So you are getting really good at your hand lettering and calligraphy skills and now you are wondering can you make money as a calligrapher.
Right now I am going to be answering this question and giving ideas on how exactly to do this.
If you are in a hurry witch I know you might be let me give you the quick and short answer to this question:
You can totally make money as a calligrapher. You can do it by selling your own art prints, onsite calligraphy, quote posters, and so many ideas.
Anyway, that was just a very short answer to get us started.
Here is just a short summary of what we are going to be learning about today:
- Myths On Making Money With calligraphy
- #1 Sell Your Art Prints
- #2 Creating Stickers
- #3 Bookmarks
- #4 Greeting Cards
- #5 Creating Shirts
- #6 Onsite Calligraphy
- #7 Lettering On Envelopes
- #8 Calligraphy on Mirror
- #9 Calligraphy Place Cards
- #10 Regular Commissions
- # 11 Calligraphy ON WIndows
- # 12 Mural Lettering
- # 13 Teaching Others
So let us jump right into it…
Myths About Making Money With Lettering/Calligraphy
There are a lot of people thinking that you can’t make any money doing what you love, but they are totally wrong.
If you are really loving calligraphy as a whole it can create a good income but it just takes effort.
Another thing I want to point out there is that leaving calligraphy as a side hustle is also fine. Just do what you think is going to most benefit you in the future.
Also, don’t wait for that perfect moment to start your calligraphy business because that time is never going to come. The world is for the doers, not those people who sit back and wait.
Some other things that I want to mention are that calligraphy won’t give you a good income to live off of.
I find that totally wrong because if you are able to implement everything in a certain way it is totally possible to grow a business that is just based on your lettering.
Another myth is that the only way to make money with calligraphy is just by normal commissions and art prints witch isn’t the only way.
After explaining those few myths let us move on to the actual ideas that I have for you today.
Idea #1 Art Prints
So selling your art prints is again one of the most common was of making an income with your lettering.
There are a lot of platforms that you can sell your art prints like for example we have Etsy witch is a really common one. You can even run your own website.
Again you are going to have to do your own research on the topic like the printers and paper that you are going to need to use.
Another thing that you should keep in mind is that after a while of selling art prints you should start growing from just offering art prints.
This then leads me to our second idea.
Idea #2 Creating Stickers
After a while of selling art prints and you feel that you a pro at making these things now you want to start selling stickers.
There are a variety of ideas that you could do here. You could make quote stickers or you already have a background in drawing so create stickers like that.
A lot of other things that you should think about with almost all of these products/ideas are having them custom made.
For example you can make custom stickers for someone with a letter or saying on it.
The same thing you could have done with the art prints, greeting cards, shirts, bookmarks, that I am later going to be touching on.
#3 Bookmarks
So you now have art prints and art prints that you are selling on Etsy, or own your very own site.
Now you feel that you should start expanding a bit.
Well, a great idea is to start selling bookmarks.
Again with all of these different types of products that you can be selling you should all do your own research on the materials to make the product. See what works best for you.
With bookmarks, a great place to start would be to create quotes on the bookmarks.
Again how about something custom made.
You can of course do custom-named bookmarks or a custom quote.
#4 Greeting Cards
Selling greeting cards I feel would be great business especially if you making some custom.
Creating your own line of greeting cards with cute sayings and such would be a great product add to your shop.
Again ask yourself, can I make custom greeting cards.
Having proper materials like a good printer and paper is very important with a lot of these new ideas and I can not state this enough to go research.
All I have to say is that I myself are trying to make my own line of greeting cards and it ain’t easy but very possible.
I recommend you go try it out.
Idea #5 Creating Shirts
Ok, you might be thinking wait but creating shirts doesn’t at all have to do being a calligrapher. Well, there is actually a way how.
The process though is hard and also hard to learn.
I am going to be just giving a you a quick rundown of what I am going to be talking about.
When someone is creating their own custom shirts they tend to use fabric vinyl.
It is just vinyl that is ironed onto fabric.
Another thing you should keep in mind is this may be an expensive route since you may have to buy a lot of materials.
