Calligraphy

For ages I've been thinking that I need some new calligraphy pens. All I had to write nicely with in Christmas cards were some old Berol italic pens, and a fountain pen I've had since the 80s.

Then I saw this post on Andrea Joseph's blog, where she used Pilot Parallel Pens, and I just had to have some immediately! 

Part of the reason I wanted new pens was that I was getting a new diary, and wanted my writing to look good in it. Unfortunately the paper was a little thin for these pens, so I won't be able to use them for that, but I will use them for lots of other things!

From the beginning of primary school, we were taught the handwriting style of local man Tom Gourdie, so I had a good grounding for starting calligraphy. Most of the calligraphy books my mum and I have are written by him!
Here's another book that I love, The Calligraphy Source Book - it's got lots of alphabets to be inspired by. The pens themselves come with a handy sheet of calligraphy tips.

I'm loving these pens, partly because of how smooth they are to write with, and partly because of the vibrancy of the ink colours. And they have a fun feature that you can transfer a little ink from one nib to another, meaning you can create writing that flows from one colour to another. I also hope to take some inspiration from Andrea and do some drawings with them.