Setting a goal and diving in

Shout out to Kendall, one of my followers who suggested I set a calligraphy goal to complete by April. As much as I would like a ridiculously elegant & organized spice rack (who wouldn’t?), I think that’s overly ambitious, as I don’t even have a spice rack yet so:

My plan is to make “Care Share” notes for my kids in calligraphy (you know those little notes Mom secretly puts on your pillow or in your lunchbox so you feel more loved than any other creature on earth at that moment?) If I get really good then maybe I’ll even add an inspirational quote or a deep thought.

Check out this Deep thought.

Tee Hee, I bet Roz would love that.

So I will be using cartridge pens for my learning so it’s really easy to get started:

First choose the fine tip, medium, or thick nib pen then choose your ink colour. Insert ink cartridge into pen as shown below and push until you feel and hear a solid click.

You are almost ready to go!!

But First…Brand new nibs require “prepping” as they come with a protective lacquer on them which needs removal and there are 3 ways you can do this:

1. wash with mild dish soap, then rinse in warm water and dry.
2. Wipe nib with some toothpaste straight from tube (why do they say this? where else you gonna get it???? what???) then wash off and dry
3. run nib back and forth through a naked flame for a couple of seconds.

So obviously I choose the most fun method. FIRE!

How to hold the pen. Not in a death grip and R..E..L..A..X.. Hold it fairly low down so you have good control and stability. There were no other instructions for this part and since I was getting poor results at this point I headed off to you tube.

I will next be practicing the pressure and release rule and a few basic strokes. The pressure and release rule is:

Every time you make a downward stroke, apply some pressure which allows the nibs to open allowing more ink to be released which causes a thicker stroke.

When you make an upward stroke, release the pressure and the nib closes which makes a thinner line.

Other tips to consider:

1. The tip of the nib should point in the direction of your slant line (see image below)
2. Aim to use the whole of the tip of the nib (not rotated)
3. if you are right-handed rotate the page to the left and vice versa if you are left-handed.
4. Proceed slowly. Think of it as art rather than fast writing.

I will practice 4 of the 8 basic strokes today:

1. Downward Stroke
2. Hairline Stroke
3. Pressure and Release Stroke
4. The oval

This is a heck of a lot more difficult than I imagined. That spice rack labelling may be in the distant future folks. Lol.

Until next time; I will keep practicing…