This one should have been at the beginning of the January envelopes but I forgot to photograph Amy's. I actually think it is one of the best - if not thee best. Although I forgot to photograph Liz's - so maybe hers was good. I sure wonder how I manage to miss envelopes when I am photographing. I had Amy send me a photograph after it arrived and it is not cancelled because I put it inside another envelope that had a really cute fox stamp - but I was not happy with the design - so I'm not posting it. I have a couple more fox stamps - so a couple more chances to do something wonderful.
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Some of the people who read the blog are calligraphers and some of them have either met or heard the name Bill Lilly. He was one of the last people to have graduated from the Zanerian College - back when you could study penmanship professionally and go to penmanship college. Here is a documentary about Bill and his journey along the penmanship path.
The *penmen* did not consider themselves calligraphers. It's a complicated topic - too complicated for me to explain - but if you need a deep dive into the quirkiness of the very last of the official penman - here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKMJJhNhhWA
Bill's claim to being an *official* penman is that he went to an actual penmanship college and had a gold seal certificate which was is a genius idea for a certificate or diploma. The student had to create their own diploma by hand and it would get one of three colored seals - with gold being the highest - and they were very hard to get. As far as I know, Bill was the last surviving Zanerian Gold Seal graduate. That's not to say that his skill was superior to so many others -- it's just a thing from the olden days.
I met Bill a couple times and he was a very warm, humble and generous person - which is true of most penmanship people. I think we all agree that there was only one who was a complete jerk.
That's a joke.
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