Young Poets and Calligraphers Sailing the “Ink Sea”

Young poets from Kalininsky District have participated in a Christmas literary and calligraphic master-class under the title “Once upon a time there lived the letter “A”” held at the Az to Izhitsa Calligraphy Centre (Moskovsky prospekt, St. Petersburg).

Nadezhda Kameneva, head of the Zhar-Ptitsa Art Studio, encouraged the guests of the workshop to invent fairy-tales about letters, to give metaphorical definitions to such words as “handwriting”, “line”, “letter”, “alphabet”, as well as to some New Year slogans. Despite the participants“ young age, their dictions were fairly profound and adult-like: “A letter is the house of a sound”; “An angel is a human being with a pure soul and a couple of wings”; “Handwriting is the cardiogram of one’s mood”; “Paper is the virgin beginning of the written Word”.

The short chefs d’oeuvre roughly put down, the centre’s masters set down to work. They gave a talk on the art of calligraphy and the Russian Cyrillic ornate lettering; showed how to practice basic exercises, properly mark the page, and choose the right utensil. Some children used brushes, broad-nib and sharp-pointed nib pens, ink for the first time in their life. Thus, letter by letter, calligraphic phrases gradually appeared on paper, reflecting the authors” thoughts. Some works were good enough to decorate the wall, others needed finalization. Anyway, all these essays could become part of the Ink Sea poetry and calligraphy contest, to be held by the Central Library System of Kalininsky District.

Russian Cyrillic ornate lettering