[Scriptoris] Tricks and the Nib Question

[Elaine]

Wanna know a trick to making Speedball C nibs carry more ink? Take a  
pair of tweezers and insert a point under the reservoir, near the  
tip. Bend the reservoir so it will curve down more. like your fingers  
if they clawed a table. It will back up the contact point of the  
reservoir tip from the end of the nib, but the gap will hold more ink  
and make the nib easier to clean with a toothbrush.

Wanna know a good homemade nib cleaning solution? 1/3 household  
ammonia,1/3 dishwashing liquid, and 1/3 rubbing alcohol. Use the  
toothbrush dipped in it, or even soak the nibs in it for a dip or two  
and then scrub.

Wanna keep blobs from happening, especially when the barometric  
pressure is low and it's raining outside? Angle your work surface up-- 
the lower the pressure, the higher the board angle. Ever look at the  
angle of the work surfaces of the English monks in that damp climate?  
Also, test your nib with a stroke or two on scrap paper right after  
you have had to dip again. Let your blob happen there.

I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve like that, which I have worked  
out over the years.

Now, about writing big and bold-----for signs, you could hunt up some  
Coit pens online (www.coitpens.com) You can clean the little slits  
with unwaxed dental floss.

Just for fun, for big and bold lettering that's easy to read and you  
don't have to mess with lower case, try Uncials on steroids. Spacing  
for Uncials also offers escapes for goofups if you haven't been  
preplanning things------ligatures (joining a following letter to a  
stroke in the one preceding it-----like in the word HONOR--Uncial can  
join the H's crescent stroke on the right to the following O so the  
combined strokes are one penwidth wide, and the R to the preceding O  
by deleting the spine of the R and using the right side of the O for  
the R's spine. Just don't get crazy with all the joins--------like a  
woman with too many diamonds on, it looks bad (unless you happen to  
BE that woman!). ; - )

As to writing small, I only got into that because my mundane master  
(a national one) challenged me to a contest. The last tiny thing I  
did was a postage stamp sized quotation, a paragraph--with red uncial  
versal--of Sir Francis Bacon---with the x-height of the minuscules at  
less than a millimeter high on a scrap of vellum I had trimmed. The  
funny thing is that a Laurel who saw it (with my magnifying glass)  
wrote in her commentary that, though she had never written that  
small, my lettering was "sloppy." I have giggled ever since about  
that, and I have the very piece hanging prominently by my front door  
for my daily giggle.  ROTFL!

Lete
.........................................

On Dec 18, 2008, at 7:17 AM, Celestria leDragon wrote:

> Wow! Thanks for all the great info. I have a C4 and C5 that I've  
> been using
> for Uncials. I have issues writing small. I like things big and  
> bold I guess
> that's why I like Gothic LoL. I appreciate all of your information  
> and will
> keep them for future reference.
>
> Thanks!
> Celestria
> _______________________________________________
> Scriptoris mailing list
> Scriptoris at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/scriptoris-ansteorra.org