Hi everyone, today I’m showing how you can do old fashioned calligraphy writing in combination with modern Spectrum Noir products.
Step 1:
What do you need: grid paper (I prefer the 5mm x 5mm), a calligraphy pen with a loose calligraphy nib, a brush (to load the ink on the nib), ruler, graphite pencil, eraser, smooth paper (for you final project), a colour of Spectrum Noir ink that will create a vintage look and the fabulous Spectrum Noir Sparkle Inks.
If you have never worked with a calligraphy pen before than practise a lot before starting you final project, the grid paper will help you write straight characters and make them all the same size.
Don’t load too much ink on the calligraphy nib reservoir at once because it will not look nice on the paper.
I also tried mixing colours on the paper, each time reloading the nib with a different colour. For my final project I choose two Spectrum Noir Sparkle Inks from the same family, “Harvest Moon” and “Log Fire”, both from the orange family. You of course can create a similar project with only one colour but I liked the look of mixing two colours on the paper.
What I also learned is to dry each line of ink with your heat tool before working on the next one, this prevents smudging the wet ink with you hand.
You can find the colours of Sparkle Ink that I used on today’s project here:
https://www.crafterscompanion.eu/spectrum-noir-sparkle-liquid-ink-30ml-falling-leaves-3pc.html
https://www.crafterscompanion.eu/spectrum-noir-sparkle-liquid-ink-30ml-cosy-christmas-3pc.html
Step 2:
If you feel you have practiced enough and you have a fun quote to work on then prepare your final project to work on: my final project is 14,5 x 20,5 cm and the paper is smooth with a yellowish undertone (Strathmore Bristol Smooth Surface paper).
I also decided which words of the quote would go on each line, 6 lines in total.
Practising before hand also gives you a feeling of how large you want your characters to be, using the size nib that you have. My calligraphy nib is 2 mm wide. Each tall character is 2 cm high (like the t, the h, the d and so on), the lower part of the characters (like the e, o, u and so on) are 8 mm.
Draw the lines you are going to work on on the final project paper, using a graphite pencil and a ruler and a light hand. If your lines are to dark you can use a kneaded eraser to make them lighter.
Step 3:
Create your project, using the tips that I have given previously, each time you load ink on the nib use a different colour of ink, dry each line of text before moving on to the next one.
When ready I decided I wanted the text to look more vintage and I created splatters with the lighter colour of orange ink (scraping the nib over the brush), drying the the spatters with my heat tool. To create a more weathered look, and this is a tricky step, I VERY LIGHTLY sprayed a LITTLE water and IMMEDIATLY dabbed of with a clean paper towel. Work in small area’s at one time. The ink will react spontaneously so yo have to work fast. If you add too much water at once, your text will become unreadable, if you let the water sit too long the text will become unreadable!
Step 4:
To make the edges of the paper fit how the text looks, old and worn, I first distressed the edges of the paper using my scissors and then finished my project by adding some Spectrum Noir Harmony Water-Reactive ink in “Sandstorm” using a Spectrum Noir “Blending Tool” to the edges of the paper.
Some detail pictures:
And that’s it for today’s project! I wish you all a creative day!
