Messages

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2020 Exchanges / Re: Holiday Hellos 2019

« on: January 11, 2020, 02:11:05 AM »

It’s been discovered - after having major delivery issues with my holiday cards this year - many of my re-sends still have not arrived to their destination. I hate my local post office at Christmas time
 On top of that I attempted red envelopes which apparently is hard for the reader to scan. So, I tried again on silver. Well. Here we sit.

If you were on list 3, I will get a new envelope out to all of you just in case they have not made it to you either. I’m sorry if it never arrived. 

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: PIA Catalog cover

« on: January 14, 2016, 11:55:23 PM »

I swooned more than ever upon receiving my catalogue in the mail. I still swoon at my Schin poster! 

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Do you send back your dud nibs or just throw them out?

« on: January 14, 2016, 11:52:25 PM »

I had a few duds with my favorite Leonardt G nib - and tried a few and just couldn't handle. I contacted John Neal (from where I ordered) and they were super accommodating and helpful getting new ones to me once I sent back the duds. They're great guys there!

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Completed/Past Exchanges / Re: Five Things About Me Exchange!

« on: July 26, 2015, 01:28:07 PM »

List 6- soooooo. I either sent mine out a few days ago, or I misplaced to them when setting them aside to send out. I feel like such an idiot. I have searched high and low for them but I don't quite remember sending them. Who knows. I'll keep you updated in the next day or two if I find them, and if you receive it, can you let me know?

Man, I really sound like an idiot. Lol.

I'm learning now that I DID mail mine out. Sorry for the ding-bat melt down of mine. I'm loving all the ones I'm receiving!

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Completed/Past Exchanges / Re: Five Things About Me Exchange!

« on: July 22, 2015, 12:48:32 AM »

List 6- soooooo. I either sent mine out a few days ago, or I misplaced to them when setting them aside to send out. I feel like such an idiot. I have searched high and low for them but I don't quite remember sending them. Who knows. I'll keep you updated in the next day or two if I find them, and if you receive it, can you let me know?

Man, I really sound like an idiot. Lol.

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Acrylic paint for ink?

« on: April 20, 2015, 05:04:13 PM »

I've tried a few craft paints with varying levels of disaster. The biggest problem was that I could never get clean transitions out of them, but then I have that problem with most acrylic inks as well. Bear in mind these were cheapo craft paints and not artist quality. I've just been reluctant to invest more into these experiments given my other failures, but I'm glad you asked because I really would like to have better water resistant options for envelope jobs.

I know Joi has been testing Jacquard Lumiere and Neopaque acrylic fabric paints for use as ink and recommends them (at least the Lumiere). Maybe she will chime in here with some more information about how those tests panned out.

There are many posts elsewhere in the forum about this particular topic, so it's worthwhile to snoop around for hints.

My (limited) experience with acrylic paint as ink is very simple:  just add water.  I started trying this following the nice web site The Postman's Knock.   I use a Nikko G nib.   Not all nibs will cooperate with acrylic paint.

I currently use cheap student grade acrylic paint and I agree with Elsa (and others) that higher grade paints will work better.  Something to do with the pigments and the binding medium used it seems. 

Advantages:  easy to prepare, easy to mix colors, waterproof once dry, works well for larger letters (envelopes and so on), not potentially messy like sumi ink.

Disadvantages:  definitely not ideal for small sizes or precise copperplate work (can't get nice hairlines), flat and uniform finish (compared to watercolor and gouache which - to my taste - are much more attractive).

Good luck and let us know how that turns out!

Thank you guys for your input!

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Acrylic paint for ink?

« on: April 19, 2015, 10:24:22 PM »

Does anyone have any experience using acrylic paints for ink recipes? Yay? Nay? What is a good recipe to try if any?

Thanks in advance!

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / I'm demonstrating at NAEA with Sakura!

« on: March 26, 2015, 10:18:46 PM »

Hey guys!

I am currently in New Orleans demonstrating Sakura of America products at the National Art Education Association, in the New Orleans Convention center. If any of you are attending, or in the New Orleans area, let me know! I'm here till Saturday. I'll post pictures once I take more. It was a busy first day and so much fun. Everyone would be in heaven! Pens, markers, paint galore!

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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: What do you collect?

« on: March 23, 2015, 12:55:18 AM »

I didn't realize, till packing up my office to move, that I unintentionally have been collecting empty ink bottles. Now, I want to do something with them as I have with all my old used and damaged nibs that I've framed - I'm weird, I know!

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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: How old are you?

« on: March 23, 2015, 12:54:01 AM »

28. and if my body hurts this bad now, I dread aging. But I'll never age mentally as long as I can control it. 

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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: I need the BEST/POSITIVE reference for a tattoo

« on: February 22, 2015, 06:27:16 PM »

I second Stefanie's response. I studied a bit of ancient Greek in college, though I am certainly no expert. The various word forms you are seeing are different variations of the word stem Kallos (which is pronounces as it looks). I'd go with the full greek letter forms as well. I LOVE the look of tattoos in other languages! So cool. Do share a pic after you've been inked

Thank you so much! I'm hoping to get it here in the next week. Once I do, I'll post a picture!

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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: I need the BEST/POSITIVE reference for a tattoo

« on: February 22, 2015, 06:26:30 PM »

I learned some Old Greek in school and cross-checked with a German-Greek online dictionary: 'kállos' is the noun = 'beauty', 'kalós' is 'beautiful', 'kalli'- is used in composed words like 'kalligraphía' (kállos + gráphein, writing) = calligraphy.

So the Greek word you posted means exactly 'beauty', and it's pronounced like it's written (except that the a sounds like an english u in 'but'), with the emphasis on the first syllable, so for English speakers: kullos.

Hope that helps.

Thank you sooooooo much! I've done so much research since posting this, and just about everything that I am looking at says the same thing. So I think I'm safe. :-) I appreciate it so so much!

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Coffee & Nib-bles / Re: I need the BEST/POSITIVE reference for a tattoo

« on: February 20, 2015, 12:43:27 AM »

Hey Heather - You may want to reach out to Molly Suber Thorpe - I follow her on IG and she has been working in greek calligraphy for a while now.  I'm guessing she will know a lot about this word and may be able to give you some good input.  You can search #moderngreekcalligraphy if you want to see some of her work. 

And my vote is for the Greek Alphabet too.

Thank you so much! I wish I understood the language better to be able to calligraph in greek - It's so pretty! Molly is amazing!

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: Your Instagrams

« on: February 19, 2015, 12:55:42 AM »

I'm ADDICTED to Insta! I try to follow all calligraphers back!

http://instagram.com/marcardincalligraphy

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Open Flourish | General Discussion / Re: You know you're a calligrapher when...

« on: February 19, 2015, 12:50:29 AM »

You know you're a calligrapher when...

- You'd rather calligraph than sleep

- You don't sleep

- You buy extra of any supply "just in case" - in which never really comes around because you're so stocked

- You look judge someone's signature, especially when it's just a quick squiggle - no real letter form anywhere

- You collect empty ink jars "just in case" or to "do something with later"

- You never leave your desk. Either writing, or something computer+calligraphy related

- Your friends and family know to not touch anything but they know "no food or drinks around the envelopes"

and.... I might be the only one to save all my old, gross, used, worn down, beaten up, broken nibs. Another case of "do something with later"