Messages

1

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Free Oblique holder

« on: June 07, 2018, 09:10:52 AM »

I would absolutely love to have this holder. I have small hands, and being situated in Denmark it’s very hard to come by any oblique holders, not to say impossible, to try and hold them.

I have practiced a loose grip for the past months and it would be a lovely reward for ditching the death grip.

Whoever gets this, I’d like to thank you for you generosity

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Letter Pixels / Re: I don't like Instagram very much any more, and here's why:

« on: May 04, 2018, 10:00:32 AM »

While I agree that IG is less enjoyable, I would say it has much less to do with stories (which I can just totally ignore) and a whole lot more to do with missing chonology, and missing posts.

I have maintained a really finely curated feed of calligraphers, lettering artists and few more, and I've actively chosen to follow those people - now why am I not seeing those in my feed?! That's infuriating IMO. Instead I get 'suggested posts' from people I don't follow to clutter my feed. I would go so far as to being willing to buy chronological feed as a subscription, as long as it gives me everything.

In regards to stories, as I said one can totally just ignore those, I check them occationally. What is really positive with stories though is that I follow several highly qualified calligraphers and they actually do live sessions with practice or explain inks or whatnot. A wealth of info.

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Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / Re: Photos That Prove People Can No Longer Write

« on: April 12, 2018, 07:20:07 AM »

In German we say someone has a »sow's claw« …

In Denmark it’s “crows toes” .. yeah dunno what weird crows has toes but there you go..

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Tools & Supplies / Re: Higgins Eternal destroying nibs.

« on: March 31, 2018, 08:21:52 PM »

, I'm wondering if my nibs get ruined because I take too long before washing them? I usually wash them after my working session. So sometimes it could be 1-2 hours of usage before washing the nib. Should I rinse it like every 30 minutes or something?

Do you clean/ dip in water while you’re working? I’ve read many places you need to remove your ink every two minutes or so to avoid corrosion. Not full on cleaning but dipping I water and drying of with paper or at least remove excess/drying ink with a towel every 5 mins or so.

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Tools & Supplies / Re: Curv-E Holder - New Oblique Pen Holder

« on: March 29, 2018, 08:52:44 PM »

Thanks again for all your wonderful advice, I have practiced an altered grip since and I feel I have improved a lot. It takes a lot of mindfulness and constant self correction, and some of my consistency is definitely suffering, but I will keep at it
I’ve just uploaded a video to my IG, if you’d like to see my progress https://instagram.com/p/Bg7Wqv5Fjc1/

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Copperplate Tutorial by SMK / Nordic letters - ÆæØøÅå

« on: March 28, 2018, 04:26:02 PM »

Hi @Salman Khattak (and others)

Since I’m from Denmark my alphabet includes no less than 3 extra letters namely Æ æ, Ø ø, and Å å. I would really appreciate suggestions for these as I’m having trouble finding exemplars.
When I was in school and learned cursive, we were taught that the ø would simply be an o with a vertical dash floating above.
I’m not finding that particularly elegant, and the letters are very common in Danish. Perhaps the forum has some ideas for variations?


Typical names:  Søren, Mø, Jørgen, Kåre
Ususally letters or invites begin with ‘Dear Norma’ which is ‘Kære Norma’
Loads of addresses includes all three: Nørrestræde 31, 8210 Ålborg

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Guidelines / Re: Spiral Guidelines to Share

« on: March 05, 2018, 08:13:22 AM »

Wonderful resource - thank you!

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Tools & Supplies / Re: Curv-E Holder - New Oblique Pen Holder

« on: March 05, 2018, 08:10:05 AM »

Hi again,



Just watched your video on instagram ( nice work ) it's a little difficult to see but I can make out your grip and you really have a serious death grip going on there!
I had a bad grip a few years ago and it took me a while to get over it. I had to take the step back to go forward if you know what I mean. It was difficult as I work as a calligrapher here in the uk and I do a lot of work for stationers in London amongst other places, so I had to keep going back to my original ( bad ) grip to get work done and then try and use the new tripod grip again only for more work to come in and you can see how difficult it was. I stuck with it and I am soooooo glad I did, my new grip is working out brilliantly couldn't be more happy.......SOOOOOO I would highly recommend you try and lose the death grip as you really are putting a lot of pressure on those fingers and that in turn is causing your forearm to tense up which is not good for writing. I don't think a Cure-E pen is going to help you with your current grip as your fingers seem to be gripping the pen at the same section of the neck of the pen which is not where any of the flat sections of the Curv-E pen are. I hope I'm making sense here let me know your thoughts on this.

Regards,

Edward

I definitely see your point, re. the pressure of the grip. I looks pretty deathy ( ) in that clip. I do believe I hold it a bit more loose usually, but this oblique is very light and sort of slippery. Do you have some resources for learning grip, as I'm very open to learning and correcting  - it'll only add to the fun
Thanks!

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Tools & Supplies / Re: Curv-E Holder - New Oblique Pen Holder

« on: March 04, 2018, 06:10:06 PM »

Hi Vlatorn,

It's something I'm looking into at the moment, lefty's using right-handed pens throws up a few problems. Firstly the flange will hamper the middle finger from extending towards the top of the pen, and secondly the index finger is parallel with the flange as apposed to meeting it at an angle. These are not huge problems but the design will need tweaking to get it right!

Do you use a tripod grip using the right-handed pen?

Edward

Hi Edward
I do not use a tripod grip. I have a somewhat dark video on my Instagram where you can see my grip. I’d be happy to do some better videos for you to see how I’m gripping if that could be interesting?

