Pens and nibs for italic to write this small?

[PhiloPlume]

On 4/17/2024 at 11:16 AM, A Smug Dill said:

Dan Smith of Nibsmith.com, closer to home for you, did great work customising a couple of nibs on new pens I ordered from him.

I have been to that website a bunch of times and read the articles and thought about his services.  Thank you.

Guess I need to find a pen and nib that will be able to be reground. 

 

Oops.  Nibs.com, not nibsmit

[inkstainedruth]

21 hours ago, PhiloPlume said:

By the way, I just received the latest version of "Written Letters" by Jacqueline Svaren and it is the most beautiful and perfect italic calligraphy that I have ever seen in any other books that I have, except for the ugly and obnoxious (IMHO :_)) flourishes at the beginning and end of some letters.  Totally ruins everything.

 

She suggests a Speedball with a C-2 nib which is a dip pen.  I will put up with a dip pen when messing around with Copperplate (although I do have nibs with an ink reservoir but haven't tried them yet.  Here is the problem with all these books:  The writing and examples are way too small to have been written with any "italic" nib known to man kind. 🙂  As in every other book and web page I have viewed, the writing must have been written with medium (which are actually quite large to me) nibs or larger and shrunk down for printing.

 

I believe I am indeed correct as on page 63 of this Written Letters book, in big, bold italic letters in the center of the page it says "If your writing is going to be reduced photographically or reduced by multilith you will want to consider some possible variations of form."
 

Case closed!! 🙂 I have been trying to resolve an issue that cannot be resolved lol!

 

I sure wish I could write as perfectly as in the first few pages ("Dear Fellow Calligraphy Student") and in the rest of this book for the most part!  Absolutely beautiful!  Almost makes me want to cry!

 

I think the Jacqueline Svaren book is the one I had for the calligraphy class I took in college.  Not quite sure where it is in the house, but I know I still have it.  

I'm also a fan of Mac Drogin's Medieval Calligraphy, Its History and Techniques (years ago -- I was still single at that point -- a friend of mine and I went to a lecture he gave and I ended up getting an autographed copy of the book).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[dms525]

On 4/16/2024 at 3:09 PM, PhiloPlume said:

By the way, I just received the latest version of "Written Letters" by Jacqueline Svaren and it is the most beautiful and perfect italic calligraphy that I have ever seen in any other books that I have, except for the ugly and obnoxious (IMHO :_)) flourishes at the beginning and end of some letters.  Totally ruins everything.

 

She suggests a Speedball with a C-2 nib which is a dip pen.  I will put up with a dip pen when messing around with Copperplate (although I do have nibs with an ink reservoir but haven't tried them yet.  Here is the problem with all these books:  The writing and examples are way too small to have been written with any "italic" nib known to man kind. 🙂  As in every other book and web page I have viewed, the writing must have been written with medium (which are actually quite large to me) nibs or larger and shrunk down for printing.

 

I believe I am indeed correct as on page 63 of this Written Letters book, in big, bold italic letters in the center of the page it says "If your writing is going to be reduced photographically or reduced by multilith you will want to consider some possible variations of form."
 

Case closed!! 🙂 I have been trying to resolve an issue that cannot be resolved lol!

 

I sure wish I could write as perfectly as in the first few pages ("Dear Fellow Calligraphy Student") and in the rest of this book for the most part!  Absolutely beautiful!  Almost makes me want to cry!

 

 

Jaki Svaren was a student of Lloyd Reynolds, a professional calligrapher, a very serious student of letter forms and the history of writing. She was both talented and a self-critical student. Also, by the way, from what I hear, a demanding teacher.

 

I certainly concur that her own personal italic hand is awe inspiring. But, I would encourage you to view her writing as informing and inspiring. I have been using italic handwriting for 60 years off and on. I clearly don't have Jaki's gift or her commitment to absolute perfection. Reviewing her gorgeous hand and reading her wise advice is still helpful. I will never play the guitar like Segovia or write like Jake Svaren. I accept that and strive to do the best I can.

 

David

[PhiloPlume]

55 minutes ago, dms525 said:

Reviewing her gorgeous hand and reading her wise advice is still helpfu

Will do!

 

Yes, she does mention Lloyd!  I just looked up another one of his videos and will watch it.

 

But not giving up until I can write italic as well as her!  I just turned 66 and basically just got started! 🙂

 

Thanks

[A Smug Dill]

This came in ten days ago:

[PhiloPlume]

10 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

This came in ten days ago:

 

Looking real good Smug!

 

I have a bunch of Lamy fountain pens but don't think I have the Joy.  I even ordered a kit from Australia from Barbara Nicol's company and it came with some sort of orange/rust colored Lamy with, I think, a italic or cursive nib.

 

Yeah, that was crazy. I didn't need to do that because I already had two copies of her handwriting book but I did get some practice paper too.

 

Lamy's write so slow and a bit scratchy for me, even on HP 32# paper.

 

Thank you!!

[Mercian]

15 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

This came in ten days ago:

Thank you for posting this photo!

 

I have been toying with the idea of buying a 1.1i Z50 for a few years, but I had read that the degree of line-variation that they give isn’t very high, so I’ve never got around to ordering one.

Your writing & vertical/horizontal line comparisons are the best demonstration of the nib’s capabilities that I’ve ever seen 
 

My handwriting will never be as attractive as yours, but you have convinced me to buy one of these nibs 🙂

[Of course I am now wondering whether the QC is consistent enough to guarantee that I will get a nib that gives as much variation as yours does. Still, there’s only the one way to find out….]