So you are just going to be making your own custom designs with the vinyl.
Let me just give you a step by step process.
- Scan The Image that is going to be your design (with printer)
- Take that Scanned Image and move it onto the cutting software that you are using. Most likely Silhouette or Cricut.
(Again these types of software is a whole entire learning curve)
- Arrange the image how you liked to and set up your vinyl with the cutting machine.
- Then Cut.
- Iron on the image /design onto your shirt.
- Done
Ok that is probably way too confusing for a beginner so I am inserting a youtube video showing you exactly what it is. This is From Jennifer Maker.
#6 Onsite Calligraphy
You probably haven’t heard of this one before because I myself barely found about this a few weeks ago.
Basically onsite calligraphy is getting a commission to go somewhere and do calligraphy for/in front of people.
I feel that this might be really hard for someone who is a beginner or barely leaving the beginner stages since you are going to be doing calligraphy in front of other people.
If you are getting popular in your industry sometimes brands/stores would come up to you for onsite calligraphy jobs.
Or you could offer your calligraphy skills upfront to other stores.
There is a whole entire other process when it comes to learning the ways of the onsite calligraphy world and I recommend this video by Becca.
Idea #7 Lettering On Envelopes
Now I am going to be moving on to some more wedding commissions like doing wedding invitations/envelopes.
As a beginner to envelope calligraphy I would recommend when you are starting out to write the address not in calligraphy but in block letters.
I also recommend creating a template for all of your envelopes that you can follow that I have for myself here.
Here is a link to an awesome video teaching you everything that you are going to need for starting lettering on envelopes.
#8 Calligraphy On Mirror
This is also you consider wedding calligraphy since a lot of people like mirror seating charts and etc.
Here of course you are going to need different types of markers for mirror lettering and it has its own learning curve.
Here is a quick video again from Becca.
Idea #9 Place Cards
If you don’t know what place cards are it is another way of a wedding seating chart. It jus a little card with name and table number, placed on the table.
Again a lto of times you are just going to be doing the name in calligraphy it is a nice touch to every table you could say.
Like the envelopes, it could be a tedious task so I recommend creating a template marketing the spaces of where the calligraphy and block letters are going to go.
Here is a link to a video all about it.
#10 Regular Commissions
What I mean by regular commissions, it may be dull, but just asking people what they want.
For example, I want a cute saying inside a circle well then you could create just that. Of course when just taking in regular commissions I recommend having some sort of contract, rules, and boundaries of what you can and can not do.
Some other things that You would want to keep in ind are how much are you going to be pricing these things. It is probably harder to price regular commissions because people are asking you to do different things.
Thinking about how much you want to get paid per hour would be a great start.
Idea #11 Calligraphy on Windows
Lettering on windows can be a very tough process and expensive process since you are going to need different markers, a way to transfer the design onto the window, and etc.
But one of the most common questions is how do we get the design onto the actual window.
So one way can be called the grid method. Basically you take a whole entires sheet of paper draw out your grid, already created your design with it’s on grids, and copy your sketch onto the bigger sheet of paper.
You are probably very confused so here is a video.
#12 Mural Lettering
Doing a mural of lettering can be a very big jump from what you are already doing so take your time and learn the basics of doing murals.
A lto of people also think about how am I even supposed to get a mural job.
Recommend to doing a mural on your own wall sharing that with people and start emailing other businesses.
Here is a quick video going through the basics. Again from Beca (Happy Ever Crafter).
Idea #13 Teaching Others
There are a lot of different ways that you can start teaching others.
For example making your own online courses, blogging, or any of that techie stuff you could say.
Some other things you should consider is personal/one to one teaching or hosting your own classes in a certain place.
There is a lot of things that you can do when it comes to teaching others modern calligraphy.
This way of earning money can actually be very fun but terrifying if yr scared of teaching others.
But if you think you are ready go for it.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of things that you can do to making money as a calligrapher these were just basic ideas that I was able to come up with.
I find that people are always scared of jus starting and putting yourself out there. Just go fright into it and watch everything would come together with the effort and hard work.
Comment if you have any more ideas of what I should add to this list.
