It's here! The 2019 Holiday Card Exchange!

Where has the year gone! Seriously.  2019 has been a crazy year for us - with a ton of change! Bailey had her first child in February and we opened our Flagship store in June! We have also been hard at work designing new products for our next release for January! There's always something going on over here. WHEW!

One of our favorite aspects of the holidays each year is our annual Holiday Card Exchange! Can you believe this is it's 7th year? Have you participated in the past? We absolutely love it!

See 2013's Holiday Card Exchange here, 2014's here, 2015's here, 2016's here, 2017's here and 2018's here.  It is so fun to see your families each year, hear your thoughts and see what holiday cards you picked! And it's fun to look back at all of the cards we've chosen and calligraphy styles & ink colors we've picked! We're always SUPER EXCITED by how many of you write to us! This year, we hope to feature the cards & envelopes that get sent our way in our Instagram stories!

We think getting snail mail is the bee's knees and we have a feeling that you do too! We know it brightens our day. Like, a lot ;)

So why don't we exchange some holiday cards? This year, we've chosen to use one of our new cards of the season, our Lights Merry Everything Card. Our addressing this year is fun, with added holiday light flourished. As always it will be hand addressed by our in house expert, Bailey Amon Rivera.

Here's the scoop: You add us to your mailing list and send us a hand addressed (practice that calligraphy and handlettering folks!) holiday card and we'll have our resident calligrapher, Bailey Amon Rivera mail ours back from US! Sound like a plan?

The details: Mail your card to Bailey at:

Antiquaria

℅ Bailey Amon Rivera

S. Prince Street, STE A

Littleton, Colorado 80120 

Be sure to include your preferred return address (in addition to the one on the envelope-you know how the mail can be) so that we can mail ours in return! 

We are SO looking forward to hearing from you. Now it will actually be FUN to check the mail:) Yay!

Peace, Love and Letters,

Emma & Bailey

Find us on Instagram @antiquariadesign @antiquariabailey and @antiquariaemma and tag your pics #longlivesnailmail and #antiquariaholidayexchange2019

Holiday Card Exchange 2018!

We simply can't believe it's already the holiday season! Can you? 2018 has been one for the books!! We've grown so much this year and have you all to thank for that. Not only has our line of products grown by leaps and bounds, we also moved some of our operations to Colorado, so we're now officially in two states!! And this coming summer (June 2019) we'll be adding a little shop in historic downtown Littleton, CO :) We couldn't be more THRILLED!       

One of our favorite aspects of the holidays each year is our annual Holiday Card Exchange! Can you believe this is it's 6th year? Have you participated before? It's THE ABSOLUTE FREAKING BEST.

See 2013's Holiday Card Exchange here and 2014's here and 2015's here and 2016's here and 2017's here. We're always SUPER EXCITED by how many of you write to us! It is so fun to see your families, hear your thoughts and see what holiday cards you picked!

We think getting snail mail is the bee's knees and we have a feeling that you do too! We know it brightens our day. Like, a lot ;)

So why don't we exchange some holiday cards? This year, we've chosen to use one of our best selling new cards of the season, our Alpaca Warm Wishes Greeting Card. We're back to using our very favorite white ink this year with calligraphy addressing by our in house expert, Bailey Amon Rivera.

Here's the scoop: You add us to your mailing list and send us a hand addressed (practice that calligraphy and handlettering folks!) holiday card and we'll have our resident calligrapher, Bailey Amon Rivera mail ours back from US! Sound like a plan?

The details: Mail your card to Bailey at:

Antiquaria

℅ Bailey Amon Rivera

S. Prince Street, STE A

Littleton, Colorado 80120

Be sure to include your preferred return address (in addition to the one on the envelope-you know how the mail can be) so that we can mail ours in return! We are SO looking forward to hearing from you. Now it will be FUN to check the mail:) Yay!

Peace, Love and Letters,

Emma & Bailey

Find us on Instagram @antiquariadesign @antiquariabailey and @antiquariaemma and tag your pics #longlivesnailmail and #antiquariaholidayexchange2017

The Best Online Calligraphy Class, like ever.

We are BEYOND excited to announce our debut Online Calligraphy Class, Script Design, taught by our own expert calligrapher, Bailey Amon Rivera is open for registration through Acorn Arts! This class has been a LONG time in the making and we are thrilled to see it come to life.

Join us and expand your calligraphy skills in the month of September! Our brand new class is not your same ol' calligraphy class. It's chalked full of Bailey's knowledge about designing your OWN style of calligraphy.

If you've been feeling stuck in your practice and want to brush up on your skills or need new styles for your products or clients, this is the class for you.

This class is well suited for all calligraphy enthusiasts from complete novice to the more experienced and professional penman. The course material will start with the basics so that everyone can participate and learn together, no prior experience necessary.

