Modern Calligraphy by Molly Suber Thorpe: Book Review

Last weekend, we went to Kansas to check out the cool new things our five month-old niece is doing; they include intent staring and an emphatic, continuous nodding of the head when Lady Gaga’s “Applause” comes on. When little baby Brixlyn wasn’t around, I decided to snoop in my mom’s basement. Mom has been getting in to calligraphy, and I stumbled upon a trove of goodies in her basement workspace … including a book that caught my eye: Modern Calligraphy {subtitled “Everything you need to know to get started in script calligraphy plus 20 DIY projects for weddings, parties, blogs, and more”} by Molly Suber Thorpe.

I generally don’t take a second glance at calligraphy books. They all advocate too much of a Medieval style; and frankly, they’re boring. They have graphs that don’t make sense, arrows that arbitrarily point to nowhere … they’re just not for me. But the cover of this book piqued my interest, so I flipped through it. Three pages in, I knew I had to buy a copy for myself.

{This project is included in the book; click here for the full tutorial.}

My copy of Modern Calligraphy finally arrived today, and I had more time to look at it more closely. My final verdict: I. Love. It. If you want to be inspired, you’ve got to buy this book {it’s the best $15 you’ll spend on your calligraphy skills}. When I look through this book, I get so fired up to try making some new, innovative pieces with interesting materials. For example, Thorpe suggests using extra-dark coffee as an ink for a faded, vintage look. I am so impressed by the pieces she made using watercolor as ink {of course, I rushed out and purchased liquid watercolors for this purpose}.

For me, this book is a great source of ideas … something to spark a creative fire, especially when working with bridal clients. My mom, though she really enjoys the book, did complain that Thorpe doesn’t explicitly explain how to create each letter in her letter inspiration “cheat sheet” {pages 32-45 are comprised solely of different styles you can create your letters, numbers, and symbols in}. My answer to my mom was if the stroke is thick, you know that your pen needs to be pulling down to create it. If it’s thin, it’s an upstroke.

If you have any interest in calligraphy, I highly {highly} recommend Modern Calligraphy. You can either find it at your library, or purchase it on Amazon here; check out the “Look Inside!” feature on Amazon. For copyright reasons, I can’t share photos of the book pages with you in this post, but Amazon can! In the meantime, I found a great tutorial of Suber Thorpe’s on Vimeo that shows how to make some very cool watercolor place cards {be sure and use watercolor paper!}:

You can see more inspiration from Molly Suber Thorpe at her website, Plurabelle Calligraphy. I know it sounds like I was paid to sing praises about this book … but trust me, getting this excited about things is a hallmark Lindsey personality trait. If you already own the book, or if you decide to purchase it, let me know what you think!

On Saturday, I’ll be sharing a hand-written wedding suite I finished up creating yesterday {sorry about skipping my Wednesday post!}, and a re-vamp of “cheating calligraphy”. Thanks so much for reading; talk to you soon.

*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon