The Death of the Letter?

(courtesy of Jenny Mackness. CC licensed)

Controversy in the British Press today as Royal Mail announce a 30% increase in stamp prices . A first class stamp is going to rise from 46p to 60p, and second class will go from 36p to 50p; I remember a time when a first class stamp was 27p, and it wasn't that long ago (10 years to be exact).

If the comments on the BBC article are anything to go by, reactions to this news have been mixed to say the least. Many are proclaiming the death of the handwritten letter (I suspect these to be the same people who believe that ebooks spell the demise of the printing press and real books along with it); some think that the elderly will suffer most and it is our social duty to teach them all how to use email; some believe that something ought to be done, but not this (strangely lacking in other bright ideas as to how to tackle the issue though - funny that); and there are a few brave souls who have put their hands up to say they think it's a good idea, and that 60p is a small price to pay for "a physical item, collected within a short walk from your house, transported to the other end of the country and put through a specific door, all within 24-48 hours" - foolhardy behaviour indeed in a BBC comments section where such reasonable and well expressed opinions are not much appreciated by the anonymous lurking populous.

What has all this got to do with Calligraphy I hear you cry? Regular readers of this blog will know that I am member of two envelope exchange groups through the CLAS Copperplate Special Interest Group.They run on a 6 monthly cycle and you work your way through your list of names and addresses sending an envelope you have designed and written to a different person each month - if everything works smoothly then by the end of the cycle each group member has received an envelope from each of the other members.

(courtesy of whistlepunch. CC licensed)

What with one thing and another I had got a little bit behind with my envelopes recently, and yesterday I made my way to the Post Office with 4 envelopes in hand ready to go off to various locations around the world. I can't remember the exact cost, but in total it came to about £1.30 - one of the envelopes was going to Ireland, one to Australia, and two were staying in this country (all first class). In my opinion that is a bargain. Will the price rise put me off from continuing with the envelope exchange? No. Would I be happy to pay a bit more for this service to continue? Yes, most definitely. Each month I receive beautifully written and designed envelopes (the most recent of which also included an exquisite hand illustrated moth on the front) from all over the world; for 60p you can keep them coming!

Whilst reading the various reactions to this story a few things have come to my attention that piqued me into writing this post in the first place:

• The repeated assertion that such an enormous and unjustified price rise will drive people ever further towards 'free' types of communication such as email. Err, excuse me? This must be some new meaning of the word 'free' then. Last time I bought a computer it cost over £300 pounds (it only lasted 2 years) and that certainly didn't include access to the internet. So the argument that we should persuade the [hard up] elderly to forget paying 50p for a stamp, and instead pay ~£500 for a computer and goodness-knows-how-much on broadband provision isn't really going to fly - they're not stupid you know.

• There's no guarantee that your mail will be delivered to the right place, or won't get 'lost'. To be fair, there's no guarantee that your email won't end up languishing in somebody's spam folder either (or get lost in thin air for that matter - it's happened before). And there's an awful lot more to go wrong with a computer than a pen and paper; when have you ever experienced the blue screen of death when writing a good old fashioned letter? The worst that could happen is you can't find a pen...

• The assumption that most people who write letters and use the post (for personal correspondence) are a) old, and b) only do so because they are incapable of using any other means of communication. Given that I am not yet 30 years old, I have not quite written myself off as 'old'. I am also quite clearly capable of using a computer when I put my mind to it. I write and send letters because I choose to. Shocking, isn't it? I also enjoy receiving letters in return, and firmly believe that the art of letter writing is not yet dying, and the romance of receiving letters is far from dead. The only people who would have you believe so are to be pitied, because they are missing out on both.

Dealing with my gilt complex (with thanks to Terry Pratchett)

This week I have mainly been...

1) Panicking about how much calligraphy I want to do (and how little time there is in which to do it)

5 Months have passed since I first joined the CLAS Copperplate Special Interest Group and that can mean only one thing - it's time for another round of envelope exchanges. Disappointingly, only three of the five envelopes I was expecting to receive in the last round turned up, so this time I offered to be in two groups, thereby doubling the number of exciting envelopes that will drop through the door (I know, I didn't think about the 'twice the amount of work' aspect at the time!). On a more positive note, one of the recipients of my envelopes last time was impressed enough to feel the need to write back, so I am busy preparing another envelope to send in reply :-)

2) Gilding/Making a card for a friend (This bit is slightly more interesting and involves more pictures... )

Next weekend we are off to a friend's birthday party and, not needing much of an excuse, I thought I'd have a go at making her a card. Last time I was at a workshop my tutor showed me a commissioned piece that she had recently finished that was gold leaf on an acrylic wash background. 'Oooh', I thought, 'that looks pretty - I wonder if I could do that'.

