Because I am a fan of all things Regency (for a definition of Regency click here) I am going to show you how to write and fold a Regency Style Letter! I learned this from The Jane Austen Handbook which happens to be in the possession of my friend Kate. I looked at one of her letters to me for the folding technique, and read about the style of writing in the book.
So, first write the letter. I made this paper look a little older by soaking it in coffee, and then made a oh-so-fun attempt to write a letter, Regency Style! For the tutorial on aging paper with coffee, click here.
You know, Regency style isn't exactly like modern American style. No perfect pages were effortlessly typed in uniform font back then.
You know, Regency style isn't exactly like modern American style. No perfect pages were effortlessly typed in uniform font back then.
In order to preserve paper, letter-writers from the Regency period would write like so:
And not only that, but they also wrote in a third direction: diagonally! I didn't attempt that feat. :)
I also put a white paper with dark black lines on it underneath the brown paper so that I would have some lines to guide me.
Once you are done having fun writing the letter, you can now fold a letter Regency Style.
1. First fold the letter in from the sides two times, meeting in the middle.
Then fold the letter up from the bottom. Fold it into four sections. The picture above illustrates the sections without the folds.
Sorry, I don't have a picture of the first fold.
Leave the top section a little shorter to leave space to put a wax seal.
To finish it off, seal it with a wax seal. Gartner Studios has great seals.
And by the way, I got a really awesome box to keep my letters in. I got it at Ross, since they have a big selection of them.
Pretty cool, huh?
Have a happy Saturday!
