DIY Calligraphy Kit

blushingbride8888 · January 2015

I'm thinking of purchasing a DIY calligraphy kit. Have any of you tried a kit or to learn calligraphy? It's $65 so I don't want to buy it if it's too hard to figure out. Any thoughts/feedback is much appreciated!

fwtx5815 · January 2015

I have! I taught myself calligraphy at the end of 2014 (practice is ongoing but I've mastered the basics). I've loved learning and doing my own calligraphy for wedding paper.

This is the site where I get all my supplies. The calligraphy kit is perfect for starting out.

http://www.design-roots.net/calligraphy/

ohannabelle · January 2015

blushingbride889 said:

I'm thinking of purchasing a DIY calligraphy kit. Have any of you tried a kit or to learn calligraphy? It's $65 so I don't want to buy it if it's too hard to figure out. Any thoughts/feedback is much appreciated!

I really think 65 is a lot for a beginning kit. At Michael's or Joann's, you should be able to get one in the 10-20 range, and that's a great place to start, so you can see if it's something that you enjoy.

The felt pens aren't as nice looking as the fountain type pens with cartridges. (Of course, the bottled inks and old school dip it in pens are the best looking, but add an entire pain in the ass layer of learning to the process. I'd avoid those.)

I think it's fun, and like a lot of hobbies, kind of soothing. Make lots of copies of the graphed practice sheets, and play until you get comfortable. Once you've got the angle of the pen thing down, even your own regular cursive writing can look impressive.

fwtx5815 · January 2015

ohannabelle said:

blushingbride889 said:

I'm thinking of purchasing a DIY calligraphy kit. Have any of you tried a kit or to learn calligraphy? It's $65 so I don't want to buy it if it's too hard to figure out. Any thoughts/feedback is much appreciated!

I really think 65 is a lot for a beginning kit. At Michael's or Joann's, you should be able to get one in the 10-20 range, and that's a great place to start, so you can see if it's something that you enjoy.

The felt pens aren't as nice looking as the fountain type pens with cartridges. (Of course, the bottled inks and old school dip it in pens are the best looking, but add an entire pain in the ass layer of learning to the process. I'd avoid those.)

I think it's fun, and like a lot of hobbies, kind of soothing. Make lots of copies of the graphed practice sheets, and play until you get comfortable. Once you've got the angle of the pen thing down, even your own regular cursive writing can look impressive.

-----------------------------------------------
I agree about the price. When I first considered learning calligraphy, I bought a $20 kit at Office Depot that had a bunch of different ink cartridges/pens tips and a $3 drawing pad.

Once I decided that it was something I wanted to stick with, I invested in the ink bottles, nibs, and calligraphy practice book. I like dipping the pen in the ink and doing it the old school way, but there are other options out there.

blushingbride8888 · January 2015

Thank you all!

Junebug2015 · January 2015

@blushingbride889 are you talking about the Lettered Bride Kit?

I bought this a few weeks ago. I was a little underwhelmed by the instruction booklet, but the supplies that came with it are really high quality. I got the gold ink and it's beautiful - it's also a big bottle that will give me plenty of ink for practice and all the envelopes I need to write (about 100). I'm happy with the kit, but I do feel like it was overpriced.

I'm sure you could probably get a book that provides more instruction and similar high quality tools for less than $65. You'd just have to do some research into the right type of ink and nibs and things like that. Hope this helps.

Junebug2015 · January 2015

Also - I have good handwriting already and am pretty experienced at lettering signs and envelopes. If you are a true beginner, I would recommend a book that has more step by step directions.

fwtx5815 · January 2015

Junebug2015 said:
@blushingbride889 are you talking about the Lettered Bride Kit?

I bought this a few weeks ago. I was a little underwhelmed by the instruction booklet, but the supplies that came with it are really high quality. I got the gold ink and it's beautiful - it's also a big bottle that will give me plenty of ink for practice and all the envelopes I need to write (about 100). I'm happy with the kit, but I do feel like it was overpriced.

I'm sure you could probably get a book that provides more instruction and similar high quality tools for less than $65. You'd just have to do some research into the right type of ink and nibs and things like that. Hope this helps.

I was going to ask if it was The Lettered Bride kit, I just came across that a few days ago. If I remember correctly, it comes with three different ink colors which doesn't really seem necessary for someone who's doing their own invites. At most, maybe 2.

Junebug2015 · January 2015

@dallasbetch it actually only comes with one bottle of ink, but you can choose from three colors.

fwtx5815 · January 2015

Ahh ok. Then that just makes the $65 value seem even worse.

fwtx5815 · January 2015

OP I'm not sure what you decided, but this may be helpful to you or lurkers out there thinking of doing calligraphy. Especially since junebug mentioned that The Lettered Bride kit she bought didn't have a very helpful guide book.

I started to teach myself by following a blogger's how-to guide. The blog is called Coordinately Yours and it's by a woman named Julie Blanner.

How to Learn Calligraphy in 5 Days (<- click) is the blog, and if you scroll down toward the bottom of the blog post, she lists the series in order, so you can go at your own pace. She has one entry called "Getting Started" that suggests supplies and then the "Back To Basics" post is where the actual calligraphy part picks up. She provides a calligraphy alphabet and lined practice printables. I practiced this stuff using the cheap(ish) Office Depot calligraphy pens and a drawing pad.

This blog series taught me how/when to apply pressure, upstrokes, downstrokes, all that good stuff.

Then I bought THIS (<- click) which is the Calligraphy Practice Guide Kit from Design Roots. The Basic Kit includes a practice workbook, a pen/nib, and black ink for $31. (Three different kits are available, but this is the most basic) The workbook included an alphabet page that you could put behind tracing paper and it was the perfect 'next step' for me in learning the calligraphy alphabet.

I've since bought colored ink and a pot holder from Design Roots and I'm very happy with the quality of her stuff.

Junebug2015 · January 2015

I wish you had been around with this a week ago @dallasbetch! Like I said, I'm not exactly dissatisfied with The Lettered Bride, but I expected more for how much I paid for it.

I'll definitely use these blog posts for more ideas and guidance... thanks!

blushingbride8888 · January 2015

That was it! I decided to buy it in hopes it will work - your response makes me think I will like it. I got the gold too

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