Live Online with Kalo Chu
Illuminated Borders
The floral borders and glowing initials tucked in the margins of medieval manuscripts weren't background decoration. They were the point. Come learn to paint them, with a modern hand.
Save My Spot »Monday & Thursday evenings · beginners welcome, all levels invited
What This Workshop Is
Part history lesson. Part painting class. All beautiful.
This workshop is a hands-on look at the techniques behind those exquisite medieval borders, the ones tucked into the margins of the manuscripts held today in The New York Public Library's Rare Books and Manuscripts archive.
Across four sessions, you'll paint florals in watercolour, build intricate border decorations, illuminate a letter, and pick up the broad-edge calligraphy that ties it all together, taking a centuries-old art form and giving it a modern approach you can actually use.
No prior artistic experience is necessary. Just a passion for history and a desire to create.
In four sessions, you'll learn to:
Paint floral watercolour motifs, vines and foliage
Design intricate border decorations and line fillers
Illuminate a letter of your own
Form Textura Quadrata, a broad-edge calligraphy hand
Lay out a design the way medieval scribes did, with a modern eye
Why This Workshop
These borders survived 600 years for a reason.
Long before there were printing presses, scribes and artists spent months on a single page, filling the margins with gold leaf, acanthus leaves, and flowers so precise they still stop people in their tracks. This class breaks that tradition down into something you can learn in ten hours, no gold leaf or medieval scriptorium required.
Perfect For...
Absolute beginners with zero painting or calligraphy background
Calligraphers who want to add illumination and border work to their skills
Art history lovers who'd rather make the thing than just admire it
Anyone who wants a slower, more meditative kind of art practice
Course Curriculum
What You'll Cover
Across four sessions, totalling ten hours:
By the end of this workshop, you'll understand how medieval illumination actually works, and you'll have a finished piece, and the skills, to keep going long after class ends.
A Look At The Work
Illumination, Kalo's Way
Meet Your Instructor
Kalo Chu
Kalo Chu is a calligrapher based in Hong Kong and the founder of Kalo Make Art. Since 2015, she has dedicated herself to promoting calligraphy, penmanship, and handwriting throughout the region.
She holds IAMPETH Certificates of Excellence in Engrosser's Script, Spencerian, and Illumination and Borders, and has taught internationally at IAMPETH, the New York Society of Scribes, the Western Canadian Calligraphy Conference, and Flourish Summit, among others.
Kalo's fascination with medieval illuminated manuscripts began during her European Art History studies. In 2023, she studied original works with Master Penman Harvest Crittenden and Yves Letterme during the Illumination Saga in Michigan. In 2024, she was commissioned to create a manuscript for the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, now displayed in the Royal Family's residence. In 2025, she designed the President's Certificate for the president of IAMPETH, her largest artistic creation to date.
Four Sessions · Ten Hours · One Finished Piece
Come make something that outlasts a trend by about 600 years.
$250 10 hours across 4 sessions · Feb 8, 11, 15 & 18, 2027 · 8:00–10:30 PM EST
Reserve Your Seat Today »Students of all levels are welcome. No prior artistic experience necessary.