Dip Pen Calligraphy

I had a tsunami of work projects swamp me this week, so my time for creativity was way limited. I did however manage to stumble further into the world of calligraphy. In my previous post on this topic I shared the Beth Style Worksheet I’d purchased from The Postman’s Knock. While this is a great purchase and I’m still working through the style-sheet, it’s not a full beginner’s introduction to calligraphy and it’s hard to learn from just a pdf. So, when I saw that the creator of the site had released a new online video course specifically tailored towards beginners, I was sold!

I’m a few lessons into this Beginner’s Modern Calligraphy Online Course and this week I graduated from only working with faux calligraphy (lettering made with any normal pen) and dipped my first pen into the dip pen calligraphy world. The results were not pretty, but oh glory, I feel destined for calligraphy (like in Harry Potter when he holds his first wand and it like glows in his hand and angelic voices are all like “yea, that feels sooo right”)! This is a completely new way to write, a flowy way that requires not finger movement, but whole arm movement. Also, you have to write at an unusual slant and hold the pen differently. It’s a bit unnatural, but also ridiculously fancy-feeling and brimming with old-timey nostalgia!

My first step was to gather together the supplies recommended in the course, which you see above and includes: Sumi ink, TPK worksheet, two cotton napkins, one oblique pen (the next step after learning the dip pen), one dip pen, extra nibs in fancy tin, and a might-end-up-being-too-small water cup. A further preparation step required me to do some potato voodoo, seen below. Basically, most nibs for dip pens come separated from the pen (nibs are interchangeable so you can use the same dip pen with endless nibs) and at first they’re covered in a manufacturer’s oil that can inhibit the flow of ink. So, Postman’s Knock recommends sticking them in a potato for 15 minutes, and voila! I accidentally left this on the counter to run some quick errands and my partner was understandably creeped out when he returned home to an empty house and said potato…

Here below are the first words I’ve written with a dip pen. I need to figure out the correct angle to hold the pen when I don’t have lines to guide me, and it reminded me of being in kindergarten and trying to form your first letters, but still SO FUN to write with! Also, the level of precision you can achieve with these pens is beyond any other pen I’ve ever tried. The signature look of the dip pen is the variation between fine lines and thick lines, and this is naturally achieved due to the dip pen’s tip that splits wide when pressed down, which causes the ink to fill in the full space of the gap.

I’ll share more of my progress through this new and wonderful dip pen world! Before long, I shall be the fanciest!