Download - PW 26#5 Basel Heather Held
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7/27/2019 PW 26#5 Basel Heather Held
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Just saying Heather
Victoria Helds
name out loud con-
jures up images of a kinder, gentler
timespring, flowers and beautifully
handwritten letters with sealing wax.
The flowers are everywhere in her
elegant, illuminated pieces. Its not
surprising that she graduated from the
Flowers Canada program at the
University of Guelph and ran a floral
business out of her home for eighteen
years. In her spare time, she worked in
a fabric store and was never without a
needle in her hand, taking commis-
sions for childrens clothing, often with
embellishments like hand smocking,
embroidery and lacy crochet.
One fateful day, her husband,
Chris, came home with a Sheaffer
Calligraphy set. He said, Here, I have
finally found you a cheap hobby. Youre
only going to need paper and ink. The
italic and black-letter hands in the
accompanying book didnt captivate
her; however, her research soon
uncovered Victorian calligraphy and
pointed pen letterforms, which she
preferred over the broad-edged writing
styles. Frustrated at not being able to
teach herself the light touch needed for
Spencerian script, she turned to the
Ornamental Penmanship Group
people she found onlineand there
she encountered the groups founder,
U.S.based Dr. Joe Vitolo.
Among other recommendations,
Vitolo directed her towards the
International Association of Master
Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of
Handwriting (IAMPETH). He told her
she should go to the upcoming conven-
tion, find Michael Sull for lettering and
John DeCollibus for flourishing and to
sit next to them and not move. Held
recalls being painfully shy at that time,
but Sull took her under his wing.
She practiced constantly, and her
craft began to blossom. She describes it
as being grabbed, body and soul and
she abandoned all of her previous inter-
ests to pursue it. She studied Victorian
ornamentation and gun-engraving
manuals for flourishing inspiration. She
stroke
A Passion for Letters
VictoriaHeld
Heather
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credits her florist training as helpful with
her flourishing designs, explaining, I
tend to assemble my flourishing designs
the way I would assemble a floral
arrangement or bouquet.
Held credits Marian Gault (fly-
ingquill.com) for her understanding of
black-letter construction, as Gault, a
previous IAMPETH instructor, had
given her some of her class handouts.
Held also takes illumination classes
with Debbie Thompson-Wilson three
or four times per year.
Her blog at heathervictoriaheld.com
describes the evolution of classes she
teaches. Her Enchanted Letters class
(first taught at IAMPETH) evolved from
a winter project she and a friend began,
to create illuminated drawings of every
letter in the alphabet. She became totally
bored after the letter C, which led her to
design illuminations that work with
script. Her charming current series,
which she calls Enchanted Meadows,
adds whimsical animal figures with
scrollwork and borders of the type seen
in illuminated manuscripts.
Held also teaches classes in handwrit-
ing at the Phidon Pen Store in
Cambridge, Ontario. She began the
classes in November 2012 and has
taught about ninety people to date. She
provides handouts, including exemplar
from old penmanship manuals and
materials from Michael SullsAmerican
Cursive Handwriting. Some people driv
an hour and a half to attend her two-
hour introductory session and then
return for subsequent classes, which
have been filled with adults, teens
wanting to learn for the first time and
those seeking to improve their skills.
Her class for children will launch soon
Kids really want to learn to write, say
Held, and Im excited to see all of the
children and teens who are so interest
ed! One of her teenaged students
handed in a beautifully executed repor
in cursive, only to find that his school-
teacher was unable to read it.
It took decades to develop a hand
writing system and centuries to under-
stand how handwriting worked in the
brain, she says. Now, within a span of
thirty years, handwriting is deemed
obsolete. We are the generation that is
waving goodbye to handwriting and
were standing in the doorway watchin
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eather elds FavoritesBroad-edge nibs: Mitchell and parallel pens
Pointed pen nibs: Vintage Spencerian #1
Modern nibs: Zebra G (theyre readily available,
flexible, and they hold up well with use)
Ink: McCaffery Brown for personal work, Ziller
Buffalo Brown and Old World Iron Gall ink for
reproduction
Practice paper: Maruman Imagination series
Project paper: Fabriano Artistico
Colored papers: Canson Mi Tientes
Correspondence papers: G. Lalo
Journals: Leuchtturm
Fountain Pens: She doesnt currently own any;
however, a Namiki Falcon is on its way!
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it go away. We need to do something
now, before its too late.
Held bemoans the decline of
spontaneous creative writing in chil-
dren, which she believes is happening
because theyre not encouraged to have
pens in their hands. When Held was a
child, she remembers taking penman-
ship classes every day. Children began
penmanship in pencil and practiced
diligently with the goal of obtaining a
pen license and, along with it, the
privilege of doing the exercises in pen.
Held remembers marveling at her
teachers beautiful cursive and a class-
mates perfect penmanship, which
inspired her to do her best work.
Held especially recommends cur-
sive writing for students who have
problems focusing. Keyboarding is
taxing because there is a constant shift
of focus. Putting pen to paper helps
solidify thoughts, increasing focus,
awareness; releasing creativity.
Helds current penmanship practice
includes a wealth of personal corre-
spondence. She receives and responds
to about fifteen letters each month. I
have journals everywhere, she adds.
One for thoughts, three ongoing for
quotes, one for drawing letters, a larger
one for planning layouts, one in my
purse, one in my car and one in almost
every room in the house.
In addition to her other classes,
Held also teaches Spencerian and
English roundhand (copperplate) for
guilds in her native Canada and in the
United States. She hopes to launch her
web-based courses by fall 2013. Her
work has been published in journals
and magazines such as Bound and
Lettered, Somerset Studio, The
Penmans Journal, The Spencerian
Review and Romantic Homes and the
books Good Mail Dayand 1000
Homemade Cards; her flourishing is
seen on the donors plaque of the Pla
Rogers Spencer Memorial Monumen
Her honors include the 2009
Spencerian Heritage Award, given by
Michael Sull, and she is president-ele
for IAMPETH for 2014.
With Helds current schedule and
penchant for beautiful paper, this is
more than a hobby and certainly not
inexpensive. Perhaps Chris now wishe
he had brought home a puppy!
See more work by Heather Held a
heathervictoriaheld.com and
etsy.com/shop/heathervictoria.
DEBORAH BASEL, a contributing
editor for PW, teaches calligraphy and
enjoys journaling and letter writing.
Work in process