We live in a world filled with texts, emails and instant messages. Yet somehow, the things we treasure most are rarely digital.
A handwritten birthday card tucked away in a drawer. A note from someone we love. A family recipe written decades ago. These are the things we keep because they carry more than words – they carry a piece of the person who wrote them.
That’s why handwritten words still matter.
For more than 20 years, calligrapher Claire from By Moon and Tide has been creating beautifully handwritten keepsakes that celebrate life’s biggest moments. From weddings and anniversaries to family trees and treasured song lyrics, her work reminds us that some things are simply more meaningful when written by hand.
By Moon and Tide
By Moon and Tide
For more than 20 years, calligrapher Claire from By Moon and Tide has been creating beautifully handwritten keepsakes that celebrate life’s biggest moments. From weddings and anniversaries to family trees and treasured song lyrics, her work reminds us that some things are simply more meaningful when written by hand.
What is calligraphy
What is calligraphy?
Calligraphy is the art of beautiful hand lettering. It’s written with a dippy ink pot, a penholder and usually a metal nib. The kind of calligraphy I write most often is done with a pointed nib.
Calligraphy’s all about contrasting letter shapes. It is beautifully thin and fine hairline strokes alongside thicker swells and swirls and swoops and swishes. It is writing with rhythm and pattern and precision. You see this both in finished lettering on the page, and in watching as a calligrapher writes.
The magic of watching calligraphy happen
Why handwritten words still matter
The magic of watching calligraphy happen
There’s no joy in watching a sheet of paper emerge from a printer. (Unless you’re my cat, and he’s weird. He can watch a dripping tap for ten minutes.)
In contrast, following a calligrapher’s pen with your eyes as the nib bends and the ink appears on the page as if propelled by magic – after you’ve seen it one time, you can’t stop watching. It’s utterly compelling.
Why handwritten words still matter
Calligraphy creates family heirlooms and keepsakes from milestone moments and treasured occasions. Because it’s written by human hand, it stands apart from printed type and digital fonts.
I’ve been teaching calligraphy in workshops around Cumbria for over a decade. At every class, someone will mention a grandparent whose handwriting was beautiful – a flowing script they remember and share with me, always with pride in their voice as they recall the careful hand lettering of someone they love.
There’s a kind of beauty in something written by a human hand, using timeless historical tools, that carries emotion and feeling in a way that printed letters simply can’t.
The beauty of calligraphy practice
The beauty of calligraphy practice
It’s worth something, taking the time to write something beautiful. To sit, slow down for a moment and practise careful lettering. And that’s another side of the magic of calligraphy – the beauty of practice.
You never stop learning calligraphy. The joy is in the practice itself: from the moment you first pick up a pen and nib, through daily practice, from learning the mechanics of how the nib bends and skates across different papers to create exquisite letter forms.
There’s always something new to discover, something beautiful to refine and something surprising hidden just beyond where the ink flows from the tip of a calligraphy nib.
My calligraphy journey
My calligraphy journey
I tried my first calligraphy set when I was 14. In my twenties I took up calligraphy as a way to make a living, and my calligraphy business is now more than 20 years old. I’m really proud of that.
Calligraphy has been with me through thick and thin (bonus points for anyone who spots the calligraphy analogy there!). I’ve carried my calligraphy pens through loneliness to falling in love, from city suburbs to a home by the coast.
With every new commission, every wedding, proposal and 90th birthday I’ve helped to celebrate, there’s learning. A new flourish on a t stroke, a different brand of nib or a batch of luxury papers to explore with my pens.
Even through the difficult times in my life, calligraphy has been a calming thread that brings me joy. And when my heart is full, writing beautiful commissions by hand is peaceful, mindful and allows me to become completely, happily lost in the shape of every single letter.
What I create
A calligraphers last word
What I create
I write poems people send me and illustrate them for wedding anniversaries and special occasions. It matters – it really matters – when the words of a poem come from the heart, they should be written with love, in ink and not pixels.
I create handwritten family trees too. Sometimes they’re simple: a charming illustration with a handful of names, a piece for the wall to remind Grandad his family miss him and love him. Other times they’re detailed genealogical diagrams, honouring years of family research and preserving it for generations to come.
I also create wedding place names, handwritten menu cards, beautiful invitations and one-of-a-kind table plans. It’s never about how a wedding looks; it’s about how it feels. Lovingly handwritten stationery brings warmth, personality and joy to a celebration in a way that printed text never quite can.
On a personal level, I’ve always loved practising calligraphy by writing song lyrics and favourite quotes. I love music, especially songwriters whose work falls somewhere between heavy metal and protest or folk music. (I appreciate it’s a wide spectrum, but that’s my niche and I love it!)
Those lyrics have evolved into some of my favourite pieces to create: tiny motivational quotes in beautiful brass frames, and favourite song lyrics written in flowing calligraphy against dramatic black backgrounds.
A calligrapher’s last word
Every piece I write – whether it’s a wedding place name or a fiancé’s favourite lyric – ends up somewhere pixels can’t reach.
It gets pinned to a wall, tucked in a drawer, framed on a shelf or passed from one pair of hands to another for years to come.
That’s the difference handwritten calligraphy can make.
A digital font can be perfect, but it doesn’t build connection in quite the same way. It can’t truly be someone’s.
Calligraphy can.
I’m proud to make things with my hands, and to have built a resilient and evolving craft business over more than twenty years. Writing and creating meaningful gifts is my world, and I love it here.
Perhaps that’s why handwritten words still matter. They remind us that behind every carefully formed letter is another human being who took the time to create something just for us.
And in a world full of pixels, that feels more valuable than ever.
Bring Beautiful Words Into Your Home
Whether you’re celebrating a wedding, remembering someone special or searching for a meaningful gift, Claire’s handcrafted calligraphy transforms words into keepsakes that will be treasured for years to come.
