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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-01-26, Page 11Serving over 25,000 homes in Listowel, Wingham, Mount Forest, Milverton, Elmir. Writing with a flair in Wellesley by Shawn Denstedt When Karen Zehr bought her mother a present two years ago, she didn't realize that present would turn into a profitable business for herself. The present was a calligraphy set in which Mrs. Zehr's mother took a keen interest. She took courses and attended seminars on improving in the art form and eventually taught both of her daughters the finer points of calligraphy. Two years, and a lot of practise later, Mrs. Zehr has turned her hobby into a profitable business venture in the small shop she operates with Peggy Sahntz. The shop is locatedin'*elIesle rand is known as Peggy's Cove and Karen's Corner. In addition to Mrs. Zehr's calligraphy work, the , shop sells specialty items and used articles. Mrs. Zehr says when she and Mrs. Shantz decided on their business venture they naturally included some of the things they had been doing at home, one of those was calligraphy. "I didn't know how well it would go," Mrs. Zehr says in retrospect, but admits "it just took off". The shop opened about one year ago, and during that time,Mrs. Zehr has been called on by the Wellesley Township Council to design and write a proclamation that, was presented to the City of Waterloo to honor its 125th Anniversary. She has done Merit Certificates for the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival and designed the proclamation for the Tourist of the Day to the Festival. How do you get started in what has been descried as a lost art form? Mr. Zehr says it was the neatness and flair that first struck her about calligraphy, and she decided she wanted to be able to write like that. "It's something that is very beautiful when it's done," she says: There is only one way oto learn calligraphy according to Mrs. Zehr, and that is through a lot of hard work and practice. Once the alphabet is learned in one style it must be practised. Mrs. Zehr says, it takes about a year of practice, after the alphabet has been learned, to be able to consistently make the'` letters correctly. "You have to be very patient, people say `I'd never be able to do that' but if you're interested, anyone can do it." Since Mrs. Zehr has found her calligraphy is a marketable item, she has had little time for_practising new .alphabets. ,She Om*'•She' is working on Oki Om* Enghsh.right now, taut because she has little or no time to practise with all the work she must complete at the shop, it will still be some time before she is able to learn it properly. "Copper -plating is another style I'd like to learn, but I just don't have the time right now," Mrs. Zehr says. The success of Mrs. Zehr's calligraphy has been mainly through word of mouth. She says people will see her work somewhere and then turn up at the shop asking to have something done. Anniversaries, births, graduations and weddings are specialties of Mrs. Zehr. She inscribes the certificates accordingly and has a picture in the scroll as well. Still, the most popular items that Mrs. Zehr encounters are cards and poetry, mostly done on parchment paper. She also has done several advertisements for businesses. Mrs. Zehr is involved in giving lessons te aspiring calligraphers in the area. "Lessons are aimed at whatever is suitable for the person," Mrs. Zehr says, ston, Harriston, Brussels, Atwood, Monkton, Millbank, Newton, Clifford, Wallenstein, Drayton, Moorefield and Arthur. Wednesday, January 26, 1983 "One or two together is normal, and I don't like giving lessons to more than three at a time." Times for the lessons appears to be no problem for Mrs. Zehr, who said she can give lessons at nights, except Wednesday and Friday and during the day before 1:30. One of the problems encountered by Mrs. Zehr when she first started selling her work wad how much should she charge? phone call to a publisher in Kitchener helped her with the problem. "He said he wasn't involved in it because it was too time-consuming," Mrs. Zehr says, adding that she was told if she charged less than $18 an hour it would be a gift. Mrs. Zehr does charge less than $18 an hour, considerably less, but she says she enjoys the work. Although she has never had an art lesson, or been taught lay -out, her work has built up an excellent reputation in the area. The recognition is pleasing, more so than financial benefit, for Mrs. Zehr. "You're a professional as long as people like your work," Mrs. Zehr says modestly. She has had a greeting card salesman offer to print some of her designs if she desired. "There are a lot of possibilities, but I don't know if I want to go any further," Mrs. Zehr says. She is married with three children, Drew, 20, Shelley 19 and Melissa 15. Her husband Ward is the former principal of Wellesley Public School. The aim of calligraphy is to discover the lost art of writing. The individual who signs his name in a scrawl, according to Calligraphy experts who have written the books on calligraphy that are sold in Mrs. Zehr's shop, is signing no better than an "X". Mrs. Zehr has gone beyond the aim of having a distinctive signature: she has turned an interesting hobby into a profitable business all because of a gift she gave her mother. •f{ilAMP • • yv' ...... - ".. ;i•.' NCr �: !:4ti'F.:'.F �i%%i is r'( a.v i� 2 S.ry.JRinY9?'A ' ...� ARTISAN AT WORK—Calligrapher Karen Zehr isn't shy about she operates along with Peggy Shantz. She says calligraphy has her work, her work desk is right in the front window of the store `just taken off" since the store opened about one year ago. • • is :.moi' '!s j�ii•.;,,�i�f" C•Cpy �� fi%iH/, ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE—Karen Zehr of Wellesley says the up a piece of work that was done by her sister. Mrs. Zehr's range of work for calligraphy is almost endless, here she holds 'sister and mother are both involved with calligraphy as well. Learning to cope with stress Free seminars being offered in February by Kim Dadson The baby begins to cry again, the potatoes are burning on the stove, the doorbell rings and Mary is ready to pull her hair out. Joe's boss has hinted that Joe's job could be done by a computer and a credit com- pany has been calling Joe about his debts. Jane's been up since dawn; she's done a load of wash, made breakfast for the chil- dren, seen them off to school — and on her way to work the car breaks down. It's been six months since John has had a job. Every place he goes he is either over- or under -qualified or there are no jobs at all. He has a home and family and he feels the walls are closing in. All of these fictional characters,,probably have real-life counterparts. They all have one thing in common — they are suffering from stress. What will make or break them is how they handle it. Just about everybody has to cope with stress. From the housewife at home to the professional in the business world, stress is not discriminatory. In a society in which the rules are changing almost daily, in which one is continually questidned about his or her own worth as an individual, coupled with a poor economy, stress has become a house- hold word. There are ways to cope with stress and the Woolwich Interfaith Counselling Centre, located in Elmira, wants to help. The Centre is sponsoring, free of charge, four seminars which will deal with stress. The leetures will be held on four consecu- tive Tuesdays in February at Riverside Public School, William Street. The first lecture, Tuesday, Feb. 1, will feature Ron Walsh and Sunny Sundberg of the University of Waterloo. Experienced lecturers on stress and management, they have spoken frequently at hospitals, busi- nesses and industries. They have also been featured on radio and television programs. The second lecture, Feb. 8, will feature Sunny Sundberg again to continue the dis- cussion on stress and management. Arthur Mitchell of New Zealand will speak on the third lecture, Feb. 15, on what causes stress in our lives and how we react to it. He will also discuss how we can handle stress to our advantage and as a means of growth. The fourth lecture will be held Feb. 22 and will feature Larry Kelly, an emergency physician with the Kitchener -Waterloo Hos pita]. At 7:30 each evening a slide presentation about the Woolwich Interfaith Counselling Centre will be shown and at 8 p.m. the lec- ture will begin. There is no charge and re- freshments will be served. The Centre, whicho fers confidential counselling.to anyone, regardless of faith, is located upstairs at St. James' Lutheran Church in Elmira. Professional, experi- enced counselors are available to discuss problems with individuals and families. Fees are set accordint to how much a client can afford. For this reason the Centre also has fund- raising projects and is now selling tickets 'on a quilt draw April 21 at its annual meeting. Tickets are available from board members and the Canada Trust in Elmira.