From Archaic to Esoteric

 Discovery of the Old Ways

I have been diving into making RPG props and materials as of late. This has been a unique rabbit whole to fall down as I stumbled upon a section of passionate hobbyists around this idea of the stationary arts in the form of letter writing.

While discovering the almost forgotten art of writing letters, I have fallen into a vast realm that is full of people with passions around these bygone skills and craftmanship. I have discovered a love of wax sealing. This led me to find uses for such a thing which led me to gifts and letters. Gifts and letters led me to rediscovering my penmanship roots. This in turn led me to discovering the world of fountain pens. I continue to fall further and further into this realm of interests, and it is allowing me to grow in ways I didn't anticipate.

The Pen Is Mightier

I have revisited my penmanship roots. I grew up homeschooled through a program that taught what I only just learned is called D'nealian Cursive. I had to teach myself block print to fill out college forms back in 2009. I have always enjoyed my handwriting but have never fully thought about what it meant to actually have the ability to write like this. There is also the imposter syndrome of "I don't write that nice." Picking up the fountain pen to master it is proving both fun and therapeutic. I only have a cheap pen for now, but I am already looking at upgrading. My goal is to master my own handwriting and the fountain pen by writing regular letters. This gives me a chance to do more wax sealing too!

A Legacy

While I have been learning these new skills, my children have taken interested, wanting to help and participate. My daughter loved my handwriting and now is working hard to learn cursive and even asked to learn with the fountain pen. Both helped me to seal my letter and it was a wonderful experience. I have found a strong desire to learn something of value to pass down to my children, and that has been found in this forgotten act of writing a letter for someone else.

I will continue in my adventures with this new hobby but will also be looking to learn a few new things as well! Stay tuned!

PS These will help make the coolest notes to my TTRPG players!