Heather Marshall
The past has always been a part of my life. I grew up in a 100-year-old house surrounded by antiques, with artistic parents who loved the designs of past decades. A creative person myself, I’d always dreamed of being a writer. When my author career ended in heartbreak, I desperately searched for a new creative outlet. I found calligraphy.
I was inspired to start lettering on vintage paper after flipping through crumbling books in an antique store. Growing sad thinking about old paper being forgotten in an attic, rotting away, or (horrors!) tossed in the trash, I impulsively decided to letter on some pages. The reaction from early viewers was immediate and strong, and Feather Lettering was born.
My pieces are for people who love a vintage feel and embrace the aesthetic of the past, but don’t want a dusty look. I create eclectic art and related items that inspire others to seek out and appreciate the past while decorating in the present. I want my customers to be as bold and unique as my designs.
FAQs
Where do you get your materials?
All sorts of places. Estate sales, antique stores, garage sales, and eBay are favorites. I’ve also been contacted by people to see if I’m interested in what they have (99% of the time I am!). These angels include people who’ve shopped me in the past, pickers, real estate agents closing out houses, and total strangers.
How did you learn lettering?
I’m entirely self-taught. I’ve mostly used lessons from books (nothing fancy or expensive; stuff from Target or thrift shops or Half-Price Books). Instagram was also pivotal in the beginning—finding other lettering artists whose style I admired and then studied. I watched a lot of videos. And of course: practice, practice, and more practice. I made a lot of ugly stuff to find my voice and uncover what kinds of design elements spoke to me the loudest. Once I broke out of classic calligraphy, I just kept experimenting with styles, substrates, and inks/paints.
How long have you been doing this?
I started regularly teaching myself calligraphy and hand lettering in 2017, although I do remember trying it back in high school in the early 90s. I started Feather Lettering in 2019, thinking it would solely be a calligraphy/lettering service. In 2020 vintage paper got me in a chokehold and from 2021 on leaned heavily into making art.
Do your final pieces really use original paper? You make copies and use reproductions, right?
Everything (with the exception of some greeting cards) is 100% original. On the back of every piece I state where I got the paper and how old it is. I never create from reproductions or copies. (Some books themselves are; for example, I have a 1950s book on Picasso. Obviously I’m not tearing up an original Picasso, but the actual book paper is truly vintage.) I don’t make duplicates of pieces. Sometimes I’ll reuse a quote or saying, but I don’t make editions or numbered copies. So, yes, that map you’re hanging on your wall really is a page from an 1890 atlas.