Fact: learning calligraphy uses a lot of paper. Even with what tiny amount of enviromental awareness that I possess, it pops into my mind that I’m killing a lot of trees *gulp*.

Being a woman of letters, I delight in making cards, writing letters and thank you notes – all using drool-worthy quality paper. Knowing that using paper at all is decidedly not enviromentally friendly, should I restrain myself?

Everything we do leaves earthly footprints. If we become an extremist, we may not be able to create anything at all. So if we’re going to create something anyway, we might as well produce something beautiful, like calligraphy. I’m not saying that you should calligraph every Post-It note, I’m just saying that it’s alright. Everything in moderation.

Concerning our mother earth, here are some things that I tell myself and take comfort from:

– The paper I use says ‘Sustainable Forest Fiber’, ‘Enviromentally Friendly Production’ or something along those lines. I may have to take their word for it, but it does ease my conscience a little bit.

– By practising methodically, I’m using less paper. Having and following a guide help me to learn a hand quicker while saving more paper.

– I create my printable guides with being green in mind. Aside from lessening wasted space by making separate ascender- and descender-only guides for practice, I also save money on printer ink and paper by needing to print less.

– I keep usable scrap paper to use as guard sheets or ink scratch paper. I’m not onto paper-making yet, and there’s only so much scrap paper you can keep. At some point we all have to send them to the waste basket. But saving more usable scraps is better than having none at hand when you need them.

So there you go! How are you being a green letterer?

S.