Calligraphy is the art of beautiful handwriting. While many Calligraphy pros enhance their work with watercolor backgrounds, brush-pen flowers, and an overall eye for design, the basis of great calligraphy skills is learning to write well in a particular alphabet. Perusing the calligraphy tags on social media, you will probably see calligraphy masters who can switch their hands from piece to piece. In one post they might be writing in Copperplate, and in another Roundhand. They might then switch from Spencerian to Italic. To start with, however, you'll need to pick a hand—just one!—that you would like to master. For a novice calligrapher practicing in too many hands at once can cause sloppy work and confused techniques. Once you are...
Marbled paper is having an enthusiastic revival from makers and crafters all around the world. You've probably seen it on the cover of notebooks. Not to mention, similar techniques to water marbling are being used more and more frequently by calligraphers. But for an art whose wispy, pleasant patterns and resurfacing popularity feel like a breath of fresh air, it can be hard to believe that the techniques of marbling date back to the Middle Ages. Marbled paper is the art of floating pigments and dyes on water, and transferring those patterns onto paper. The marbling artist uses the mobility of the water and suspended pigments to create free form shapes or combed patterns. The marbling artist can transfer...
Do you feel inspired or satisfied when you watch ink drop into a pool of water? For many, watching paint spread and disperse into water can have therapeutic effects. Marbled paper is made from just this process. In fact, most marbled paper in the United States is done with thin acrylic paints or inks dropped onto the surface of a pan of water. Marbled papers show a vibrancy and movement that most prints don't have. This has to do with the paint's tendency to flee from the paper and sink down into the water, even as the paper catches it. Not to mention that every single piece of marbled paper is unique. This uniqueness is one of the greatest...
