Friday, October 10, 2008

Choosing Calligraphy Nibs

A selection of nibs -
Wm. Mitchell on the far left
and Brauser in the middle
There are 2 basic types of calligraphy pens. These are cartridge pens and dip pens. Dip pens are the most versatile for calligraphy and either come with their own built in reservoir as do Brause or, , need one adding as in the Wm. Mitchell. Dip pens enable you to put ink through them and change colour at will, by a quick shake about in water. More importantly, serious calligraphers use Gouache Paint rather than ink (more about this later). A calligraphy nib gives 2 basic strokes, a thick one, when the nib is drawn towards you and a thin one when it you slide it to the side.
With slip on reservoirs it’s a little more tricky to get it so that it’s in just the right place, but with practice this becomes easier. If you are heavy handed (like me) I would recommend Brauser nibs. Also if you are left handed, you need to choose a pen with an oblique nib, which is a nib cut slightly shorter on the left hand side. While Brauser nibs are more expensive, the difference in cost is negligible and they will last longer.


There are many other pens available to the more experienced calligrapher these range from Automatic Pans, Ruling Pens, Parallel Pens and many other mark making tools. I will talk about them in detail at a later date.

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