Author Topic: Lee from Far North Queensland  (Read 1543 times)

Offline saulyleeplans

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
Lee from Far North Queensland
« on: January 04, 2019, 01:35:26 AM »
Hi,
My name is Lee and I am a budding calligrapher wannabe.  I love all things stationery and I am also into Traveler's notebook journalling and Erin Condren.
I have a lot of time on my hands for the next few weeks so I'm going to use it wisely and absorb all the info on this forum.

Thanks for having me.

Lee:)

Offline Erica McPhee

  • Administrator
  • Super Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7201
  • Karma: 332
  • Be brave. Love life!
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2019, 11:37:13 AM »
Hi Lee,
Ahh - free time in the new year! Sounds like fun! Welcome to Flourish!
Warm Regards,
Erica
Lettering & Design Artist
Flourish Forum Shop
Instagram

Offline Bianca M

  • Super Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1216
  • Karma: 63
  • Tempus Fugit
    • View Profile
    • Bianca Mascorro Calligraphy & Art
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2019, 11:53:21 AM »
Welcome, Lee! Enjoy that free time!

Offline CraigRuhl

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 41
  • Karma: 7
    • View Profile
    • Faith On Every Corner
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2019, 12:53:48 PM »
Welcome Lee! Enjoy and savor your free time, it can be fleeting. This is a great forum with plenty of nice folks and great information.
Craig Ruhl
A novice penman, seasoned writer, voracious reader, and all-around nice guy. I am a lifetime collector and user of fountain pens.

Offline A Smug Dill

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: 3
  • 三人行必有我師焉
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2019, 10:24:46 PM »
Welcome, Lee (here too, as well as on the other online forum)!

I hope you'll receive the box of pens and inks being passed around, and get some use out of the pick of the colours you want.  :)

Offline saulyleeplans

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2019, 04:33:18 PM »
Hi Smug Dill,

We meet again.  Yes I have enjoyed going through the box, I'm writing currently with one of the hero pens with Noodlers North African Violet.  Though I am also wearing it as nail polish from filling the pen lol

Lee

Offline A Smug Dill

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: 3
  • 三人行必有我師焉
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2019, 09:50:18 PM »
Lee,

Excellent! I hope you enjoy the Hero 395 pens more than I did; to my recollection, they wrote too broadly for my tastes and my regular handwriting, but the model seems to have a few fans because of its supposed 'semi-flex'.

Yesterday I started playing with the couple of Jinhao X450 pens that came modified and fitted with Zebra G nibs. Those nibs have been mentioned here quite often as good for English calligraphy, and marrying them to fountain pens to provide an ink reservoir makes them more convenient to use. They cost me about A$7.50 (including GST *sigh*) pre-assembled to order from China, but now I also have a bunch of 'spare' X450 pens (complete with what I deem to be Medium nibs) and Zebra G nibs ordered separately. You might be interested in trying something like that some time; the X450 sections have a faceted, triangular grip, which may or may not help with your question about changing your grip.

I also have some 'spare' Pilot Plumix pens with CM (Calligraphy Medium) nibs, which are good for italic writing. You can order them piecemeal reasonably easily from Amazon.com.au; I ordered them in 3-packs shipped from the US. I usually take their nibs and transplant them into Pilot MR and Prera pens, but the Plumix pens are usable in their own right if you're not too fussed about portability; they're quite long and clipless. Actually, my fiancée took two of those – housed in a leather pen case – to her book-signing events, because her book is a children's chapter-book themed around a comet, and the Pilot Plumix and Penmanship pens have comet-shaped bodies, so I thought the kids would find it fun to see. They served her quite well.

Anyway, let us know which hands in English calligraphy you're interested in. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm open to organising Round Two of the PIF of pens and inks for Australian users.

Cheers,

Dill

Offline saulyleeplans

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2019, 10:11:53 PM »
Hi Dill,

I am enjoying the hero at the moment, more for printing than cursive though it just feels better printing with it.  I am also trying to get the hang of the baoer 388 with the fude nib but not really seriously, maybe down the track.
The triangular grip on the x450 sounds good, a bit like when I was at school and we would buy the triangle to put on our pencils :).
I'm currently perfecting foundational calligraphy at the moment and I will then move on to italic hand as I got Eleanor Winters book 'Calligraphy in ten easy lessons' for $4 at an antique shop. 

I hope that others in oz do get on board with the PIF as it is really worth it with all the ink samples, which i have found invaluable before ordering ink.

Thanks again.

Lee:)

Offline lizabetht

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 43
  • Karma: 4
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2019, 10:54:36 AM »
Hi Lee.  Welcome!  I'm fairly new here, too.  I'm curious about PIF.  I've never heard of it and would be interested in finding out about it.   Sounds like there are ink samples involved and some sort of membership. 

I am using Eleanor Winter's Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy to best understand the copperplate letterforms.  When I started out, I tried copying someone else's version of copperplate and it didn't work very well for me.  I'm doing better now that I'm studying the basics. 


Offline saulyleeplans

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 26
  • Karma: 2
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2019, 05:15:14 PM »
Hi Lizabetht

PIF is pay it forward.  It from 'The fountain pen network' forum that we belong to.  It's a box that is making its round through Australia and people can add their unwanted pen, ink, paper paraphenalia to it and take what they want from whats already in the box, then forward to the next person in line.  I don't know if this is allowed but here is the link to the other forum.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/339098-pens-inks-and-samples-pass-around-in-australia/

Lee

Offline A Smug Dill

  • Freshman Member
  • *
  • Posts: 21
  • Karma: 3
  • 三人行必有我師焉
    • View Profile
Re: Lee from Far North Queensland
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2019, 10:22:14 AM »
I'm curious about PIF.  I've never heard of it and would be interested in finding out about it.   Sounds like there are ink samples involved and some sort of membership.

As Lee has explained, PIF stands for Pay it Forward, which is just another term meaning no-strings-attached giveaways. There are a few that are organised, often constrained by national divides and/or geographical location (due to postal charges and/or in-person collection opportunities), on FPN. I saw that there wasn't one in Australia, and I had several unwanted NOS (New Old Stock) pens of a particular model of Hero fountain pen that supposedly has some degree of the prized characteristic of 'flex' in its nib for cursive English writing(?), so I started that particular PIF for Australian fountain pen enthusiasts who have visibility of it through forum membership.

Quote
I am using Eleanor Winter's Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy to best understand the copperplate letterforms.  When I started out, I tried copying someone else's version of copperplate and it didn't work very well for me.  I'm doing better now that I'm studying the basics.

My copy of that just arrived from the US (via Amazon) this week. Right now I cannot write more than an A5 page before tendonitis in my wrist starts to play up (and that's an immense improvement from before), though, so 150 pens and 200 bottles of ink are... largely clutter in my concrete shoebox of an inner-city apartment. :sigh: