Messages

46

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Calligraphy bar brawls

« on: July 18, 2017, 09:02:42 AM »

@Scarlet Blue I think I remember you saying once that uncial reminded you of pubs and hobbits.  Neither of which seemed like bad things so I found it a little confusing.  But, now that you've compared it to comic sans, I get what you're saying.   

In the US, it's pretty specific to bars with names like "O'Malley's" or" O'Shea's" or "Dublin"--bars that want to play up their Irish roots.  Also in heavy use around St. Patrick's Day.  In the Boston area (heavy on the Irish immigrants), there are quite a few bars of that ilk.

47

Broad Edge Pen Calligraphy / Re: Italic with a Manuscript nib

« on: July 18, 2017, 08:53:41 AM »

I think I need to print this one out...and hand it to my husband 

48

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Artificial Intelligence Quote Generator

« on: July 18, 2017, 08:52:12 AM »

I love it!  Although the first one it gave me was, "There is no point in not being depressing," which seemed a little emo for first thing in the morning.  But then I got, "Believe you are who you always wanted to be," and that seemed like a great thought for the day.

49

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Compendium of Lettering Styles

« on: July 18, 2017, 08:44:17 AM »

ITAIAN HAND 18th century

This is one that I have tried out a little bit but I'm not so fond of the filled in circles on the ends of some of the capitals.  But, when I try leaving them off, the letter looks unfinished somehow, like that end is just sort of dangling in space.  I haven't figured out a satisfactory solution to that, so I have put this script far down on my list of ones to master in my lifetime (it's a long list, I'm not sure I'll ever finish it).

50

Coffee & Nib-bles / Yoga

« on: July 17, 2017, 11:09:42 AM »

Dear Beginner Yoga video,

You and I have different definitions of "beginner".

Sincerely,

A Very Inflexible Calligrapher

51

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Is this shorthand?

« on: July 17, 2017, 11:06:51 AM »

It looks like maybe Pitman's shorthand?  My guess is that it's a shorthand translation underneath the longhand sentences.

52

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: A folly of early US steel pen history

« on: July 17, 2017, 10:57:40 AM »

How his daughter Minnie was saved from a runaway horse by a dashing young French dentist attending further school there in Philadelphia. After the rescue he slipped off into the crowd, but later the same day they happened to meet at a social event, and how later they came to marry and move to France.

This sounds like the plot to an historical romance novel.   

Actually, it all sounds like a bit of a soap opera with families and businesses intertwined and now I kinda want HBO (or maybe Netflix) to make a series out of it because it sounds fascinating.  Thank you for sharing and I would love to read more about it all if you feel like sharing.

53

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Calligraphy bar brawls

« on: July 17, 2017, 10:49:49 AM »

In my drinking days I would have run around the bar shouting obscenities about Uncial 

Admit it, you didn't come to the bar with us because you were afraid the menu would be in uncial.
 

54

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Compendium of Lettering Styles

« on: July 17, 2017, 10:46:13 AM »

VERE FOSTER CIVIL SERVICE SCRIPT

This simple handwriting style is the script I was taught in the UK in the 1940s. It's written with a flexible nib in a straight penholder, either upright or at a slight slope (as here). It derives from Copperplate (English Roundhand) and the slight shading is the natural result of the flexibility of the nib. There are no pen lifts within words.

Bless you, @Ken Fraser, this is exactly what I've been looking for.  I've been wanting something that is a close enough approximation to my current, informal handwriting (which tends to be upright) that will feel natural as I try to learn it in order to use for letter writing on regular lined paper without slant guidelines.  And I don't want to have to fool around with pen lifts.  I would love to see a quote written in this style if you ever have some time and feel so inclined.

55

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Calligraphy bar brawls

« on: July 17, 2017, 10:34:52 AM »

You lend your Nib to a friend and he been lazy to get up and clean, puts it in his mouth for a good 2 minutes relishing it. And you don't like that a bit...

Ewwww, I hope that's a new nib and not an inky one.  I think there might be some stuff in some inks that are toxic.

56

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Calligraphy bar brawls

« on: July 17, 2017, 12:33:26 AM »

I'm so thankful I gave up drinking anything stronger than tea.

So you're the one who gets called at 3AM to bail everyone out after the police show up and haul the whole lot of us to the drunk tank?

57

Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / Re: Write Cursive With Schin

« on: July 16, 2017, 11:44:04 AM »

"Cursive" is the generalized term that is used in American elementary schools to call whatever style of joined up writing they teach to students.  As such, an American would usually assume it to mean something that looks like "American Cursive" as written by Michael Sull or D'Nealian or some combination of the two since, as far as I can tell, that is what was usually taught.  Unless they went to Catholic school (especially if they are 50 years old or older), which often taught the Palmer method or some very close approximation thereof (so much so, that any American producing such writing might reasonably be supposed to have gone to Catholic school since Catholic schools also often placed a premium on good penmanship and used a ruler to the back of the hand as incentive to write better back in the day, despite the contrariness of expecting someone to write better after you had just injured their hand).  In Iowa public schools in the 1980s, it was usually taught in second or third grade and you were expected to write everything "in cursive" (whatever style you were taught) thereafter.  Generally, you weren't graded on your penmanship past elementary school, but you were still expected to write all assignments in some sort of joined-up cursive script until high school when they didn't care what you did as long as they could read it (typed papers were not the norm since they didn't expect you to have a typewriter at home and not many people had computers or word processors at home either).

Incidentally, I never heard the term "joined-up writing" until I read Harry Potter when I was in my late 20s which led me to believe that it was a British term. 

58

Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / Re: A very nice doctors bill from 1832

« on: July 16, 2017, 11:22:52 AM »

It looks as though Alice provided both the signature and the date at the top which is an interesting way to sign and date something.  Maybe that was typical of the time rather than writing the date next to the signature as we do these days.  Also interesting that there is no title in front of Alice, since I would expect a married woman's signature to be Mrs. So-and-so (assuming she was the wife of the late Mr. (not Dr.?) Halkyard.

Also, agree on the ugliness of the capital M which I actually thought was a D at first.

59

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Exemplars

« on: July 16, 2017, 11:08:22 AM »

Excellent idea @Ken Fraser !  Maybe you could put a link to the new topic in the intro to the old one and afterward @Erica McPhee could close this one so that no further replies could be made.

I have referred to your exemplars many times in the past.  They are easy to use as references because they are so clean and clearly labeled and can be printed out and studied.  I like that there are no guidelines or arrows on them so that I can see the letterforms without distraction.   

60

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Calligraphy bar brawls

« on: July 16, 2017, 10:58:20 AM »

@bleair I'm glad I'm not the only one who missed it!