Calligraphy Kits

A Calligraphy Kit should contain everything you need to start learning to create beautiful writing. As a minimum you need a pen and ink, some paper and a ‘Sampler’ or examples of the lettering you want to create. It is useful to have at least some basic instructions of how to create each letter.  After that it is practice, practice, practice…
Blots ‘Introduction to Calligraphy’ has these essentials. It consists of a 3.8mm Pilot Parallel Pen which is one of the best and easiest of the calligraphy fountain pens.
Two sets of guidelines are supplied to place under the writing sheet to guide you in the size of letters. Two Sampler sheets, Italic and Roundhand, are supplied to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. A single A4 sheet of instructions gives a basic introduction to forming letters.

It is possible to create your own ‘kit’ by putting together your own essentials –  a calligraphy pen, ink, paper. You can make your own guidelines. Guidelines are designed for re-use under a sheet of layout paper to save time in ruling out new pages. The ruled lines should be bold enough to show through the page and give a general view of the size of each letter. As you progress you will rule up your page in pencil and when it has been lettered (and dried!) rub out the pencil lines with an eraser. The size of your kit is starting to grow already, by adding pencil, ruler and eraser. It is easier to letter if you use a board ( a piece of MDF will do to start with). Place it on a table and raise it to about 30° by placing some large books at the back. You should be able to sit comfortably at the table with your feet on the floor and not be leaning over the board.
There are two types of Calligraphy Pen. The most traditional pen is a quill. A feather is cured (heated) and cut to make a broad edged pen. Reeds can also be dried and cut to make a calligraphy pen. The traditional steel dip pen (Mitchell, Speedball, Brause, Leonardt as held in a penholder. It is often called a dip pen but better control is gained by using a brush to load the pen with ink. The modern fountain pen has also been fitted with calligraphy nibs (Manuscript, Rotring ArtPen). The latest addition to the calligraphy fountain pens has been the Pilot Parallel Pen which is a radically different design consisting of two parallel blades which feed the ink to the paper.