I'm on a roll

Just a quick one to show off a page of Copperplate I produced last night:

This was written using an EF Principal nib and Higgins Eternal ink. The top paragraph was copied from the wonderful Universal Penman by George Bickham. An incredible book produced in the 18th Century showcasing engraved Copperplate and Roundhand scripts from seemingly all the Master Penmen of the age. If you don't have a copy go and buy one now - you can spend hours marvelling at it, and it's got lots to copy and experiment with, including some pretty spectacular flourishing.

The other quote on there was just what I happened to be listening to at the time. A prize for anyone who can name the musical!

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' ?!

Spaced out

Apologies for the recent radio-silence, things have been getting a little hectic of late and suddenly it's more than three weeks since I posted anything!

The eagerly awaited parcel finally turned up, and included a couple of Brause Rose nibs, some Brause 66EF nibs (plus special oblique holder for them), and Brause Bandzug 2.5mm broad-edged nib and some Moon Palace Sumi ink. Of all the contents I was only disappointed with the Brause Rose nib, but I will happily admit that I've hardly given it a chance and perseverance may prove that I'm entirely wrong - it just seemed to give very thick and messy lines :-(

Brause Bandzug 2.5mm nib

The Brause Bandzug (left) I am absolutely in love with. The Bandzug is a far better quality broad-edged nib than the Speedball nibs I have been using. Crisp, clean and smooth lines are consistently produced, and the reservoir holds seemingly no end of ink. It has a right-oblique cut for right-handed calligraphers that helps maintain nib-angle and is an absolute joy to write with. So much so that I've ordered the rest of the set (you can by sets of 9) so that I can have the complete range from 0.5mm right the way through to 5mm. Brilliant. What's more, the numbers assigned to each nib correspond to their width in mm - so no more having to remember which set of numbers is which width (as with almost every other manufacturer)! It's almost as like they thought about it.

Brause 66EF nib

The 66EF (right) is also lovely to write with. Smooth running without being excessively 'sharp' it produces nice hairlines and is particularly good for smaller  x-heights. Used in combination with the fantastically rich black Moon Palace Sumi I've been enjoying the results immensely.
The aforementioned Sumi ink seems to flow well from both of these nibs, but it has needed watering down a touch for use with some of my other copperplate nibs (the EF Principal in particular).


But enough waffle from me about calligraphy tools, what about the actual writing? Well for the last couple of weeks I've been working mainly on my Italics (just because they're easier to pick up and put down if time is tight) and playing with the above nibs. I'm fairly pleased with how my letter forms are coming on, but something was still looking a bit funny about the sheets I was producing. I asked my tutor, and he spotted it straight away:

Brause Bandzug nib, Higgins eternal ink (I think)

Both internal letter spacing and between words (I want to write inter-wordal, but don't think it's allowed really!). I've been working hard on this and it's getting a lot better - the consistency looks miles better and some of the practice sheets I'm really quite proud of, so I'm thinking of having a go at a CLAS Certificate to see what the pros think!

Here's a bit of Copperplate to show I haven't abandoned it! This is the text I'm thinking of using for the continuous prose bit of the certificate. I'm beginning to really prefer the 1:1:1 ratio for Copperplate - I think it always looks much more elegant than the 2:3:2 that I started with, so I'll stick with what I like best :-)









That's about it from me - I'm going to try posting more frequently in the future with the idea of keeping the length a little bit more manageable. Well done if you made it this far!

Taking a break from the pointed pen

This time last week I was wittering on about looking forward to learning the basics of Carolingian minuscule at my evening class. Here's how I got on:

(click for bigger)

We tend to spend the first half of the evening discussing a particular script and practising the basic letter forms, and if we feel we're getting on well enough we can then go on and try using it for a passage of writing. I'm a firm believer in running before I can walk, so like to practice by writing things out rather than just copying out the alphabet ad nauseum.
The rounded bowl-shapes of the m, n and h lean more towards Uncial than Carolingian (as does the rounded ascender of the d), but my Calligrapher's Bible used these and I preferred the more distinctive look it gave over the straighter stems that were more like Foundation hand. A great hand for anything with a slightly Celtic feel to it - especially with a Celtic-knot border. Care needs to be taken over the spacing though, as it really shows up any overly-large white spaces (or any cramped lettering).



In other news, my Italics also seem to be progressing well. Here's a practice page from last week:

Much more consistent than earlier attempts, but this does appear to have been at the detriment of my Copperplate script, which I've been taking a little break from recently.

The lovely blossoming Crab Apple tree that I posted a picture of last time has sadly become a casualty of the building works at home :-( but we do have some lovely roses (see right) to make up for it a little bit. Looking forward to choosing a replacement tree to plant in November though.

And here's an early attempt at some flourishing. Still waiting [im]patiently for my parcel...

Getting distracted

A couple of weeks ago I had every intention of diligently pursuing Dr. Joe Vitolo's videos on IAMPETH on Copperplate majuscules, but I appear to have got distracted by several other things and am yet to find the time to watch them.

