What happens when you give a calligrapher a blank longboard? Sarah shared her story of what happened to her.
above the deck that caught my eye & inspired me to find out more about Sarah
Sarah’s , a 30-something year old from Toronto Canada. She’s been lettering and practicing calligraphy for about 4 years, trying out all types of styles – mostly doing wedding-related work.
You can check out all of Sarah’s work on her website
On her site you’ll get a glimpse into some of her amazing projects –
like the adidas subscription box above & below
Since she was young she’s always been interested in the surf/skate culture and wished she could ride around on a skateboard like the girls in the Roxy ads.
Did you try skateboarding?
I never tried skateboarding, mostly because I was intimidated and too scared. Last Christmas my husband bought me a longboard, a complete board with a blank deck.
I was equally as excited to start riding as I was to letter it. After doing some painting on my own board I wanted to create more and gear them towards other girls and women who want to ride.
What’s your process for designing boards?
I buy the blank decks locally and sketch out ideas on my iPad Pro. Usually the designs I create have some sort of pattern as well as lettering. To create the pattern, I draw the shape (like a flamingo) on my tablet and import them into illustrator to vectorize. I then spread them out over the skateboard dimensions I’ve set up in Illustrator.
Once I’m happy with the patten I send the file over to my Cricut (cutting machine) and cut it out with an adhesive stencil. After it’s cut I place the adhesive stencil over the board and spray paint over the pattern. After the spray paint has dried I slowly peel of the stencil and
then sketch out the lettering piece over top using a pencil or special pencil crayon that rubs off with water. After the guides have been laid out I use One Shot paint and Mack brushes to paint in the lettering. I let this dry for a day and then put a couple coats of polyurethane over so it’s a little more durable.
These would look great on the wall but I’d rather see them being ridden!
I like lettering stuff that’s a little cheeky, a little girly but with a little bit of edge. Once I have the board finished I make my husband do a photo shoot with me so I can post them on Instagram 🙂
Above Sarah’s latest board & yes this one is hers she’s still skating! To see even more of Sarah’s process you can check her out on YouTube.
I’m grateful that Sarah faced her fears of skating and then combined her passions into making such beautiful art.
If you’re thinking about skating and not sure what’s holding you back – maybe you need a board. It worked for me, my dad got me a board, I looked at it, actually moved it around for about a year, but I finally skated it. Plus look at Sarah, her husband got her a board now she’s a skater & deck designer.
Sarah long boarding with her husband
You’re never too young or too old to skate. All you need to be is willing. Hope you check out Sarah and her boards on her site above & her IG. And I really hope you share your stories of having fun skating on Sarah’s boards – both she & I would love to see her boards in action plus more girls skate when they see girls having fun skating!