A very out-of-focus picture of a card with acrylic wash

My ever wonderful Mum (who is a watercolour artist and veritable mine of information on all things crafty) had previously provided me with some cards of watercolour grade paper with deckled edges, a book of gold leaf (loose), some size (glue) for sticking the gold leaf to the paper, and a large flat brush for washes. I watered down some crimson acrylic paint and painted a fairly intense wash on two cards (see right) and a piece of watercolour paper for experiments.

I hadn't taped any of these down (mainly because I've lost my masking tape) and to my horror they immediately began to curl up. 'Fallen at the first hurdle', I thought, but actually as they dried they flattened out again - phew!

Some experimentation in black ink on layout paper ensued, to get the right nib size and finalise the Italic variation I would use, and after this I ruled up on the test card (using a white pastel pencil - this shows up against the paint, but will also rub out). Initially I just used the plain size in the nib reservoir to write onto the prepared paper, however not only is it a bugger to see once it's dry, but it's also very thin and flowed too quickly out of the nib. I persevered and made a fairly messy attempt at sticking the gold leaf to it, but I learned some useful lessons before attempting one of the cards.

Immediately after the gold had been applied - gold bits EVERYWHERE!

The second time around I added some Dr. Marten's Pen White to the size which had the double effect of thickening the liquid and allowing me to see where I'd written. I then used two very small brushes to apply bits of gold leaf to the writing. Two bits of advice: press the leaf on, don't brush; and DON'T BREATHE! - the stuff is lighter than a feather and will get *everywhere*.

Brushed down, but not birnished

 After replacing any usable bits of gold leaf back in the book, I used an old (soft is the key) make-up brush to brush gently over the surface to get rid of any bits that weren't stuck down. The card then looked like this:







 Finally, some patience was required to let the gold and size dry thoroughly before burnishing (rubbing over to bring out the shine) with a soft cloth. There are special tools to do this, and I have heard that a piece of silk works very well too, but having neither of these I plumped for a soft cotton hanky and it seemed to do the trick:

 The result is pleasing, no? Anyhow, I hope she likes it - I had great fun doing it, and will definitely be doing more in the future!

I have come to the conclusion...

...that Envelope Exchange envelopes are like buses; you wait ages for the first one and then three turn up at once! Two more have arrived since my last post here - both nice examples of Copperplate, the most recent one being an absolutely superb example of what you can achieve in terms of layout and making the most of the space available - it rather raises the bar! (although in my defence I believe they've all been at it a bit longer than I have).

In turn I have sent my second envelope off to:

This one was written using my Brause 66EF nib in Dr. Martin's Bleedproof White. It's actually a dark purple envelope, but seems to have come out more black in the photo.

I also added a little offhand flourish like the feather pictured left (this was one of my practice ones). I'm always slightly terrified of adding things to an envelope that I'm pleased with, just in case I ruin it, but it's no excuse not to try really.


 Having received the set of Brause Bandzug nibs I mentioned here, I embarked on the 8 lines of continuous text needed for the CLAS certificate. I also decided to have a look and see what it looked like using the Schminke Red Pearl gouache watered down to use as ink. The results of my first attempt looked like this:

(apologies for the rather under-exposed photo - click for bigger)

I have to admit that I had huge difficulties getting the ink to flow nicely from the nib, resulting in several severely botched letters (it seemed reluctant to flow from both tines at once). I think it was simply a case of it being too thick ('Sorry Gromit, that was a bit thick!'), but having started I tried to persevere. Layout-wise it's not too bad, apart from needing to be consistently an inch further to the right, and this photo shows the pearl sheen of the ink really well. Unfortunately I don't think it's good enough to send in, so will have to do it again (probably just in black this time), but I was encouraged to see that amongst all the mistakes there's also so really nice lettering in there.
The deadline for entries is the 30th of June, so I'm going to be hard-pushed to get it all done in time, but if I work hard over the weekend I might be lucky!

And finally, here's a picture of the full set of Bandzugs in all their glory:

It's here!

Yesterday I received my first Envelope Exchange envelope! I love getting post anyway, and to arrive home to find a beautifully handmade and embossed envelope addressed to me in elegant, sloping Copperplate really made my day.

You may remember my anticipation in receiving my first envelope way back in this post. I have to admit I'd all but given up hope of getting last month's envelope, believing it to be lost in the post or forgotten about, but the sender celebrated a milestone birthday in May and had been rather rushed of their feet so didn't have a chance to send it until June. The beauty of the envelope and the touching letter it contained more than made up for the delay in receiving it, and I'm looking forward not only to returning the exchange, but also writing to the sender to tell them how much it brightened up my day :-)

Speaking of the exchange scheme, I really must get on with this month's effort as it needs to wing it's way all the way to sunny Australia! I'm not sure I've ever had cause to post something to Oz before, so it's all very exciting. And can anyone enlighten me as to where I can get my sticky paws on some slightly more interesting stamps? I mean, Liz II is all very well and good, but I was hoping to get something a little more... picturesque. Do I just go into a post office and ask for  a book of 'exciting stamps' ?!