Preparing for calligraphy workshops makes me so happy! I love writing out participant place cards, arranging little bouquets of flowers, and coming up with curriculum tweaks. On the day of, I arrive early at The Riverside and set up the room to make it comfortable and beautiful. If you are relaxed and in a pleasing environment, I believe that it’s easier to tap into your creativity!
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If you’re just starting to learn calligraphy and you’re right-handed, then you may have heard that an oblique calligraphy pen can make life easier. That is completely true! The idea behind oblique pens is slant correction. An oblique calligraphy pen really helps you as a right-handed person to match your nib’s angle to the calligraphy slant that you want to achieve.
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I want to preface this post by saying that, when you consider how many calligraphy nibs are available, I haven’t tried many of them. So, if you have a favorite, I hope that you’ll contribute it in the comments section! The calligraphy nibs that we are examining today are four of my favorites, and all are worth trying. We’ll start with the most beginner-friendly nib and end with the most finicky!
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No matter what your level of dip pen expertise is, calligraphy spacing can be a major challenge. It’s tough to maintain a consistent amount of space between letters! While block lettering allows you to mathematically space out letters evenly, you have to “eyeball it” with calligraphy. If that intimidates you, don’t despair! Today’s printable — a calligraphy spacing cross drills worksheet — will really help you to hone your spacing skills.
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Today, I’d like to address an issue that often strikes fear into the hearts of calligraphy learners: double letters. You probably know the feeling … you’re happily writing along, and then, all of a sudden, you need to write a word like “coffee” or “Mississippi”. What do you do? Read on to find out!
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When I was new to calligraphy, most of the online resources that I found assumed that I knew a lot more than I did. I remember being frustrated by the lack of basic information out there, and there were a lot of things that I had to discover for myself! Today, I want to tell you five non-obvious calligraphy tips that I wish I would have known back then. This information would have helped to make learning much easier for me, so I hope that it will do that for you!
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I want to start this post off by saying that if you experience a lot of calligraphy ink problems, there may be a simple culprit. The first may be that you have not prepared your nib for use; or you might be holding your pen too upright. If you have addressed those issues and continue to experience problems, then this post will be helpful! In it, we’ll go through four common calligraphy ink problems and how to fix them.
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If you’re a calligraphy beginner, then you’ve probably made a couple of the mistakes listed below. And that’s not a bad thing! Blunders make us much better at any skill … once you do something the wrong way, it’s easier to do it the right way the second time around. Still, it’s more convenient to learn from others’ mistakes before you make your own! That’s why I’ve compiled this list of the six things that seem to trip calligraphy beginners up the most!
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Last weekend, two cool things happened here in Boulder, Colorado. The first was literally cool: Saturday was a chilly day — in the midst of a slew of warm days — filled to the brim with snow. The second cool thing involved an amazing group of people who braved the snow to come to downtown Boulder to learn calligraphy. I couldn’t have had a better time getting to teach learners at the two TPK beginner calligraphy workshops last Saturday, and I want to sincerely thank everyone who participated!
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There’s a fair amount of information on the internet about how to learn calligraphy. However, many blogs and websites don’t delve into what you can do with the calligraphy skills that you work so hard to develop! In this post, I want to highlight seven projects that will utilize your dip pen calligraphy skills in a fun and engaging way. If you’re a beginner, I hope that this post will motivate you to learn calligraphy. If you’re a dip pen veteran, my goal is to give you some project ideas for the weekend!
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