pw 26#5 basel heather held

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

pw 26#5 basel heather held

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