The Second Annual Baltimore Pen Show

The computer age has made handwriting a dying art for many. But some still find using pens to be fun and even, at times, a means of purification.

For those people, the Second Annual Baltimore Pen Show, organized by Bert Oser of Betram's Inkwell in Kensington, was an oasis of writing utensils, inks, and papers. Attendees could not only buy pens, but they could learn how to use them.

Deborah Basel of Cockeysville goes to roughly ten shows around the country each year to teach people the art of calligraphy. Basel got interested in the art form about 30 years ago when she was a young mother, making and selling jewelry at craft shows. «My letters were really horrible», says Basel, who's present job is as a senior underwriter for the Baltimore Life Insurance Company. So, she got a book about calligraphy, practiced the craft and over time, her letters looked so good that people were asking her to sign letters of invitation and the like.

But her hobby will remain a hobby. Basel says, «if I were a full time calligrapher, I would be pressed by the deadlines all the time. I would have to treat it as a business and it would lose some of it's fun.»

Not far from the calligraphy class, Ian Kreisberg, a calligrapher from Connecticut is taking the art form to new depths. He is working on a project called, «Calligraphy Dirty to Me.» It will be a collection of 12 postcards bearing quotations that are either lewd or crude, each written in calligraphy. What will the cards say? We can't tell you here. After all, this is a family website!

Oasis for writing utensils dealers and collectors at the Tremont Grand

Source: wbal.com