Flourishing Mothers

Somebody has been working on her flourishes!

It’s me! I’m ‘somebody’!

My love/hate relationship with flourishes runs deep. But, I am learning more about how to tame these beautiful beasts using some tips I’m picking up from calligraphy, like:

• Always try to keep them in the shape of an oval,

• Evenly divide them when slicing back into or through them, and

• Try to make them parallel to the vertical slant or horizontal axis.

I bought a flourishing workbook a little while ago on sale from Benjawan Calligraphy. I haven’t gotten halfway through it because my morning crew-the school daughters who meet me at my morning duty-all want to take turns practicing it. 🤦🏾‍♀️

Ordinarily, I try not to overly rely on flourishes to be the centerpiece of my sketches anymore. Remember these?

These were some of my first attempts at flourishing at the start of the pandemic. I cringe thinking about how proud I was when I made them. Little did I know, they were a hot mess! 🤣

But, in this case, the subject went along with the idea, so I thought a little extravagance would be okay. Like the bunch of flowers my husband got me for Mother’s Day, I’ve found that most of the mothers I know never stop growing into the title anyway.

My mother-in-law from my first marriage is like that.

I’ve known her since I was nineteen. She has always been enamored with anything I make her. She keeps it all and shows it off to her friends every chance she gets. Still does.

She’s pretty old school, but I thought she’d appreciate a little bit of flourishing on her envelope this year. By the way, I used the Ink Me This Envelope Ruler to complete this envelope. It was so easy to use….perfect for gridding up this envelope!

Since my mil also loved the engraved tumblers I’ve been making, I threw that into her gift as well this year. You can see a little process in the video below the photo.

She’ll have one more thing that she’ll cherish, won’t use because “it’s too pretty”, and she’ll show it off to any of her girlfriends that will stand hearing about the keepsake over and over again. 🥰

To all the mothers out there, showing off your kids’ art work at every opportunity with pride, Happy Mother’s Day!