During my senior year of college, I set a goal to find and stick with a new hobby. I was only taking 12 hours that semester, was no longer ADPi president, and found myself with more free time than I knew what to do with. I had been dating Corey, my now husband, for 4 years by then, and he's known for having more hobbies than anyone else I bet you've ever met...like everything from cycling, to fly rod building, to archery, to woodworking. And the annoying part is he's good at all of it!!! I guess that's why he hobby hops so often - it gets old being so good at everything all the time, haha. But, back to my story and my own personal hobby hunting and needing to find something to keep me occupied while Corey was participating in all of his hobbies.
After scrolling Pinterest trying to choose something I felt like 1) I could get decently good at and 2) I felt like I could enjoy long term, I decided to give hand lettering a try! My mom actually use to do calligraphy back in the day, and both of my grandmothers have/had the most beautiful penmanship I've ever seen so I was hoping genetics somehow would come through for me, haha! Embarrassingly enough, it had been since elementary school since I had written in cursive, so this was a skill I desperately needed to practice before getting all fancy with calligraphy. Before I set out to master the art of the thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes, I purchased and downloaded the Kaitlin Style Worksheets from The Postman's Knock website, which is a fabulous resource for starting this hobby! I spent maybe an hour a day tracing the letters with just a Pilot G2 pen until I felt like I had basic cursive down pretty well.
I told my sister about my goals for this endeavor and she so sweetly ordered me a few supplies to give me the kickstart I needed! My first supplies included Tombow markers and a sketchpad from Michaels! These Tombow markers are great for training yourself to do broad downstrokes and light upstrokes. They do cause you to write pretty large, but I found it easier to start big and then once you improve some to scale down a bit with finer markers.
Once I had "graduated" from the Tombow markers, I purchased these markers on Amazon! I found that I liked the hard tip over the soft tip, but everything I read says the soft tip is easier for beginners to start with! I would doodle names, addresses, and quotes a few times each week, and I found the repetition to be pretty crucial for improvement.
The markers listed above accomplish "hand lettering" more than formal calligraphy. Once I got a little better at hand lettering and mastered the small upstrokes and heavy downstrokes, I branched out into the world of dip pen calligraphy. I purchased both a straight and oblique pen to see which I liked more, and the oblique ended up working way better for me but I was happy I had both to practice with! If you haven't done calligraphy before, then you've probably never heard of a nib! It's just the metal piece that inserts into the pen holder, and you dip this part into the ink and the tines spread as you press down hard on the paper, causing a broader stroke. I have found "Nikko G" nibs to be the absolute best for dip calligraphy for beginners! I've only ever used this nib and don't plan on trying any other kind because it's that good. It does wear out after a while so I'd suggest purchasing a few at a time! I've purchased all of my supplies from paperinkarts.com and they have pretty fast shipping and great prices! (Make sure to wash the nib before you use it - they need to have a coating removed from them before they will work well. I use a toothbrush and dawn dish soap to do this but there's also tricks out there like sticking it in a potato - just do a quick search on Pinterest and use supplies you already have at home!)
This is the ink I have used! I have found it's easiest to get an empty baby food jar and empty some ink into it. That way you can seal it when you're done and don't waste any.
When I did my sister's wedding envelopes, she purchased me this light pad! This allowed me to stick a piece of cardstock with printed lines in the envelope and when you place it on the light pad, the light from behind made the lines appear on the envelope to ensure you're writing perfectly straight! People also use lasers to make straight lines but I found the light pad to be a fairly cheap and easy way to ensure I was writing straight.
Here's my favorite article on calligraphy for beginners - this site is super helpful to answer questions on how to clean nibs and get started!
The last thing I have to say is that don't give up if you aren't perfect at it in the very beginning - this is always my tendency because I don't like doing things I'm not good at but it's so fun to look back at the first things I wrote and see how much I've improved! A little practice goes a long way! I definitely started at a very low level and now I've done calligraphy for several weddings, including my own! Here are some photos of some of the work I've done for both my wedding and for a few friends!
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