Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Calligraphy pens

We had a pretty good turnout for the April meeting, held at Perks on April 18th (16 members in attendance on a *very* wet night) which featured calligraphy pens. Special thanks to Julienne for her calligraphy demos and to Greg for donating the door prize, a Sheaffer NoNonsense calligraphy set (won by Mike M).

Our May meeting will be held at Perks pen store (5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC) on Thursday May 16 at 6:30pm, and our theme will be Cross Fountain Pens.

Now, here are some photos I snapped last Thursday:

Julienne showing us some examples of the calligraphy she does with her Pilot Parallel fountain pen, a type of pen whose nib consists of two parallel plates. The nib widths range from very wide (1.5mm) to extremely wide (2.4mm and 3.8mm) to "paintbrush" width (a whopping 6.0mm wide!!)



Our members watch with rapt attention to Julienne's talk on calligraphy pens....



(similar photo as above, but without the annoying camera flash!)



Our affable host, Richard Clarke of Perks pen shop! If you are ever in the Vancouver area, make sure to stop by Perks (at 5844 Cambie Street) and see the nice selection of writing instruments, paper and inks for sale. Perks is open daily, except Mondays.



Some lovely handwriting done by Julienne with a modern flexible-nibbed fountain pen, the Noodler's "Ahab" (poem by Wm. Wordsworth :)



Anne brought in a wide selection of dip pen nibs along with her Speedball dip pen. These type of dip pens use India Ink, a type of drawing ink containing pigments and gum arabic that is *not* to be used in fountain pens (India Ink will clog fountain pens terribly and is a challenge to remove!)



New member Ken brought in a wide selection of writing instruments used by architects. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph them, but I did snap a photo of his "jumbo" fountain pen made by Tombow, as well as Louise's Parker Vector with calligraphy nib. The latter came as part of a set with several different calligraphy nib widths.



Some examples of the intricate Korean calligraphy done by Julienne on a special type of paper that felt a bit like papyrus to me.



Any of these look familiar?? The ever-popular Sheaffer NoNonsense calligraphy kit--various generations of the kits sold from the 1970s to the present day.

4 comments:

RJ said...

Looks like another great meeting in Vancouver. Great idea for a theme, we might have to borrow that one too. If I ever get to the west coast I hope to time it correctly for one of your meetings.

- Rick in London, ON

Vancouver Pen Club said...

Thanks kindly, Rick and if you are in town, please feel free to drop in on one of our meetings! I'd love to attend a LPC meeting myself :)

Cheers,
~Maja

quinoa peru said...

How can I get in touch with Richard Clarke from Perks

Vancouver Pen Club said...

@quinoa peru---You can try Richard at his Perks store in North Vancouver at the store's tel# (604) 987-9608.