The Art of Calligraphy
By Ahmed Almansouri
n the outskirts of Boston, in the suburban area of West Roxbury, lies a distinctive red house. Inside, Jan Boyd is hand building a world make of type.
Growing up in Seattle, Washington Boyd was an ambitious student who earned her college degree at the University of Washington majoring in social services. She married her current husband after high school. She wanted to do good in the world and help those around her.
Boyd is adventurous and wants to experience life to the fullest. After college she decided to go somewhere where nobody knew her name. Having known people in the West Coast and the Mid-West, she decided to start her life on a clean slate and move to Boston.
In Boston, she ended up working for children’s protection at the non-profit human service organization Volunteers of America. Boyd was dedicated to help those in need to rebuild their lives and make them realize their full potential.
All this came to an abrupt stop.
She was blessed with twins, a boy and a girl, and could not leave her house as much as she desired. She couldn’t perform her job anymore so she resigned from Volunteers of America and stayed home to take care of her children.
During her high school years, Boyd used to dabble in calligraphy during her free time. It was a hobby ,but something she felt very passionately about. Since she was staying home anyways and did calligraphy whenever she got the chance, she decided to make it a business.
“I really came to it accidently. I suddenly had kids at home and couldn’t do my other job and more and more didn’t want to do my other job anymore,” she said. “It was kind of serendipitous the way it happened.”
In 1980, Jan Boyd Calligraphy was born. She set up a studio at her home, where she lives with her husband and three children, and since then, she has been leading a Boston area calligraphy studio that is dedicated to fine art hand lettering and design. Boyd hand-letters hundreds of envelops for weddings, holiday greeting cards and diplomas. She works every day of the week, including weekends, from 9:00 am to approximately 11:00 pm.
It wasn’t an easy task to start a calligraphy business without a team; Boyd had to build her way up to where she is today. She got few requests at the beginning and it started growing through word of mouth. She did a bit of advertising, but not much came out of it.
“That was before you could build a website. It was more word of mouth, put signs in the library,” said Boyd.
When her kids were underfoot, building a business was difficult, but as they grew, so did her ability to spend time on her work. As the kids got older and she had more time, business grew naturally.
She first had to overcome her own doubts: Was she good enough, as good as others who did the same work?
“I didn’t really get that until my kids were in college. It was terrifying to know if what I was doing was any good,” said Boyd.
Oddly enough, after 18 years, she didn’t know if she was any good. all she had was compliments from her customers. “”Oh, that’s so pretty.” But was it good?
She decided to dive in, to take classes and workshops from calligraphers that come from all parts of the world. She finally put herself out there and let the world know about her work.
Despite the technology era that we live in where computers could do a much better job than hand lettering, Boyd was still able to build a successful calligraphy business where many have failed to do so.
Being a perfectionist, Boyd feels like she can never achieve everything she wants to. There is always something that someone does that makes her want to try and perfect that specific skill. She never feels fully satisfied with the work that she does and that motivates her to learn new styles of calligraphy and to expand her horizon.
“Even when I am working on a piece that I am happy with, I always feel like if I had time with this customer to start this over again I could do this even better,” confessed Boyd.
In the process of writing calligraphy, Boyd enjoys having classical music playing in the background. It helps her concentrate, especially on an intense piece of work.
Calligraphy profession aside, Boyd enjoys poetry, especially from Mary Oliver. She wrote her favorite poem verses in calligraphy and hung them on the walls of her living room. Boyd is also an avid reader of historical fiction. She is not a fan of books that are referred to as “beach reading.”
“I don’t like to read something and feel like I wasted my time,” said Boyd.
She likes books that make her see things in a different perspective and actually learn something valuable from it. For example, learning about other cultures and countries that you couldn’t learn otherwise if not for the book.
After retirement, Boyd would love to travel the world. She dreams of going to Rome, Florence and Venice in Italy. She has a friend who teaches a course in Umbria and would love to sit with her and sketch.
“I need to do that at some point in my life,” said Boyd.
