Studio tour: Maybelle Calligraphy + Illustration

Name: Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls
Location: Oakland, California
Company: Maybelle Calligraphy + Illustration

What is your aesthetic? Japanese tea house meets Paris flea market. Rustic simplicity.

How does your studio style convey your professional aesthetic?
The best way to describe my work is that it is perfectly imperfect, an understated elegance. This allows some of the other details of a wedding to stand out without forgetting about the guests. It makes someone feel so special to be given personalized attention by something as simple as their name written by hand in pen and ink.

Favorite part of your studio? By far, it has to be the commute, which  consists of a walk down a few stairs. My studio is located in a underneath our house and as a working mother of 9 month old twins, I feel very fortunate to be able to do this.

Where do you go for inspiration?
Japan. I can never sleep on the flight so I often stay up and sketch during the long flight. I get my best ideas this way. When the weather is nice, I like to go on walks along the redwood trails near our home.

What tool do you use in your business that you can’t live without? Don’t laugh. A raw potato. Its my secret weapon. A former calligraphy teacher showed me this trick to clean the ink off the pen nib, and I swear it really works!

Is there anything you’d upgrade to? Taller ceilings and more windows. I love working in natural light.

Anything else we should know?
You can now find a few of my designs for your wedding invitations at Bella Figura, and I am in the process of updating my website so please check back very soon!

[images from Maybelle]