Learning Copperplate...

[gshillitani]

My husband was having a little bit of it - really just started - and he has been doing exercises for around a month and he has noted a massive improvement. One is a stretch you hold for 5 minutes as often as you like; another is using a size 32 rubber band around your hands like a resistance band to open the carpal tunnel up by strengthening the weaker muscles causing the collapse; the other is weirder but you only have to do it for a week - you wear electrical tape around the base of your hand to form a kind of grabber effect for a week. I can send you links to the sites he found them on if you are interested. Lisa

I'd love to have them! Maybe I can avoid surgery on my right arm Thanks!

[jeremiah.l.burns]

It's not pretty, but it's meant well. Speedy recovery, Gina!

[gshillitani]

It's not pretty, but it's meant well. Speedy recovery, Gina!

Awww thanks Jeremiah I was hoping I could practice since my right arm is free, but I haven't quite figured it out yet LOL

[jeremiah.l.burns]

Well, it isn't perfect. It could be smoother, and I know where every flaw is. But it's my first pen holder that I made myself.

 

Strictly speaking, it's not done. I need to seal/varnish it in some way, and it still needs a brass flange making and affixing. Still, I'm pleased and I thought you might like to see it.

 

I filed dimples into the body where my fingers naturally rest, so I'm hoping this will ease the 'death grip' I often have when using my other penholders. Also, it's very light! It's lighter than my Speedball, for instance, despite the fact that this one is rather chunky in the body.

[jeremiah.l.burns]

I also did work on my curves last night (are these upturns or downturns?). I was going for uniformity. Obviously, I didn't achieve this, but they're getting closer.

 

Can you tell what the words are simply by looking at the lower-halves of these letterforms?

[toxicwitch]

I'd love to have them! Maybe I can avoid surgery on my right arm Thanks!

Hi Gina - I will get them from my husband and post later for you. Hope the recovery is going well! Lisa

[toxicwitch]

Well, it isn't perfect. It could be smoother, and I know where every flaw is. But it's my first pen holder that I made myself.

 

Strictly speaking, it's not done. I need to seal/varnish it in some way, and it still needs a brass flange making and affixing. Still, I'm pleased and I thought you might like to see it.

 

I filed dimples into the body where my fingers naturally rest, so I'm hoping this will ease the 'death grip' I often have when using my other penholders. Also, it's very light! It's lighter than my Speedball, for instance, despite the fact that this one is rather chunky in the body.

Wow! That is gorgeous. I love it. Very much in keeping with the handmade ethos of the hobbits I'd say. Well done you!

[gshillitani]

Jeremiah, your pen is amazing! Your letterform practice is really, really good also. In the first image, I would say it's a O and W or maybe a U. In the second picture the last two letters look like an A and I? In any case your uniformity is great.

Lisa, it's going okay but I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow to redo the cast. Most of my fingers are still numb and apparently they are not supposed to be.

I tried to do a little practice yesterday and the results were less than stellar :-) I guess I will have to wait until the cast is off. And Jeremiah, I have not been getting along well with the Leonardt for some reason. My favorite for practice so far is the Nikko G.

For now I'm just enjoying reading the posts. Hopefully I will not have lost what little progress I've made by the time I'm able to practice again!

[jeremiah.l.burns]

Jeremiah, your pen is amazing! Your letterform practice is really, really good also. In the first image, I would say it's a O and W or maybe a U. In the second picture the last two letters look like an A and I? In any case your uniformity is great.

 

And Jeremiah, I have not been getting along well with the Leonardt for some reason. My favorite for practice so far is the Nikko G.

 

From top-bottom, the words are:

ore

old

occult

cat

 

I'm still waiting for my new oblique to show up so I've still not tried my Principals. Sooooo frustrated. I suppose if I had some brass I could finish my own pen holder and try them. Haha.

 

I didn't practice last night ... just did some casual writing to a friend. Sloppy, but quick, and no pressure. :-)

 

Keep us posted on your recovery, Gina. I'll keep posting in any event so you at least have something to look at.

 

And thank you both for the kind words about my carpentry efforts. I already see a million ways to improve the next design. So the encouragement is appreciated.

[toxicwitch]

Jeremiah, your pen is amazing! Your letterform practice is really, really good also. In the first image, I would say it's a O and W or maybe a U. In the second picture the last two letters look like an A and I? In any case your uniformity is great.

 

Lisa, it's going okay but I have to go back to the doctor tomorrow to redo the cast. Most of my fingers are still numb and apparently they are not supposed to be.

 

I tried to do a little practice yesterday and the results were less than stellar :-) I guess I will have to wait until the cast is off. And Jeremiah, I have not been getting along well with the Leonardt for some reason. My favorite for practice so far is the Nikko G.

 

For now I'm just enjoying reading the posts. Hopefully I will not have lost what little progress I've made by the time I'm able to practice again!

Hi Gina - sorry to hear there is a complication. Here is the link to the video my husband used.

The Carpal part is at 11.56 mins. He was also given an exercise by a surgeon which he finds most helpful of all and he does it at least 5 times a day. If he feels a tingle he does it and it goes away for hours. You hold your hands in a praying position with the bottom of your hands against your solar plexus then you rotate them downwards by 180 degrees pushing into your body. You hold for 5 minutes. You should feel it stretching the underside of your arm right along the bottom of your wrist and your bicep area if you are doing it correctly. He is very keen that you shouldn't do anything on your surgery side before your wounds have healed and a doctor says it's safe. Hope these help! Take care and keep us updated. Lisa

[toxicwitch]

Hey guys!

