Pen. Paint. Press. Three arts. One atelier.
Dancing Pen & Press is a bespoke wedding stationery atelier in Cypress, Texas, making letterpress wedding invitations, pointed-pen calligraphy and original watercolor artwork for couples across the U.S. and worldwide.
The story goes back to the 1980s, when I was a little girl in Massachusetts. I was about seven when my art teacher pulled out one of those calligraphy markers and scrolled our names across scraps of paper. I asked her how she did it. She must have been a very modest woman, because her answer was that it was the pen.
Can you imagine my disappointment when I urged my Nana to purchase one, and I tried it out?? My sloppy seven year old penmanship, even with my attempts at loops and swirls, just didn't cut it.
Many many many trips to the art supply store and kits upon kits with instructions, and I had it down early into my double digit years. I addressed envelopes for loved ones' parties and scrolled the names of our guests on place cards for holidays. It was never the pen. It turns out the thing I thought came in a package takes most of a lifetime, and I have been at it ever since.
I went to the University of Rhode Island and majored in Textiles Merchandising and Design, with a minor in Fine Arts. Color theory, color science, printmaking. At the time I thought I was learning about fabric. I was learning how to mix a color to match a swatch, which is most of what I do now.
In 2009 I started Dancing Pen, mainly hand calligraphy addressing for wedding invitations. Can you say TEDIOUS?! I always asked for a sample of the couple's invitations, and I still remember the day I first felt a letterpress invitation in my hand. I was IN LOVE. Here was the thing that combined everything I already cared about: typography, and the tactile feel of fabric, in cotton paper you could run your thumb across.
I made it my mission to learn letterpress. I found my late 1800s Chandler and Price for a squeal of a deal at $200. All 1,200 pounds of her! She then sat alone in my garage for the better part of a year. When I moved to Texas I insisted on bringing her with me, which added $1,200 to the moving bill. Worth every penny. It was in Texas that I dug in my heels and taught myself to print on that mammoth machine, in solitude, with the help of internet forums and a great deal of stubbornness. Letterpress used to be a trade you entered through a multi-year apprenticeship. I learned it by myself, in a garage, and I will never quite get over that.
Nearly everything happens here under one roof, because I am persnickety about color and quality. When I print your suite I am mixing the ink by hand to match something that is actually yours: your envelopes, your crest, the green in your college's logo, the particular pink freckle on your dog's nose. That is not something I can hand to somebody else and trust. And if hand calligraphy is not where you want your budget to go, that is completely fine. I have dozens of gorgeous script fonts we can use, and your cards are letterpressed either way.
No two jobs are the same, which is the point. I love the couples who push the boundaries and let me be properly creative, and I love working with people in other states, other countries and other cultures, and getting far enough inside an idea to find the thing you want before you can quite name it yourself.
Planning a wedding can be stressful. This part shouldn't be. I aim to make it one of the fun parts. And when the box arrives and you open it, I want you to do a happy dance. That is the whole goal.
