Thursday, July 29, 2010

Nibs (July 2010)


These are two nibs I ground for a fellow fountain pen enthusiast.  They were fine/medium ballpointed to begin with, so became extra-fine italic after grinding (as a rule, nibs end up a size smaller when converted from ballpointed to italic).  The writing you see was done with the pens after they were ground.

9 comments:

  1. I love your work and your site. I used to do calligraphy years ago but not nearly as good as you. Now I oil paint. I would like to find some lined paper for calligraphy that, when you make a copy, the lines would not show. Do they make such paper? Thank you!!!
    Sandra

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  2. Hi,
    Do you do calligraphy work for customers?

    Can I contact you?

    Please email me at shenny@eitan.sg

    Thanks!

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  3. Dear Sandra,

    Thanks very much for your kind words. I'm afraid I don't know of any such paper! I usually rule up everything very lightly in pencil, then clean it off. Sorry for this very late reply but I've been busy.

    Hi, Eitan

    I'm afraid I'm too busy with a full-time job to do any calligraphy commissions, but will e-mail you in case you don't read this.

    Thank you!

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  4. Hello.

    I love your calligraphy writings. Where did you the pens and ink for writing?

    Thank you so much.

    Regards,
    Grace

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    Replies
    1. Hello, Grace

      Sorry for the really late reply -- but better late than never, I hope. I got the pens and ink from bookstores, mostly from places like WH Smith and Selfridges, when I was a student in the UK. They can be bought much more cheaply online these days. Happy New Year.

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  5. very good nibs! are they so flexible?

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    Replies
    1. Nope, these ones aren't very flexible -- the Lamy on the left has a pretty rigid nib, in fact.

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  6. Mrs. W- There is some paper similar to what you are talking about available on John Neal's website. I believe the lines are bluish; I've not personally used them, but I've heard good things! They could be worth a shot if you haven't found any since that post and are still interested.

    Ludwig- I just moved to Labuan on East Malaysia-- do you know of any good calligraphy supply stores in East Malaysia or West Malaysia? I'm finding I have to order things from the US because it's difficult to both explain and find the types of nibs or inks I'm looking for. Is there a more local place that has an online shop you know of?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Dani

      Thanks for your helpful reply to Mrs W (Sandra)!

      I'm afraid I don't know of any calligraphy supplies stores in Malaysia, but you can try Straits Commercial in Singapore: http://www.straitscomart.com/ There aren't any shops specializing in Western calligraphy supplies (here, the word 'calligraphy' is synonymous with Chinese calligraphy) but the people at Straits are quite knowledgeable, so worth a try.

      For pens and ink, maybe try the KL-based Pen Gallery: http://www.pengallery.com/pages/About-Us.html They have an extensive selection.

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