 

I still have not found my pen so I've had a little session today with my plastic holder but I really despair! I seem to be getting worse and not better. Hopefully you guys are making better progress. I seem to be better at curves than straight lines. Maybe another few hours under my belt of the practice strokes needed. I refuse to move on to letter shapes until I can do the practice exercises properly. I did try and upload pictures but I think I'm from the past - I just cannot work computers!

 

Lisa

Edited March 10, 2018 by toxicwitch

[jeremiah.l.burns]

Glad you're still practising, Lisa. I've not done any copperplate practise for a couple of days because I've been writing letters to friends (another side project... Write more letters). But I hope to do some tomorrow.

[toxicwitch]

Hey guys - I did some more work yesterday - primarily focusing on what Jackson calls strokes 6 and 7 - these I find trickiest of all for some reason... I think I am seeing some progress and when my husband has time I will get him to upload some of my session sheets so you can critique! Hope yesterday's session went well for you, Jeremiah! Gina - I hope you are doing better.

 

I was wondering if anyone knows of any copperplate courses running in Scotland or even round about the Lakes area. There is one in Dundee but it is 2 hours per week for 4 weeks and it is too far for me to go every week. A residential would be better. Any suggestions welcomed!

 

Lisa

[jeremiah.l.burns]

Great, Lisa! Look forward to seeing it. I did manage a bit of practise in the morning yesterday, so that's good. Any day I can practise is a day I'm closer to my goal.

 

It went....okay. I again focused on my upturns and downturns, as well as a bit of compound curving. I felt less frustration than I did a month ago, and whilst I'm miles away from the letterforms I want, I can certainly see improvement.

 

I didn't take a picture of my work but will do so if I remember tonight.

[jeremiah.l.burns]

So this is Sunday night's practise sheet. It's not great, but I think I had an epiphany of sorts, which is great since I've been doing this for *weeks* now!

 

I think I'm shading too heavily for the size I'm doing. I *think* this is why I'm finding it difficult to taper out my shades into hairlines at the baselines. So I'm going to try to focus on this in my next session.

[gshillitani]

You're miles ahead of me!! That looks so good, perfect compared to mine! I should get my arm and hand back tomorrow and will write more then (when I can type with both hands LOL) about doing some nib experiments since I really can't practice properly until I get this cast off.

 

How is your holder coming?

 

Gina

[jeremiah.l.burns]

Thanks, Gina. Glad to hear you're on the mend! Looking forward to seeing how you get on with your 'new arm'. :-)

 

Holder is still the same. I've not yet bothered to get any brass for the flange. But...! I found a video describing how this is done, and it looks dead simple.

[gshillitani]

Home from the doctor, and a bit less encumbered (went from full cast from wrist to past my elbow to a rigid brace on my hand/forearm). I can (sort of) type though!

 

Ok so what I mentioned was a little experiment I did. I've read and watched lots of reviews and opinions on which nib is the "best" for beginners, "worst" performing, you get the idea. I thought I'd figure it out for myself with the limited nibs I have on hand. I put all the nib brands/types into a little box (they were in labeled bags because my middle aged eyes refuse to read the print on the nib without help, LOL) and pulled them out at random, not knowing exactly which one I'd put in the pen. I found it a great deal more instructive testing things out on my own rather than being influenced by what "they" (who are 'they' anyway?) have to say about it. Evaluating them without the bias of expecting certain behavior was much more interesting to me.

 

That said, I have an order from John Neal Bookseller (calligraphy & bookbinding supplier in the US, http://johnnealbooks.com) arriving tomorrow with one each of almost all of the nibs deemed satisfactory for basic Copperplate I've stocked up on decent printer paper and will print out more guide sheets for further experimentation with the new toys!

 

Jeremiah, is that your pup in your profile pic?

 

Gina

[jeremiah.l.burns]

Oh wow! Did you decide which nib you preferred during your excitement? I'm still on the Gillott 303 but I'd like to to try the Nikko G and Zebra G as they're both so highly recommended.

 

Yes, that's my Bruce! He's a rescue; a lab X boxer X collie X German shepherd X Belgian malnois. We've a second rescue as well, Belle; a white lab X husky (a so-called"Siberian Retriever").

[gshillitani]

So far I'm still at the stage where I'm figuring out how to make each nib write the way I want it to, so final judgement has not yet been made

 

We have a Black Lab X Mastiff rescue, and three of her progeny (dad was an intact pit bull unceremoniously dropped off on my doorstep by my sister before our girl was spayed). Mom looks like a Black Lab with a white chest, you'd never guess there were Mastiff genes in her. The pups run the gamut; there's a sort of generic lab sized and shaped brown girl (no brown in mom or dad, go figure..recessive genes? LOL), a mostly black boy favoring a pit bull, and a mostly black boy built exactly like a Mastiff, only he's not as big; Golden Retriever sized, but with the Mastiff head and bone structure.

 

Bruce is very handsome, and Bella must look quite unique! Gotta love dogs