Beyond the classrooms, teachers have a variety of hobbies to keep them busy after the strenuous hours of grading papers. In that time, English teacher Kimberly Rygiel is busy with her newly developed hand lettering business, “Letters from the Margin”. She got the inspirations for the name of the company during her college years.

“The name letter in the margin comes from the doodling habits in school when I would, to pass the time in class, doodle in the margins of the papers,” Rygiel said, “like song lyrics and things like that to keep myself occupied.”

Last March, Rygiel was preparing for her own wedding when things officially took flight. She took it into her own hands to hand address all her invitations and save the dates but also had inspiration to do so.

“I also took a lot of inspiration from my dad,” Rygiel said, “He learned calligraphy to address his wedding invitations back when my parents got married. I’ve always been super impressed with that.”

During her 15 month engagement, she enjoyed being able to view the progress of hand lettering, from her first save the date to the final thank you notes.

Since then, she has always had a love for hand lettering and has wanted to make it into something even bigger. Her overall goal is to get it on a stable platform such as at Etsy shop, where she can sell specific pieces of work as well as creating custom pieces. Currently, she is working on mostly custom pieces but would like her company to grow into focusing on weddings, specifically creating custom wedding invitations as well as addressing them. Not only is her handlettering an on-the-side hobby, but it is also apparent throughout her classroom.

“My whole room is decorated with my hand lettering,” Rygiel said. “I take a lot of pride in the design of my classroom. My quote wall in the back was kind of the beginning of my hand lettering.”

Her work is also showcased in another classroom across campus. Government teacher Angela Gardner has a custom piece which was the official beginning to “Letters from the Margin” when Rygiel sold her first piece to her this past summer.

“I enjoy creating pieces for people that they just absolutely love and it makes me very happy.”

Her work can be purchased from both her Facebook and Instagram @lettersfromthemargins.