Nibs and Pens

As I got more involved in, and practiced at Calligraphy I started looking at various writing instruments, from steel brushes, pens and various other specialist nibs. I don’t have some of those items anymore, I can think of one or two that would be of particular interest to some of you calligraphers. For example I once had a nib that was used for ruling ledger-lines for musical score. It was in effect 5 tiny nibs in one. I did some really cool and unique lettering with that nib.

Another unique nib was basically a steel brush used for poster-work. It was essentially layers of very thin steel plates arranged in a spade-like shape. It worked satisfactorily however it was very limited as regards ink retention necessitating constant dipping and thus increasing the risk of something going wrong, needless to say it was not my favorite nib. I did however find a very satisfactory and cheap way of doing poster-sized calligraphy in any size utilizing paper-clamps of varying sizes, Balsa wood and felt. Will be dealt with in a later post when I will discuss poster-work and what I still like to refer to as “Commercial Art”.

However the writing instrument that gave me the most pleasure and personally for me was a complete paradigm shift as regards calligraphy was the quill.

Quill tempering, cutting and shaping is a skill on its own. It most definitely is not just dipping a feather into ink and scrawling. Even writing with a quill takes time, patience and a lot of practice.

Quills even differ from one another due to such factors tempering, shaft-wall thickness and feather type.

However once the quill is mastered you will be blown away by the delicate responsiveness of it.

You have not done calligraphy until you’ve written with a quill.

Details on Quill making will follow in the near future.

I would like to share with you an in-expensive way of doing a rough-draught when designing and planning a commission. It involves a humble “carpenters’ pencil”.

You can shape the lead to any reduced thickness that you need, and what is more can be very easily adapted for left-handers by shaping the lead to suit.

Preferably try and buy pencils with oval shaped bodies as opposed to the beveled oblong shapes, as they are easier to manipulate.

How a Pen changed the course of my life.

Twenty seven years ago I was convalescing at home after being discharged from hospital following a rather serious accident, and I was bored.

I happened to rummage through a chest of drawers containing various items of interest when I happened on my sister’s “beginners’” calligraphy set, including a small Calligraphy instruction booklet

I started doodling on some paper and soon mastered a basic cursive calligraphy script and after a while I had filled that page with what at first resembled something akin to the trail of a drunken spider that had fallen into an ink-well.

I practiced every day after that, and soon mastered the calligraphy alphabet to a more legible and satisfactory degree.

Well I have always loved Calligraphy from the very first day, and eventually it led to greater things, namely a Commercial art (before the computer age) and Signwriting business.

After a hiatus of a few years I have however returned to what I loved most, Calligraphy.

Basically all lettering can be classified as Calligraphy, you see it simply means “Kalli”-beautiful “graphy”-writing (Greek). Thus even serif as well as sans-serif typefaces if, they are arranged with care and especially if they are embellished either as a letter or with the use of external decorative motives such as borders and artwork can be categorized as calligraphy.

Technically most of modern day signage is calligraphy due to the fact that it is the power of the lettering that draws attention to the message being delivered, and because it is very few, in most cases only a maximum of four words being used, each one of those letters has to be tastefully arranged and embellished to fulfill a specific task.

This in turn has prompted many traditional sign-writers and lettermen to design and use their own personal fonts which in turn resulted in some very cool letters being developed and used.

In fact it was possible to identify the sign-writers in parts of Britain simply by the fonts being used as well as how they were embellished, arranged and decorated with different design elements.

I will discuss how Calligraphy influenced signwriting and vice-a-versa in later posts,  it is a very interesting field if you love the creative side of lettering.

But back to the subject at hand , I soon progressed to other books which I will be referring to  often. My all-time favorites are two speedball textbooks that I got from a friend years ago.

In the next post I will be showing you my pens and nibs as well as an in-expensive way of doing rough draughts, or thumbnails, that I would employ when I plan a commission or a design without needlessly wasting ink or paper.