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A Passion for Letters

H eather

V ictoria

H eld

ust saying Heather Victoria Helds name out loud conjures 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 commissions 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 convention, 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 interests to pursue it. She studied Victorian ornamentation and gun-engraving manuals for flourishing inspiration. She
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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 (flyingquill.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 handwriting 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 exemplars from old penmanship manuals and materials from Michael Sulls American Cursive Handwriting. Some people drive an hour and a half to attend her twohour 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, says Held, and Im excited to see all of the children and teens who are so interested! One of her teenaged students handed in a beautifully executed report in cursive, only to find that his schoolteacher was unable to read it. It took decades to develop a handwriting system and centuries to understand 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 watching

Heather Helds Favorites


Broad-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!

Work in process

it go away. We need to do something now, before its too late. Held bemoans the decline of spontaneous creative writing in children, which she believes is happening because theyre not encouraged to have pens in their hands. When Held was a child, she remembers taking penmanship 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 classmates perfect penmanship, which inspired her to do her best work. Held especially recommends cursive writing for students who have problems focusing. Keyboarding is taxing because there is a constant shift of focus. Putting pen to paper helps
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solidify thoughts, increasing focus, awareness; releasing creativity. Helds current penmanship practice includes a wealth of personal correspondence. 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 Day and 1000 Homemade Cards; her flourishing is seen on the donors plaque of the Platt Rogers Spencer Memorial Monument. Her honors include the 2009 Spencerian Heritage Award, given by Michael Sull, and she is president-elect 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 wishes he had brought home a puppy! See more work by Heather Held at heathervictoriaheld.com and etsy.com/shop/heathervictoria. DEBORAH BASEL, a contributing editor for PW, teaches calligraphy and enjoys journaling and letter writing.

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