or so a day.....a giant zentangle was made. Not sure what to do with it, it matches absolutely nothing in my house.

A day at a Vegas Craft Show

2010-04-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have never ever been a vendor at a crafts show. I usually walk around, look at stuff and buy things.
I had the opportunity to sell my cards at my mother in laws craft show. It was fun and I did learn a lot.
I learned it's really hard to sit for 6 hours. I learned not to try and sell Mother's Day cards to elderly
people. I learned blank cards work well but then there wouldn't be any calligraphy on them. I also
learned that not everyone likes rhinestones/crystals on their cards...bummer! Having said that, I did

sell almost all the cards that I went there with. That's my patient husband and his mom in the pic.

Big Wedding

2010-04-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in awhile because of a huge wedding. Very thankful for the work!

Making Mother's Day Cards

2010-03-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend making cards for my etsy site. The one of the filly is my fave.

Envelope job..Yay!

2010-03-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

After a few slow weeks, things are looking up and getting busy! This is cream colored gouache on silver
metallic envelopes. It doesn't show up that great but the customer wants that color and that is what she

will get.

Custom invitation and response card

2010-03-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

A couple of jobs and play

2010-03-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

A job with gold on black, a job with white copperplate on brown and an envelope that was just for fun addressed to my parents who are long gone but were the best parents ever!

3 New Floral Cards

2010-02-26T14:17:00.000-08:00

3 new Greeting Cards. Maybe I should name them "The choking the flowers with Calligraphic Flourishes" series

Fancy!!

2010-02-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

Meri Meri has the coolest place cards! This was for a dinner party and I tried to make a table number to match.

Zentangles and a Card

2010-02-19T14:36:00.000-08:00

Zentangles are fun but what in the world do you do with them when your finished?

Also my latest card next to the original.

Odds and Ends

2010-02-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

A bible verse for my wall and a sign for my studio.

For my hubby

2010-02-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

I love Lisa Engelbrecht's book "Modern Mark Making" I did my husbands name using

a font in her book. He liked it so much, he's using it on his portfolio cover page!

Randomness

2010-02-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't had much work lately since a big Golden Globe party so I've been painting flowers and trying to practice flourishes .It's been fun.

Trying to off hand flourish

2010-02-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

2009-11-30T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I posted anything. Here is a menu I did on a mirror. What will they think of next??

2009-06-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

This was a super fun job designing table cards for a couple in New York. I love painting

the flowers!

2009-06-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy I can't even blog..not that blogging is something I do all the time. Still

figuring it all out. Here are the latest horse cards and tomorrow I will post the wedding I have been working on.

My studio, all 4 sides.

2009-05-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

Today I'm showing you my studio.

2009-05-08T14:07:00.001-07:00

Today I finished a birth announcement wall plaque. It has lots of rhinestones and will make a nice addition to the babies room.

New cards

2009-05-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today I made two new cards for etsy. I love making them and even if they don't sell, it is so fun to make them.

Today's job

2009-05-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I did a bible verse for a customer in Indiana. She wanted Phil. 4:8 with flowers for

her niece. I also had to address envelopes for a small wedding.

Mothers Day and Horses

2009-05-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

I love making greeting cards and these are some of my faves. However, how many moms out there are actually in to horses? Oh well. It's still a lot of fun.

2009-04-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, while sitting in the backyard there was a bee swarm. They landed in the compost

bin and were there for a few days. When they left, this is what we found. How amazing is that?

How perfectly formed. We even saw baby bees coming out. Divine Design.

Too Many rocks

2009-04-29T18:23:00.000-07:00

I'm finished with this job. Tomorrow something new!

Writing on Rocks

2009-04-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today it's all about the rocks. 150 of them to be exact. All have to be calligraphed with a name and the table name on the back. The rocks are slate grey and I am using Dr. Martin's white ink.

It's a little difficult to write with the pointed pen but you get used to it.