"Creating your own lettering style is fun and easy when it's based on the foundation of traditional letterforms. As a calligrapher and stationery designer, Bailey has made a name for herself over the years with her unique and varied calligraphy styles.

Besides it being fun to experiment with and design new styles, this process has been crucial to developing our business and makes her work stand apart from other lettering artists. In this four week course, we dive into the process used to create different styles, whether they're traditional, modern or somewhere in between. By focusing first on the "nut and bolts" of letter construction and traditional letterform variations, we offer students of all levels a unique opportunity to both train their skills and develop individual variety at the same time."

New classes are posted once per week but you do NOT need to be online at that time. The videos may be watched at whatever time is convenient for you! Each Wednesday there will be new worksheets available for you to download with an instructional video.

The Classroom Forum provides a wonderful place to share your designs with the other students and it is always such fun to take the class with students from around the globe. There is no homework for this class, but a project will be suggested each week.

Sign up for the class today!

Feel free to reach out with any questions you may have. We're here to help! We can't wait to see you in class!!
xoxo
Bailey and Emma

*Images by Chelsea Francis

Calligraphy in Action | Modern Calligraphy

Calligraphy Tutorial | Additional Tools for Lettering, Pen Holders

We thought it was HIGH time to share some of our favorite resources in a new mini blog series, Additional Tools for Lettering. By now, if you're reading our blog, you're probably already obsessed with lettering and stationery. We too are, of course, as well! We try not to buy EVERYTHING that comes out, but we do have a few luxe favorites that make our day to day practice even more enjoyable.

It seems like every time we post a photo with one of Bailey's pens on Instagram, we get questions about what pen it is and who made it. Compared to some others, her collection is really, really small. But the holders that she has are for a reason...and I'm sure that there will be more on her desk in the future!

From left to right: Yoke Pen Co., Unique Obliques (with painting by Open Ink Stand), Michael Sull, Jake Weidmann, Black Oblique from our Calligraphy Starter Kit

So, besides being GORGEOUS, why would you have different pens? 

The biggest reason for us, is to have pens adjusted the the different nibs that we use (more on that later). Nibs are like people, all made in different shapes and sizes, so it makes sense to adjust your flange (the brass piece) once so that you don't damage it. The other reason is that different pens have different grips and weights. It's really hard to know what you like until you try lots of different holders, hold them in your hand, and write with them.

It can be VERY hard to buy a pen online, especially at $100++ so that's why Bailey attends workshops and conferences, such as IAMPETH (more on that later too) where they sell them in person. Once you get an idea of the feel that you like, you can compare the measurements to the one that you have and use. That way, you're more likely to invest in a pen that really suits you.

Pens can be very simple (and really only NEED to be simple) or they can be very elaborate, like Bailey's hummingbird, shown above. But really, they should mostly be balanced in your hand and the flange should be adjusted correctly. If you order a pen from an artisan, you should be able to request that it be fitted to a particular nib before you receive it. Or...you can do it yourself!

This article, written by Chris Yoke, is one of my favorites for selecting a pen. And the video below, also by Chris is an excellent tutorial in adjusting your flange.

We hope that this shed some light on some of the more expensive and FUN penholder options out there...and why you would choose to upgrade or add to collection as your practice grows. There are SO many other lovely craftsman (and women) out there too! Just trolling Intsagram these days shows how many new, beautiful options there are!

Who's your favorite pen by?? Leave us a comment or tag us in a photo of your own pen collection on Instagram @antiquariadesign.

Until next time...
Peace, Love and Letter,
Emma and Bailey

2014 Holiday Card Exchange!

One of the most fun parts of the holidays last year was our Holiday Card Exchange. It was our first year doing it and we were FLOORED by how many of you wrote to us! It was so fun to see your families, hear your thoughts and see what holiday cards you picked!

We just LOVE getting snail mail and we have a feeling that you do too! Who doesn't adore finding a gorgeous piece of mail in their box amongst the bills and flyers? We know it brightens our day.

So why don't we exchange some holiday cards? Our new holiday cards just came off the press yesterday and we're dying to send them out (the photos simply can not do these babies justice).

Here's the scoop: You add us to your mailing list and send us a hand addressed (practice that calligraphy folks!) holiday card and we'll have our resident calligrapher, Bailey Amon Rivera mail one back from US! Sound like a plan?

The details: Mail your card to Bailey at:

Antiquaria

℅ Bailey Amon Rivera

791 Lomora Avenue

Pasadena, CA 91107

Be sure to include your preferred return address (in addition to the one on the envelope-you know how the mail can be) so that we can mail one in return! We are SO looking forward to hearing from you. Now it will be FUN to check the mail:) Yay!

Peace, Love and Letters,

Emma & Bailey

Calligraphy in Action | Envelope Addressing in White!

