La Bella Scrittura Calligraphy Workshop: Learn Calligraphy with the Ladies of La Bella Scrittura

When In Manila, time to use your hands to create beautiful things! Early this month, I was lucky to join the ladies of La Bella Scrittura for their Calligraphy Workshop.

La Bella Scrittura started very early of this year mainly as a calligraphy support group to seven (7) complete strangers who met over Instagram. The name La Bella Scrittura was aptly chosen by the group, which means Beautiful Writing in Italian. The idea then spun into an online store carrying calligraphy supplies as these weren’t readily available in the country. Now, aside from maintaining the online store (labellascrittura.checkout.ph), the group is also conducting calligraphy workshops to help spread the art in the country.

The workshop was held at Lasting Impression in San Juan which is a heaven for crafters! From paper to inks, they have it all! But before I lost myself into all the crafting goodness, I was there to learn calligraphy! I’ve been practicing calligraphy for a while now but it could get a little frustrating for a leftie like me but this workshop was truly heaven sent, read on to find out why.

The Bellas of La Bella Scrittura getting ready to start the class.

It started of with an introduction. The class was quite big but all of us were well attended to during the class.

Teacher Gail giving the intro to Calligraphy.

Gail Anne Madalag is a doctor by day and calligrapher by night.She works as a medical officer seeing adult and child patients at Cadiz City Health office. She also happens to be a pharmacist and was made to promise to write her prescriptions legibly. She’s always been drawn to letters ever since she was younger but only got to learn pointed pen calligraphy last August 2013 and fell deeply in love with the art. It became a passion. that passion led her to meet the other 6 Bellas who share the same love for calligraphy and letters. You can check her IG feed at @the_md_writes.

The other Bellas that completes La Bella Scrittura are Aileen, Jamie, Bernadette, Joannie, Katrina and Charmane.

Aileen Kahambing is originally from Cebu, Aileen is currently based in Manila working as a training manager for one of the BPOs in Ortigas. Her first encounter with calligraphy was in high school but didn’t like it then because she thought it wasn’t for left-handed people. She got reunited with calligraphy last year, figured out that calligraphy and lefties are not like oil and water and eventually got hooked because it was a good break from her daily routine and work. Concentrating with pointed pen calligraphy, she enjoys working on wedding related hand lettering services like escort/guest cards, brush lettered wood signs, buffet table signs and even custom works. Aileen also works in co-handling the online store for La Bella Scrittura. (IG: @theleftieadvantage)

Jamie Franchesca Sugay is a 21 year old industrial engineering student at UP Diliman. She has always had the knack for writing and typography so calligraphy was an interesting new adventure for her to try. She bought her first dip pen in July of last year and has since fallen in love with the art of calligraphy. She was always amazed at the way calligraphers used flex pens to make such beautiful thick and thin strokes. Since she started, she realized that calligraphy required a lot of practice and hard work. She met many other calligraphers who helped her learn more about the art and who became her good friends. (IG: @seabearwrites)

Bernadette Perez or Berna is a Psychology graduate who started with typography and hand lettering. Calligraphy then became her artsy hobby where she was self taught and now, she has grown in the craft with the passion to share the inspiration. A music enthusiast and a vector geek, she is also a fan of watercolor and loves anything hand-made. (IG: @forevernostalgia)

Joannie Candi is a wedding video editor, photographer, calligrapher and watercolorist but in reality, a slave of 3 humans and 2 cats and an enabler of awesome stuff. (IG: @joanniecandi)

Katrina Naval is a former flight attendant now a corporate employee, Katia started self studying calligraphy in October of 2013. She has always had great interest in letters but never thought she’d be moonlighting for this one day. Aside from co-managing La Bella’s supplies and teaching workshops, she designs invites, wall arts, logos and other custom made pieces incorporating calligraphy, handlettering and fonts. (IG: @thedesignhobbyist)

Charmane Lalog is a Psychology graduate and now a Human Resources professional. Since then, she really loves to do anything made by the hand (thanks to the teachers for giving portfolio- making as projects). She never thought of doing calligraphy because she hates cursive a lot! One day, after seeing a creative blog about stamping and typography, she decided to be creative again then saw Ms. Fozzy’s blog about calligraphy, and there she is fantasizing on how she would be able to start the craft. She first did typography, began researching calligraphy, bought the wrong materials, decided to stop because of being so frustrated and thought that the art is not meant for her. But then, she met 6 wonderful ladies who became her support group and encourage her to pick up the pen again. Now, a self-taught calligrapher, watercolorist, and a gastronome (IG: @_inklovewithpen)

And off we go making pretty letters and words with our nibs and inks!

I mentioned about how helpful this workshop was to lefties like me, right? Teacher Aileen is a leftie herself and she shared with us a lot about leftie calligraphy, thank you so much teacher Aileen! 🙂

What I really liked (and loved) about this workshop was that the Bellas were very accomodating to all our questions and they really pay attention to the students and do some one-on-one teaching. They were also very generous and made us try their personal nibs and inks so we’ll get the feel and to encourage us to go and try find that perfect nib and ink for us.

Everyone’s busy and taking their exercises seriously

To cap the workshop, we were given cards wherein we would write anything we want.

A sudden surprise! Well-known calligrapher, Fozzy Dayrit-Castro graced the workshop and said Hi to everyone.

Calligraphy Tools – nibs, holders and inks

Lovely cards made by the class ♥

It was such a fun morning of learning, fun, new friends, and creating beautiful letters! I highly suggest that you join the future workshops of La Bella Scrittura!

They actually have a Basic Calligraphy Workshop tomorrow in partnership with Type Kita! You can check it out HERE.

Thank you Bellas for the wonderful class and newly-acquired calligraphy knowledge! Can’t wait to practice (as often as I can) and get better on my calligraphy!