European Lettering Institute (Belgium)

[Naomi Bong A Jan]

Hi everybody,

Recently I came across the website of the European Lettering Institute; a school that is all about lettering, calligraphy and typography. It is located in Brugge, a gorgeous city in Belgium.
They have a 3-4 year course and also offer short courses and workshops!

Here are several upcoming workshops:

• Rachel Yallop (UK): Copperplate – A different look at the swelling line
  A 4-day workshop (February 4-5 and March 25-26 , 2017)
• Immanuel Corbillon (Belgium): Lettercarving in stone
  A 2-day workshop (February 18 and March 18, 2017)

For more info, go to: https://letteringinstitute.com/workshops/

Personally, I am very interested in the Copperplate workshop and will be signing up soon. Since I live in the Netherlands, Belgium is not too far away for me.
However, I'm hoping that others (fellow Europeans?!) might be interested in joining the course as well and hopefully I'll see you there!

- Naomi

[Rednaxela]

Cool, didn't know about this. Thank you so much for sharing!

[Naomi Bong A Jan]

@Rednaxela You're very welcome! I have a feeling the (traditional) calligraphy community in Europe is quite small/spread, so I just had to share this with you.
Also, very nice to see a fellow countryman around here.

[Estefa]

Thanks for sharing that link – it sounds interesting! What I don't get is if the Copperplate class is oriented towards beginners or advanced students … ? But good to know there is such a programm in Europe!

[Naomi Bong A Jan]

@Estefa Eventhough the website states that it is oriented towards everyone, beginners and advanced, the signup form states that it is for intermediate and advanced students; those who are already familiar with (pointed pen) calligraphy. Just to be sure, I'll send them an email about this and will keep you updated!

[Estefa]

@Naomi Bong A Jan Thank you! I am definitely interested in an advanced class, still would have to check if it works out time-wise …

[Naomi Bong A Jan]

Hi @Estefa and @Rednaxela,

I emailed the school and, unfortunately, they told me that the Copperplate workshop (which is, in fact, for intermediate and advanced students) has been fully booked for quite some time already. There is even a waiting list and are afraid there won't be a possibility to eventually join in. 

For future reference, I told them that it would be nice to clearly state on their website when workshops are fully booked or show how many spots are still available. This, to prevent any disappointments. I'm pretty bummed about the lack of communication, so I'm just hoping they'll do something about it.

I also hope there will be new chances anytime soon!

[Estefa]

Thank you very much for checking that! Yes, absolutely they should put that on their website … well, I am superbusy at the moment anyhow, so maybe another time …

[Rednaxela]

Thank you so much for checking @Naomi Bong A Jan! When it comes to Copperplate I'm a not-yet-begunner, so would most probably not qualify anyway. Will keep an eye on their website though, who knows what they'll offer in the future.

[Erica McPhee]

@sybillevz For future info! 

[sybillevz]

Thanks for the tag @Erica McPhee ! I knew about this and was already too late to sign up in October... I bought Rachel Yallop's book, she has a gorgeous style, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to attend the workshop or not...  I think they say the workshop is for intermediate to advanced students because copperplate is considered more difficult. But from what I understood, they were going to start at the very beginning (how to handle the pen and so on).
The European Lettering institute seems like a wonderful place ! I am a little bummed to be living a bit far from Bruges (3h by train) to be able to attend all the classes there.