             

Hi Folks,

We're here today with our second episode of our new series Calligraphy in Action! Yay!! We've had a lovely response to the first episode...so thank you! Missed the first one? You can find it here.

Today, Bailey demonstrates her signature modern calligraphy lettering in white ink (Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White) on a Paper Source A9 black envelope. Black and white is ALWAYS a stellar combination, and white ink really pops off of the page. She's using a Nikko G nib...the same one that comes in our Calligraphy Started Kit!

Every calligrapher has days that they struggle with ink...and this was one of them! You can tell throughout the video that the ink just doesn't want to flow well off of the pen. Bailey fought it for a little while, and then ended up adding more water to the white ink. It's always amazing how much those little things make a HUGE impact!

We hope you enjoy the video & that itLOTS of practice, so be patient with yourself, the letters will come.

helps in your calligraphy practice! Always remember, calligraphy takes time and lot and

Peace, Love and Letters,
Emma & Bailey

Weekend Snapshot | A Day Spent Together

It is a rare day that we get to spend together. Since Bailey lives on the West Coast and Emma holds down the fort in Austin (where Antiquaria is based), almost all of our communication is through the computer, be it email, video chatting or computer sharing.  But this past Saturday, we came together and taught two 3 hour calligraphy workshops at the Argus Cidery, right outside of Austin, in a beautiful hill country setting.

The weather was cool and a fall breeze blew through the open barn door as we dipped traditional calligraphy pens into fragrant black sumi ink and made beautiful letters. Each student did a wonderful job learning a new (and might we say difficult) skill. All in all it was a wonderful and fulfilling day.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!
Cheers,
Emma & Bailey

Calligraphy in Action | It's Autumn!

Howdy folks!

We promised to bring back all of the calligraphy goodness this week & we're delivering in a BIG way! We've put together a new video series called Calligraphy in Action which shows our very own, Bailey Rivera, lettering in her studio. The response to our videos has been great and we think that one of the best ways to experience calligraphy is to SEE it being practiced! Don't you agree? There's also something incredibly soothing and inspiring to see the slow, methodical process of dip pen and ink.

In this video, we used:

Dr. Martin's bleedproof white ink and a Zebra G nib on a lovely wine colored paper.

We hope you enjoy the video...and stay tuned for more to come!

xoxo

Emma & Bailey

The Last Friday of Summer.

Dear Friends,

Can you believe that summer is gone and autumn is knocking at the door? With the waves of heat we've been experiencing lately, it makes it even harder to feel the seasons changing. But alas, they are.

We've spent our summer catching up on our long to-do list & designing lots and lots of new goodies. I'm sure that many of you have already checked out our new greeting card collection! All of the cards are also available as boxed sets as well, if you (like us) send cards like the post office is going out of business (please NO never!).

We've been dying to bring you customized stationery as well...and we're going to do just that! Note sets really are SO useful for quick thank you notes, wedding gifts or as a gift enclosures. We're super excited about how the line is shaping up and we know you're going to LOVE it!

Here on the blog...stay tuned for updates as well as a whole new season of super informative Calligraphy posts (more on those next week!). When back to school season hits, we get in the mood to teach! 

Speaking of teaching...our last workshops of 2014 are coming up soon!  They're being held in Austin on October 4th and there still a few spots left in each class. We'd love to see all of you calligraphy fans come for a day of lettering fun! You can register for the classes here.

 In our Script 101 class, we will teach the basics of pointed pen calligraphy and go through the alphabet a-z. All students receive a calligraphy supply kit and all of the information on how to go home and continue in their lettering practice. Oct. 4, 10am,-1pm | Austin, TX | $150

In our debut Script 102 class, we'll be diving deeper and teaching students about variations in script and how to create their own style of calligraphy. It's going to be a great class and a really informative and inventive session!! Oct. 4, 2pm-5pm | Austin, TX | $150

We sure hope to see you there! And stay tuned for all the big announcements, surprises & calligraphy love we have coming up for the rest of 2014. 

Cheers and have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,

Emma & Bailey

Big News + Summer Doesn't Have to End......

Happy Monday Lovelies!

We are super excited to announce that our new  Greeting Cards  are now available in the shop! Today we are sharing these tropical inspired cards with you. Summer doesn't have to end just yet!

Oh, and don't miss the sweet article about Antiquaria that Sarah from The Paper Chronicles posted today.

1. Tropical Mahalo Card /// 2. Aloha Pineapple Card /// 3. Calligraphy Pina Colada Card ///4. Tropical Gracias Card

Aloha Pineapple Card

 

5. Thanks A Melon Card /// 6. Flamingo Birthday Card /// 7. Pineapple Thanks Card /// 8. Love You Lady Card /// 9. Handkerchief Merci Card

Tropical Mahalo Card

 photography by Antiquaria

all designs ©Antiquaria 

Summer Stationery Subscription Video!

