Topics

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Your favorite fun recent addition to the calligraphy world

« on: October 23, 2019, 03:55:48 PM »

I haven't picked up a pen in a long long time (like my last instagram post that used a pointed pen was over a year ago!) But after some house remodeling, selling and buying I am finally getting my supplies out and ready to use again  A lot of my ink is dried up which obviously means I need to do some shopping. Or mix up some gouache but shopping sounds like more fun!

So while I'm picking up the basics, what have I missed in the last year? Just for fun, what is your favorite relatively recent, fun and maybe even frivolous find that I can check out?

Jennifer

PS I can't wait to start getting pretty mail at the new address

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / first time being asked to write something for someone else

« on: November 27, 2015, 01:35:08 AM »

I have been practicing copperplate for about four months now and was recently asked to try to write something out for a friend of mine. I said sure because it gives me a reason to stretch my abilities and try new things, but in the end she decided that it was too "sophisticated" looking for what she was thinking. I was fine with that. I had fun playing around with it and everyone has their own opinions. But that got me thinking about the future and if/when I do get more chances to write things out for other people.

Would it be a good idea to pick up a less formal hand for situations like this? I know that I see those of you doing wedding calligraphy often have a few scripts for people to choose from. At what point did you start expanding your options for people?

This same friend also mentioned the possibility of getting something written bigger, just in passing, not asking me to actually do it. So how do you learn to handletter larger signs or whatever, and make it look good? I gave it a try with just a pencil and some paint on paper, and while it looked okay in pencil it was awful painted, haha! It quickly went in the trash before anyone could see it. Is this a good skill to have? Is it something I want to learn? And if so, how can I learn?

I am tossing all these questions around in my head and thought I would ask you for your experiences. While I love practicing for myself and I love copperplate, I would also like to be able to create beautiful things for other people if they ask me about it, too. I know that these are questions that I have to answer for myself but I wondered if anyone else has had similar thoughts, and what you ended up doing about it?

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Find a Pen Pal / holiday recipe exchange

« on: November 22, 2015, 12:17:46 AM »

I know we are all busy with the holiday exchange and our own family holiday cards, but I was just thinking that a holiday recipe exchange could be fun. Calligraphy on the envelope, recipe handwritten however you want, even the dreaded ball point pen if you want!  I am mostly just throwing this out there to see of there is even an interest since it is such a busy time of year, then I can figure out where to go from there.  Any thoughts?

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Monoline nibs

« on: November 14, 2015, 11:23:36 PM »

My mom recently gave me a box of random things that were being thrown out of storage at her school district. There were a bunch of different monoline nibs that have been so interesting to try out! The speedball B-0 is something else, it is huge! The fine point nibs are really easy to write with, since they have a little bowl shaped tip. They just glide over the paper. My kids have taken them over and are writing on everything! I had to share a picture since the nibs look so different than anything I had seen so far!

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Show & Tell / A birthday gift for a friend

« on: October 17, 2015, 01:33:25 AM »

I tried something new to me to give as a birthday gift. This was really my first time trying to plan out how things would fit on a page, and it even kind of went as I thought it would, lol! If I sit and stare at it, all I see are areas of improvement; if I just glance at it as I walk by I think it is really pretty!  Anyway, I know I have a long way to go but I wanted to share with you all!

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Tools & Supplies / different sumi inks

« on: October 09, 2015, 11:58:23 AM »

I was just wondering what the difference is between the different sumi inks. I know so many people use moon palace, others use something else, and then there are a lot of others available too. What are the major differences between them and what makes your favorite, your favorite?