First off I received my copy of Ken Fraser's Copperplate Handwriting and spent some time going back to basics and working my way through some pages of exercises. I won't go into too much detail here as I intend to write a proper review of it as soon as I get the chance. Then the builders moved in at home, bringing with them their own special kind of chaos; next I thought I'd try my hand at some offhand flourishing exercises (which is an excellent way of ruining a perfectly serviceable nib, but very satisfying all the same - pictures to follow); and finally I received my list of envelope exchange addresses for the next 6 months :-)

The envelope exchange is run by the CLAS Copperplate Special Interest Group and basically means you complete an envelope design for a different person each month. It's great because not only do you have a small project to focus on, but you get to receive a lovely envelope each month too. Obviously I'm not going to be posting pictures of people's names and addresses, but let's just say that the one I've sent this month is PURPLE with silver ink :-) (and even a small attempt at a flourish in the corner). I'm quite pleased with the way it's turned out, but have learnt that Winsor & Newton metallic inks need to be thinned with water before being used for pointed pen work.

Things I'm looking forward to include:

• receiving my fist envelope exchange envelope
• receiving my latest order from John Neal Bookseller, which includes a DVD on flourishing techniques and some nibs to play with
• attending some workshops with renowned local calligrapher Gaynor Goffe
• learning Carolingian at my class tomorrow evening

And because this post would be otherwise entirely devoid of pretty pictures, here's some Crab Apple blossom:

Dr. ... Qui?

It would appear that I haven't posted for a while - how very remiss of me! I have however been doing some scribbling, with some interesting results.

After the monumental efforts of my last post, and having come to the conclusion that I need to slow down and relax, I decided to have a play around with a different method of writing Copperplate script. To this end I visited the IAMPETH website and watched my way through Dr. Joe Vitolo's series of clips on how to write his particular style of Copperplate (the lessons can be found here). The most obvious difference between Dr. Joe's method and the Winters book that I had been using is that Dr. Joe is far more concerned with the perfect formation of the individual letters than developing a flowing style of handwriting: he lifts the pen and turns the paper round and does all sorts in order to get the most consistent shapes. This is not to say that the resulting script doesn't look seamlessly written, it does and it's really rather lovely, it's just a different approach - and one that emphasizes what works best for you at that. So I've been playing around with the minuscules again, with the following results:

This was my first attempt - I'll probably never get it this good again. Rats.

Poor Brother Jarvis, I seem to be  becoming obsessed with him!

Not too bad for first attempts I think. I also took advantage of the clip that goes through how to adjust the flange on an oblique pen-holder properly - it makes a lot of difference!

 Over the Easter weekend I also took the time to refresh my memory of the Italic script. It's amazing how quickly it drops off if you don't practice regularly, so I think I should probably set aside one or two days a week for this.

The poem is by Brian Patten - one of my favourites.

I really must learn how to spell

Apart from being a bit rusty I found the letter forms came back to me quite quickly, and I've certainly developed a flow that wasn't there before. However, I do find that writing with this pen (a Rotring ArtPen 1.5mm) makes my hand hurt a significant amount. I'm probably gripping too much.









That's all for now folks, next I'm going to have a look at Dr. Joe's take on Capitals (and carry on practising my Italics). Oh, and Calligraphy classes start up again next week - hurrah!

p.s. A prize for anyone who gets the Bill Bailey reference.

Lessons for life, from a Bear of very little brain.

So here, as promised in this post, is the completed extract from 'In which Eeyore finds the Wolery and Owl moves into it' as written by Me:

(Apologies for the dodgy image quality - this is a scan, but I'm still working on the best way of sharing images of my work. Hopefully it's better when you view the larger images).

This is my favourite ever Winnie-the-Pooh excerpt, and I thought it would be a nice way of starting off practising longer pieces. Instead of rambling interminably about the various aspects of what I've written I thought I'd try and keep it succinct in the following way:

Good Things

• Relatively consistent looking throughout the three-and-a-bit pages
• Only one spelling mistake (that I've noticed) - sorry Eeyore!
• There were no 'second attempts' at any of these pages - it's all as written the first time round.

Less-good Things 

• I made a spelling mistake
• The baseline is a bit wobbly and inconsistent
• I'm having trouble keeping the 'h' downstrokes straight - mostly I need to come fruther back round with the ascender loop
• I need to take far more care with the baseline parts of the letters h and n to make sure that they have even depth (this is partly why the lines are a bit wobbly)

Next time I will:

• Choose a shorter passage!
• TAKE MY TIME over each letter and word
• Use darker guidelines or draw light pencil lines on the paper
• Relax and warm up properly - it can be so tempting just to launch straight into it and only hit your stride some lines later
• Take more care sqauring-off  and re-touching letters. NB this should be done with a finer nib

This piece was done using my Brause 361 nib and Higgins Eternal ink on Winsor & Newton Smooth Surface Cartridge Paper. This paper has a nice off-white colour and is just about smooth enough for pointed pen work, as long as you're relaxed about it. It's quite thick though, hence my difficulty in seeing the guidelines!

I learnt so much doing this piece; the main one being SLOW DOWN. It's so easy to think you can write faster just because you can write joined up, but it's a recipe for disaster. I recently saw the following in a Copperplate newsletter: Rules for Copperplate writing:
                                     Rule One - WRITE SLOWLY
                                     Rule Two - See Rule One

This pretty much sums it up I think! That being said, it is important to try and find the balance between 'slow' and 'flow', which I think comes from being relaxed both mentally and physically. So next time I'll be doing my best to slow down and relax, and also keep in mind the technical issues I want to correct without it stressing me out. If anyone has any further pointers for me to add to my list - just shout!