Happy Friday! We wanted to pop in and show you this adorable stop motion film that we put together showcasing our summer subscription box contents (they were mailed out to subscribers at the beginning of June).

We've been in the process of gathering together the assortment of items for our fall subscription this week (it will actually be in a gorgeous envelope instead of a box this time) which is always such a fun process! We first start with a theme...and go from there. We look at what's new to the shop or in production and not yet released-like the fun greeting cards that were in the summer box! The fall subscriptions will be mailed out the first week of September-so there's plenty of time to get your order in!

For the fall we're thinking about the tradition of writing, especially letters...just to give you a little hint. We hope you like the little film and consider subscribing if you're a stationery lover (hoarder) like us!

Have a great weekend!
xoxo,
Emma & Bailey

Calligraphy Tutorial | the Capital Letter "Z"

The day has finally arrived but the practicing never ceases! We've finally reached the end of this series of capital letters...the capital letter "Z." Like the "X," you might not use this letter very much unless you or a loved one has it in their name. It's fun none-the-less and might we add-praciticng the word "Zoro" is pretty fierce!

Hopefully you've enjoyed and learned a ton from this Capital Letter series! We've loved sharing it with you. It may be the end but it's only the beginning...stay tuned for more fun calligraphy challenges and tutorials to come!

Until next time...
Peace, Love and Letters,
Emma & Bailey

Calligraphy Tutorial | the Capital Letter "Y"

Howdy folks! Today, we're bringing you the capital letter "Y." This letter is fun and quite pretty! Experiment with different ways of flourishing the tail and the options for this beauty are endless.

Hopefully your practicing is going really well! You know we love to see it over on Instagram...tag it with #letterschool so that we can take a peek! We're almost done with the capital letters...one more to go.

Until next time...
Peace, Love and Letters,
Emma & Bailey

Summer and Fall Austin Calligraphy Workshops!

Howdy folks! We wanted to pop in today to let you know that we just released summer and fall calligraphy workshop dates for Austin, Texas.YAHOO! In July, we'll be teaching a mini Intro class - the perfect thing to take if you're brand new to calligraphy. We'll also be having our Script 101 and Script 102 full day workshops in early October. We'd love to see you there! Please feel free to reach out if you have questions about any of the classes. Have a fabulous weekend! xoxo Bailey & Emma

Calligraphy Tutorial | the Capital Letter "X"

After a little hiatus...we're back with the capital letter "X"! This is one that you certainly don't use often unless you're lucky enough to have it in your name or in a loved one's name. It's fun and pretty closely related to the lower case "x."

The first option is by far the most difficult to master. You'll need to balance the counter-spaces and make sure that the middle touches just enough to not make it an "H"...but if you touch too much it will turn blobby! Probably not the best one to start on! Option number 2 and 3 are much more simplistic.

We'll be back next week with the Capital Letter "Y"! Almost through the alphabet folks:)

Until next time...
Peace, Love and Letters,
Emma & Bailey

LA Calligraphy Workshop! June 22nd at Urbanic

We have a couple more Los Angeles beginner classes scheduled for June 22nd at Urbanic Paper Boutique (1644 Abbot Kinney Boulevard Venice, California 90291). If you're in the area and available we'd love to see you there! Pop over to their shop to grab your seat before they're all gone!

Calligraphy Tutorial | the Capital Letter "W"

Howdy folks! We're back today with the tutorial for the capital letter "W"! This letter can be a little tricky and illusive but practice your "U's" and "V's" along with the "W" since they're all so closely related.

The first and last options are all made in one stoke, whereas the second option has four separate strokes to create it!

We're thrilled that so many of you are learning along with us! Be sure to tag your practice with #letterschool if you'd like us to take a peek.

Until next time...
Peace, Love and Letters,
Emma & Bailey

DIY Tutorial | Simple Addressing Options

We’re often (very often) asked about addressing options for wedding invitations. Many of our clients are DIY couples and it’s simply not in their budget to hire a professional or to pay for digital addressing. Believe us: even if you or a loved one are planning address them yourself, they can still be creative and cohesive with your invitation! It’s simply a matter of the right tools, methods, and a some practice! So jump on over to our tutorial on Oh So Beautiful Paper for all of the juicy details!

Calligraphy Tutorial | the Capital Letter "V"

After a bit of a hiatus due to travel, we're back today with the capital letter "V".  Pay close attention to this one as well as "U" since they are closely related to the next letter we'll cover...the "W."

The trick to the letter "V" is keep the axis (as opposed to the downstroke) in line with the other letters in the alphabet. Imagine splicing the letter down the center....that's your axis. That center line should be a the same angle as the other letters (most telling are the "l" and "t" in the Valentine examples above).

Happy practicing!
Peace, Love and Letters,
Emma & Bailey