The Budding Calligrapher

The Budding Calligrapher is a calligraphy course you take entirely at your own pace. It’s a complete package of calligraphy kit, tutorials, and ongoing live support and guidance. The kit is personalised and delivered to your door. The tutorials are situated in The Budding Calligrapher hub, which is password-protected and accessible to students only. The tutorials total over three hours of close-up demonstration with comprehensive explanation, broken down into manageable bitesize learning chunks (each tutorial lasts approximately 10 to 20 minutes) that are easy to fit into your day. Access to the hub is granted upon enrolment and lasts for 12 months.

The course is not only suitable for complete beginners, it is specifically formulated for complete beginners! We start from absolute scratch and ensure your calligraphy knowledge doesn’t come out the other side with any glaring gaps. The correct balance of theory and practice is so important at beginner level, which is why everything is demonstrated close-up with thorough explanation in the tutorials.

The kit includes:

1. A 2-in-1 nib holder you can use as a straight holder (without metal flange) or as an oblique holder (with metal flange)

2. A super-beginner-friendly Brause 361 nib

3. A 16-page workbook (12 pages of fully traceable exercises, four pages of guidance and ‘how-to’), one page of which is totally personalised — you tell me the five words you especially want to learn and I will customise exercises especially for you

4. 10ml Flower Moon Sumi ink

5. An additional 20 sheets of dotted and blank calligraphy paper

6. A blank quote card for you to scribe, made of ivory 310gsm smooth watercolour card

When you enrol, you also gain access to the Student Shop and can add extras to your kit, such as our seasonal ink collections, ceramic inkwells, calligraphy journals, and pressed flower cabochons (excellent for decorating your quote card).

For the full Budding Calligrapher package — kit, tutorials, and support — the price is £89 plus £5.99 UK p&p (I also send the kit overseas — ask me for a shipping quote).

We do not sell any of the components of the package separately.

The workbook is personalised (it includes your own page with the five words you most want to learn — usually those that have meaning to you or you’d like to write in cards, etc.) and fully interactive, meaning you trace my calligraphy directly in the workbook before attempting to go freehand. All individual deconstructed strokes, full letterforms, and words are made traceable.

It takes you through orientation drills (getting you used to the mechanics of a pointed flexible nib), through the lowercase and uppercase alphabet (fully deconstructing each letter into its constituent strokes), and then the rules of joining over three pages (progressing from joining pairs of letters to joining whole words). You’ll then reach your personalised page with your chosen words in black exemplar form, a transparent grey form for tracing, and then space to practise freehand. Numbers and symbols (like ampersand) are also fully broken down and traceable, and you’ll get a quick reference alphabet sheet for practising outside your workbook on separate paper or your quote card.

The tutorials mirror the workbook, working through it page by page. Your hand is fully held the whole way through, if you want it to be — or you can watch the first few minutes, get the gist, and work independently, dipping back in if needed.

There’s also an intro tutorial, essential for understanding your kit, especially nib mechanics and the correct position and angle to hold the nib.

The tutorials are informative but informal and chatty — I’m an in-person calligraphy workshop teacher, so my style is warm and personable, not super-slick or scripted.

Your tutor will be at the end of a DM or email! We offer ongoing email support for any beginners’ calligraphy-related problems or questions to all of our Budding Calligrapher students.

Being part of The Budding Calligrapher also gives you access to purchase personal one-to-one tutorials with Amy, our head calligrapher and your tutor, via Zoom.

The personalised page isn’t about picking ‘better’ words for learning — it’s about choosing words that mean something to you (your name, loved ones’ names) or words you’ll use often (‘happy’, ‘birthday’). The more meaningful the words, the more enjoyable the practice — and the more you practise, the more you improve.

You’ll be prompted to provide your five words at enrolment. If you don’t, it will be assumed you don’t require a personalised page in your workbook.

Submitting the waitlist form doesn’t enrol you, guarantee you a place, or oblige you to enrol on the next intake. It simply registers your interest, meaning you’ll receive all pre-enrolment emails and then the enrolment email itself the minute enrolment opens. Spaces are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis once enrolment is open. You initiate your enrolment by completing the application form linked in the enrolment email and you complete enrolment by paying the invoice, which will be sent via PayPal.

If you’d like to register your interest, please ensure you read the message that pops up after you submit your form — the most common way people miss out on a place is by not doing this.

Enrolment is open until all spaces are taken. Recent intakes have sold out within 24 hours or less.

Lots of people buy The Budding Calligrapher as a gift and the recipients are always thrilled! To gift it, input your own information in the form to get on the enrolment list (as you’ll be ordering and paying for the package). Follow the normal enrolment process alongside other students. When enrolment opens, the enrolment email will prompt you to inform me it’s a gift, and I’ll then ask for the recipient’s details.

You can add a hand-scribed gift message of up to 45 characters with your gift — I’ll ask for the wording during enrolment.