Lara Kiniris Photo by Linda Smolek
Calligraphy Girl
EAST SAC RESIDENT MAKES HANDWRITING AN ART
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ou may have seen an ad in a recent Inside Sacramento that features a hammer made of words. The ad is a love letter from
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East Sac Hardware thanking the community for its support. That ad—a handwriting art piece— was produced by calligraphy artist and East Sac resident Lara Kiniris, who has been doodling since she can remember. “As a kid, I would write notes in class with this perfect handwriting,” the Sacramento native recalls. “My fifth-grade teacher even told me I had beautiful handwriting, which made me so happy.”
Kiniris doodled all the way through her early 20s, when she worked as a receptionist. After receiving a cartridge calligraphy pen as a gift, she fell in love with the feeling of her new writing instrument and decided to teach herself calligraphy. Nearly two decades on, Kiniris has a booming business called The Calligraphy Girl, specializing in calligraphy for weddings and other special events, personalized gifts and more. “I wanted to have a little something for myself when I was first home with
my kids,” says Kiniris, who has two teenagers, a daughter and son. “One of my girlfriends was doing wedding invitations and she said I should do calligraphy as a job. I called a bunch of wedding planners to ask if I could be a resource for their brides and sent them samples. “I was surprised how often people would call me and say they’d seen my work—there aren’t a lot of calligraphy artists out there. They’d often ask me if I could do something else, like place cards or menus. If I didn’t know how