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Charles Dickens' signature

« on: September 09, 2015, 03:14:03 PM »

I randomly wondered how Charles Dickens signed his name and decided to Google it. I found this page that was really interesting to look over! I thought I would share it in case anyone else would like to see it, too! http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10020/10020-h/s37s10.html

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Show & Tell / name that book Aug 31

« on: August 31, 2015, 01:28:53 PM »

Here is the first sentence that I wrote for this week. This was the first one that my husband was able to figure out!  I haven't even read this book, I've just seen the movie and listened to bits and pieces when my kids listen to the audiobooks. I really can't believe it was first published in 1998. Time flies! (and let's just pretend that that last m isn't doing whatever it is that it is doing)

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Copperplate, Engrosser's Script, Roundhand Calligraphy / bottoms and tops

« on: August 28, 2015, 01:09:40 PM »

Is there a difference in the ability of squaring tops and bottoms with different nibs? When I practice with the Leonardt Principal EF I can get some good squared off tops, but when I use the Nikko G they always look somewhat rounded. Every once in a while I get a decently squared off bottom so at least I know those are possible, but the tops are driving me crazy! I am still very much a beginner and would like to know what I should be expected to be able to achieve. And if perfectly squared off tops are possible with a Nikko G, do you have any tips to get them that way? I know that I can always go back and retouch but I would like to be able to do well without retouching at times, too!

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Show & Tell / Name that book- Week 2

« on: August 24, 2015, 12:49:25 PM »

I added a new quote for this week on instagram! This time I went with a classic children's book. I need to work on my spacing for these sentences, I really don't like the huge space between the first two words or the strange spacing to keep my ascenders and descenders from hitting each other. I do like how putting up these sentences is helping me to see places to work on, though!

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Show & Tell / name that book- new quote added!

« on: August 17, 2015, 06:44:18 PM »

I just posted a self imposed calligraphy challenge over on instagram. I'm going to try to write the first lines from books once a week, just for fun  If anyone wants to guess, I would love it! This first one is from a movie that my kids have watched over and over this summer!

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Word of the Day / hobbledehoy

« on: August 16, 2015, 08:44:45 PM »

I was looking through my book quotes trying to pick out something for the exchange and I saw a couple fun words that I had written down, as well. I thought they would be good word of the day/week/whatever words 

Here is the one I picked for today:

hobbledehoy
(noun) an awkward gawky youth

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Kind Critique / first critique

« on: July 30, 2015, 12:17:17 AM »

Okay, I have been practicing for about a month now, using The Zanerian Manuel of Alphabets and Engrossing, and am ready to ask for some critique. I know what doesn't look right to me, things like inconsistent shading and spacing, etc..., but I don't have any easy access for someone to look at my work in person. So if you were sitting with me and offering advice, what are your top two or three things you would suggest to work on during practice? I have a lot more than just two or three things to work on but I really don't want to be totally overwhelmed by a huge list of things Baby steps! Thanks so much for any kind critiques!  I was using some Shakespeare for practice today.

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Old family penmanship

« on: July 19, 2015, 12:50:52 AM »

I was recently going through old posts looking for beginners tips when I ran across a post that had photos of writings from their family. That got me thinking that I have a lot of documents from my family, but I have never looked through them with the eye for their particular writing styles. So today I got them out!

I love the tiny envelopes that were used very early on. I wonder when we started to use larger ones? The penmanship that this lady had is so dainty and cute, and very uniform throughout her four pages writing to her sister. From 1864, a lot of her dialogue is focused on the civil war.




From around 1787-1789, this man wrote one line recaps of his days. Over time he starts to play more with his letters and shadings. His use of capitol letters is interesting, he scatters them through his sentences!



Some names. O B Pickett and Mrs. D Burch. I think the first signature was earlier than the second. The second should be from the last couple decades of the 1800's.




Finally a poem from a notebook full of this type of writing. Unfortunately there is no name or date associated with it. It seems to be full of poems and stories. I have no idea if they were original or copied from somewhere else.



I have had fun looking through all this history today! I hope that someone else enjoys these samples as well! And if anyone has anything similar around, I would love to see it!

Jennifer

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Aaargh! Tell me there's a club for this.

« on: July 13, 2015, 06:44:04 PM »

I just spilled most of a full bottle of ink on the book I am learning from and my table.  Ooops! I'm not quite sure what happened, but how frustrating! I am telling myself that I can still read the book fine; no pages are totally ruined. Is this some kind of calligraphy club initiation? And now I am off to order more ink...

Jennifer