Friday, November 13, 2009

Flourish Friday - Ornamental Fraktur Calligraphy

For this week's Flourish Friday, I tried my hand at Ornamental Fraktur. Believe it or not, this is the letter A.

I used some blue ink that was packaged with the pen my husband bought me in Venice. (You can see that glass pen in an earlier post here.)

I used my 6mm Pilot Parallel Pen. I filled a spent cartridge with a Monojet syringe. I like the Parallel Pen for practice. It is easier for me to get consistent thins from this tool than it is from a broad edge dip pen.

My reference was chapter 6 from Bill Hildebrandt's wonderful book "Calligraphic Flourishing." Some Flourish Friday I'll have to show you the Whopperplate I bought from Bill! :-)

I hope you're all Flourishing out there! Have a great weekend!!

10 comments:

  1. your fraktur is gorgeous, jane!!! that's a lot to go through just for a letter A!! i really LOVE the richness of that blue ink....beautiful! happy weekend to you sweetie pie! :))

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  2. The dance of your pen makes beauty from within.
    Your flourished letters are wonderful.
    xxoo

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  3. Jane, thank you so much for your affirming comments. Sometimes, I wonder if my posts are encouraging to others, or I am just doing this for my own benefit. To know that my story, my journey, which in part is all of our journeys, touches something in someone else makes my heart sing. Thank you.

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  4. Hi, you don't know me, but a google search brought me here. I was wondering where I can purchase a Whopperplate. I've been looking all over, but I haven't had any luck. Any answer would be appreciated. Thanks,

    -Grace

    grace_6@hotmail.com

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  5. I love your fraktur lettering, it's so cool. This type is lettering is part of the reason I got into calligraphy. Thanks for an inspiring post.

    Susan

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  6. These are really nice Fraktur caps. thanks for sharing how you got so proficient! The blue is a nice, historical touch.

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  7. Beautiful lettering work. Was checking Bill's book. It's selling for $100. Is there a place to get it cheaper? I am really excited to pick up my pen after many years. Could you maybe do a bit on new pens, ink, and/or markers that are helpful?

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    1. Thanks for your visit and the great question, Peg! If you are not already a member of the nearest calligraphy guild or society, then I encourage you to join. Most guilds/societies have libraries and allow their members to check out books and other materials. I should think most guilds have this book in their library. Also, longtime guild members may have this book that they may be willing to loan or even sell to you. Finally, I often get out-of-print books from my local library. If they don't have the book, then interlibrary loan is always an option. I hope this helps. There are helpful forums such as the Yahoo! Groups "Cyberscribes", "Ornamental Penmanship" and "IAMPETH" and Facebook Groups "Cyberscribes" and "The Curious Calligrapher" that can act as good resources for calligraphers and their questions - inks, nibs, papers, design questions, etc. I hope this helps!

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    2. Thanks so much for your suggestions.

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