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Tools & Supplies / Re: Curv-E Holder - New Oblique Pen Holder

« on: March 02, 2018, 06:38:21 AM »

Hi All,

Lots of interest in the new (old) penholders. Looking forward to the new book from Erica!

If anyone has any questions about the new pen holders please don't hesitate to ask me or Erica.

Below is a little info on how the pen came about....more in the book I'm sure...I'm sure Erica can add to this too if I've left anything out!

When Erica got in contact about the pen design I was a bit sceptical as I had tried the ergonomic pen holders before and they didn't feel right to me ( I know there are lots of people who love them and swear by them! ), but for me I like the simple round pens. As I learned more about the shape from Erica I began to think there may be something in it, after all the great Madarasz flattened the top of his holders. It was a bit of a trial and error when it came to the over all design, we didn't want a straight triangular shape and we didn't want the intricacies of an ergonomic holder, we really wanted it to be as close as we could get it to what we were used to. The only thing which was 100% nonnegotiable was the triangular element. After many attempts I managed to get a holder which had the elements of both a standard ( for the want of a better word ) and the Ransomerian. On using the pen it felt a little strange at first, but once I got used to it I found it incredibly comfortable to hold. The flat area on top of the pen feels fantastic when executing shades and the pen sits in the hand at exactly the same position every time. When it comes to pen designs everyone has there preferences, thick, thin, short, long, heavy or light, we are just delighted to be able to give penmen one more choice in their search for the perfect pen. I'll be making a few simple Curv-E holders in the near future so if anyone wants to try one just get in contact, let me know your budget and we see if we can get one made for you. Hope this helps clarify the pens a little more and again like I said if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Regards,

Edward

Wauw @Erica McPhee and @Edward super interesting!! I’m a lefty and using a right oblique, I’d love to see how this penholder would fit when holding left handed. I find that I fiddle a bit getting the right hold with my current holder, and your ideas are very appealing.
Lemme know if you need a lefty tester - I’d love to help out

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Completed/Past Exchanges / Re: Archiving Your Exchanges

« on: February 11, 2018, 01:42:22 PM »

I just took some photos of how I archive my envelopes. I can never figure out how to post photos on the forum - so you may view them here:

https://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/2018/02/envelope-storage-archive.html

Thank you so much Jean! Wonderful to see how you organize and some of your collection! I think I could sit there for days just looking at letters!

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Kind Critique / Re: Need help with Engrosser's Majuscules

« on: February 09, 2018, 08:12:09 AM »

@neriah
Sometimes I also know a letter or word is not formed correctly, but am unsure of just why without careful study, not having the keenness of eye of a master of the form like Ken Fraser or a teacher looking over my shoulder to correct me as I practise, so here is the method I use to more quickly approximate a well formed letter.

1. Select from your exemplar that which you wish to practise and affix it to the appropriately sized guide sheet.
2. Lay a blank piece of paper over your guidesheet with exemplar.
3. Noting where in your exemplar where the stokes begin, end, and intersect the guidelines, make your first attempt next to it (as example, I'm making an especially poor first attempt).
4. Move your top sheet such that the letter you just drew is directly over the exemplar and it becomes obvious what is wrong with your letter (in this example, a lot of things are wrong).
5. At this point, I pick one thing that is off, and in my second attempt, try to improve just that element. Trying to improve everything at once when there are many things off seems to lead me down a winding path that something is always off (in this example, I work on the initial downstroke--shape and width are really off).
6. Compare your second attempt to the exemplar by moving it over the exemplar as you did the first attempt.
7. If it is a good reproduction of the element you're working on, move on to the next element that is off (say, in this example, the left loop--too narrow, wrong slant). Continue working through each element that differs from the exemplar until you have corrected them all (the last picture is not the final attempt, but I can only post 6 photos at a time. The process continues until all the faults in the last picture are corrected).
You don't have to move every attempt over the exemplar if you know what your working on is not right and know how to change it. When you think you've got it, then check your attempt versus the exemplar.
I sometimes begin this exercise by tracing the exemplar to begin the muscle memory process in forming the letter correctly.
This whole process may sound tedious, but it actually goes quite quickly, and is certainly faster (for me) than endlessly forming the letter incorrectly until  I eventually correct all the errors at one go.
This process can also be used for entire words and sentences, which allows for corrections in spacing, uniformity of shading, and other aspects not germain to writing a single letter.

I love this method! This mankes SO much sense to me. Thank you!

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Completed/Past Exchanges / Re: Archiving Your Exchanges

« on: February 09, 2018, 08:06:48 AM »

This is such a great idea.
I'm a very visual person, so could one of you experienced scrapbookers perhaps show some pictures of how you've organized your exchanges?

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Completed/Past Exchanges / Re: Holiday Exchange 2017 Lists have been sent!

« on: January 28, 2018, 03:39:40 PM »

Hi All,
I’m the Sami who sent out the mail everyone was receiving. It was my first exchange so I Didn’t notice until too late that I should have documented better that it was for the flourish forum. And I did receive some mail which were all so beautiful so I didn’t mind not getting the others. Just figured it was something on my part. But thanks Erica for figuring it out. Looking forward to the next exchange!

Sami

I would love to send you some happy mail in exchange for yours - I just need an address and I’ll send you some flourishes Sami - I know @AnasaziWrites would love to too

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Completed/Past Exchanges / Re: Holi Heart 2018 Exchange Sign Ups are Now Open!

« on: January 25, 2018, 07:48:53 AM »

Definitely in! And get to learn about Holi Hearts! Whats not to love