Calligraphy: Getting Started

People who have been reading this blog since it started, will know that I'm quite a fan of calligraphy! I used to be very into it and then slowly lost interest a little bit. That was a shame because I think if I'd kept on going, I would be much better at it. Right now I feel like a complete beginner. I feel like pointed pen calligraphy is a whole different ball park. You can't just dive straight in and be perfect at it.

For my birthday, I got the loveliest calligraphy set and Modern Calligraphy book so the spark I had for calligraphy got reignited. I've been following some very lovely people on Instagram that have been spurring me on and I'm finally going to do it!

Ugh! It's so fancy! I love it so much. It feels so special just taking it out of the box.

First things first, you have to get the oil off the brand new nibs. When they're manufactured, they're coated with an oil to prevent them from rusting and to make them shiny! It looks pretty, but it's no good for getting ink onto your nib. So, you've got to wash the nib or put it through a flame. I had a set of nibs a few months ago and for one of the nibs, I tried both of those things and it didn't work. So this time, I tried another method that used to gross me out a bit before....putting it into your mouth and using saliva to get the oil off. Quite a lot of people said it was the most effective and I possibly have to agree with them.

The two above pictures show the most progress I've ever had with a dip pen. There's still a lot of work to do, but the nibs are working more in my favour and I managed to do some pen strokes without the tines just splitting and not taking the ink. In the picture below, you can see one of my old nibs that I've had a constant battle with. No matter what method I use to break it in, it won't work. It doesn't hold the ink and if it does, it just blots. I'm giving up with it and just concentrating on using my other nibs.

I've joined The Flourish Forum which provides such amazing help for starting calligraphy. I know that will all the help they give me, I'll be well on my way to becoming a better calligrapher. First things first, I need to set up my printer so I can print off worksheets!

Leonardt Dip Pens and Copperplate Nibs

I have fiiinally bought a dip pen. I got the Copperplate nibs with it, because they're the kind of calligraphy I haven't tried yet, apart from dabbling about with my Noodlers Creaper Flex Fountain Pen. I initially read that to get a variegated line with a fountain pen, you need either a fountain pen with a flex nib (hard to come by, either expensive or not a flex nib) or some dip pens because they are soft and able to flex.

When I saw these, I fell in love with them! I have been an active part of the calligraphy community on tumblr, following some great people. I've learnt a lot from them and we all seem to be having our own trials and tests and seeing what works and what doesn't. I discovered that calligraphy I want to do is Blackletter, which I still need to practice and also Copperplate which is just fancy and really nice, and also easier to do than any of the others. I just like the way it looks! So to achieve a true Copperplate, a dip pen and Copperplate nibs were needed.

Now, when I unpackaged them, I just loved it. It all felt special. The tin is so handy, so you don't lose your nibs and it's also pretty. I got out my ink and put a nib into the pen and set down to write. Little did I know, it would not work. The ink didn't flow from the nib and it was hard to do even one stroke with a full ink flow.

So I set about researching how to use dip pens properly, I thought I must be doing something wrong. I found out that dip pen nibs come coated in a laquer or oil to prevent rusting from the time it's made. There were also several different methods of getting the coating off from the nib. I tried the ones that appeared to be less risky to me. I first tried brushing it with toothpaste and rinsing and drying it. That worked a little bit, there was definitely and increase in ink flow, with the standard Copperplate nibs. I was still having trouble with the Shorthand one, so I tried the riskier method of passing it through a flame. When I tried writing again, there was a definite improvement. 

It's still not 100%, and these nibs will take some getting used to. 

 I think I was too gentle with the flaming because I was worried it would make my nib too soft. So I will attempt it again, but maybe keep it there a little bit longer. The ink still struggles to flow freely. I also saw a method of immersing them in boiling water and then in cold water, a few times, but I am yet to try this method. If this second flaming doesn't work, I'll try that.