Calligraphy with Mrs. Saum

This quarter, Calvary is offering three different electives and a fourth elective for the juniors and seniors. For the first time, Mr. Dykstra is teaching Scuba Diving. Due to popular demand, Mrs. Price is again teaching Trash to Treasure. Also, Mrs. Saum is again teaching Calligraphy class. Juniors and seniors have the chance to take a class from Cornerstone University called Preparing to Launch. I am excited to be in Mrs. Saum’s Calligraphy class.

Mrs. Saum has been doing calligraphy for many years. She has even written high school diplomas and wedding invitations with this special art. She uses a fountain pen, the ones writers dip in ink, for those special purposes. Mrs. Saum says you can even earn some money with this cool art.

She is teaching us a variety of different fonts, such as Rom

an lower and upper case, Bookhand, Formal Italic, and Uncial. (Uncial is also known as the Holy Hand which is commonly used in more traditional Bibles, such as the King James Version, as the first letter of the first word in each chapter.)

Each student in the Calligraphy class paid $2.50 for a felt calligraphy pen, so students do not have to worry about ink flow problems. So far, we have learned basic strokes, numbers, and punctuation. This week we will study the Roman hand and pen the following sentence. “Jack Van Glower may buy six dozen quarts of punch.” This sentence has all the letters of the alphabet for practice.

I am excited to learn as much as I possibly can about calligraphy in the few short weeks of this first quarter. I am looking forward to being able to sign and address envelopes in calligraphy. It will take time and a lot of practice to master calligraphy, but I am up for the challenge!

Rachel Postiff, Freshman