Happy Handwriting day!

It is National Handwriting Day in America today! John Hancock, the first person to sign the declaration of Independence had a bold handwriting was born on January 23rd. His birthday is celebrated as National Handwriting Day.

I am a big fan of writing by hand. Using the keyboard is now an easy habit but I still find the pen in hand makes me focus more and gets my thoughts together like the keyboard sometimes does not. Handwriting also is a unique way to express oneself. The slant of the fonts, the curves and sways of each letter, right down to the dots on them adds a little bit of character, personality, uniqueness and a bit of "me" to the handwriting. I remember when I was in fifth grade, I used to dot my i's and j's with little "o"s. I was even reprimanded by my strict class teacher for it. Though most of the times, I always got away with a pat on a back, once even an award for good handwriting but unfortunately good handwriting is not hereditary, i guess. My kids' handwriting is not very pretty, though they get away with it by typing away and printing out their answers to get good grades.

My handwriting on handwriting day.

I see now that I also have sacrificed the art of good handwriting to the keyboard :( Do send me links of your handwriting!

Calligraphy is the art of writing beautifully. The characters are written with the same size And luckily, I was able to get into a calligraphy introductory class to try a bit of Korean calligraphy. The teacher came with the formal head dress and we used handmade paper which had more texture than the regular paper. We also used the traditional ink made of charcoal making it permanent and non-erasable. Each letter is written with careful precision and are of the same size and equal spacing. The teacher also showed us two different styles of writing. One was bold and the other looked more like italicized writing with the letters slanting towards the right.

Korean Calligraphy

The bold, normal style of Korean Calligraphy

The italicized Korean calligraphy style.

The mok or black ink made out of charcoal used for Korean calligraphy

This was my try- Korean calligraphy

We were allowed to choose a motto for the calligraphy. I chose the wording that broadly meant "Be like the Sun for the world", Which ofcourse, was a total of three words. An interesting thing about Korean Calligraphy is that the document or paper is folded so that each word is separated by a fold. I ended up doing the reverse. Folded first and then filled in the three words :) I was getting pretty good at this, but ended up asking the teacher to write me the motto to take as a souvenir back home.

Be as the Sun for the world

 I was so happy with the motto I chose and the teacher's unique handwriting. It was kind of squiggly and added more interest. I even got the seal (the red square at the bottom right, which stands for made in Korea) and I plan to add my own seal (kind of like my signature) that I made here in Seoul. This time, Itaewon global center made my day!

C for Calligraphy: ABC Wednesday