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This is an interactive Bulletin Board on the topics of Sign making, design, fabrication, History, old Books and of coarse Letterheads, Keepers of the craft. The Hand Lettering Forum features links to resources, sign art history, techniques, and artists profiles. Learn more about Letterheads at https://theletterheads.com. Below you'll see Mchat has been added as a live communication portal for trial, and the Main forum Links are listed below.

Search found 225 matches

by Lee Littlewood
Thu Dec 15, 2011 3:01 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: No news?
Replies: 87
Views: 86559

Re: No news?

Eric, Nice videos of the Cafe Club Brandon. Hanging over the side of a ladder is hard enough - doing it with a fine script is what we would call "hairy". Good show. I was in Amsterdam for a day and 1/2 last March, so I ran around with a camera looking for signs. I saw only one gilded windo...
by Lee Littlewood
Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:33 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Brush oil
Replies: 22
Views: 18232

Re: Brush oil

I've always used 30weight motor oil. My master Roy Darby said that he had lost some brushes-in-lard-oil because mice ate them, and also in the winter the lard oil was so stiff it took awhile to rinse it out in thinner. When he went off to World War 2 (he was a flight instructor in Texas) he said he ...
by Lee Littlewood
Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:03 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Ben Sherman. Glass Gilding NYC
Replies: 6
Views: 4585

Re: Ben Sherman. Glass Gilding NYC

But Dave, you didn't specify it had to be done with a "Smith Tip"(copyright) - then you could have used the video in your adverts...

Nice to see the Wehrung & Bilmeier (spelling?) box - are they still in business? Old-time Chicago goldbeaters
by Lee Littlewood
Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:53 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: S. O. L. on the D. S. of L.
Replies: 5
Views: 2916

Re: S. O. L. on the D. S. of L.

Cool. Robare, I didn't realize that YOU had gotten this, I thought the post was about "one that got away". What do you think of my Speedball #10 pdf (bottom of the "List of Sign Related Books" forum)? Maybe we could get the whole set of early Speedballs up - I have #6 and #9 and ...
by Lee Littlewood
Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:32 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: S. O. L. on the D. S. of L.
Replies: 5
Views: 2916

Re: S. O. L. on the D. S. of L.

Now keep an eye out, see if they show up as individual books at $50 each...
by Lee Littlewood
Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:26 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: How to make Asphaltum Varnish...
Replies: 12
Views: 12868

Re: How to make Asphaltum Varnish...

Ah Ha! So asphaltum is dissolved asphalt, and asphalt is: (from the web, my bold text) WHAT'S THAT STUFF? November 22,1999 Volume 77, Number 47 CENEAR 77 47 p.81 ISSN 0009-2347 Asphalt -Michael Freemantle Where would we be without that black sticky stuff called asphalt? We walk, cycle, and drive car...
by Lee Littlewood
Wed Feb 10, 2010 10:01 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Lead Lettering
Replies: 4
Views: 3264

Re: Lead Lettering

Aaargh. Here's the 3rd stone; fairly complex.
by Lee Littlewood
Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:55 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Lead Lettering
Replies: 4
Views: 3264

Re: Lead Lettering

Hmm, methinks I pushed 'send' a mite too quick. Here are
Examples 2 & 3
by Lee Littlewood
Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:51 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Lead Lettering
Replies: 4
Views: 3264

Re: Lead Lettering

Wow, what a find! I'd like to see his mallet a bit better, but the video makes the whole process quite clear. Here is a letter i wrote after spending Christmas 2008 in New Zealand, and some photos. Unlike what Pat saw, most of the lead stones I saw were in very good shape and I had to search for mis...
by Lee Littlewood
Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:25 pm
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Glass vs. sand smalt
Replies: 2
Views: 2414

Smalts

One thing that I think I've seen is that smalt wasn't necessarily only used in high-tone or gold work. We saw a pretty run-of-the-mill sign for a livery stable that looked like it had been smalted but not gilded. My guess is that smalt would help hide the cracks between boards in the early, pre-plyw...
by Lee Littlewood
Mon Jul 19, 2004 12:56 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Signmaking 101: Snap Lines
Replies: 5
Views: 5516

I never thought of kite string, cool! Our sing supply place used to get unsanforized button thread. i think that meant it didn't have a slick surface. The thread itself is very tough and thin, so it makes a nice line to follow. And a spool of thread fits in your pocket, but it stores a lot of line -...
by Lee Littlewood
Mon Jul 19, 2004 12:47 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: AHEM! Hand lettering!
Replies: 9
Views: 9223

Once, a long time ago when I was a wee beginner (I think it was last month) I was agonizing over the "time spent on job" / "payment received" ratio for a bunch of jobs and i had a couple of thoughts. One was ,"Maybe I don't need to gild every sho-card" and that was a us...
by Lee Littlewood
Tue Jul 06, 2004 2:04 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Scented Talc
Replies: 8
Views: 7185

If you're trying to avoid having the leaf stick to the background, LeBlanc advised eggwhite size or starch (cut potato, pasta water). I have had some remarkable "saves" with eggwite - on one job where the gold took to the background better than to the gold, I flooded the next section with ...
by Lee Littlewood
Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:40 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: Liquid mask???
Replies: 11
Views: 10801

mud and more

My "old guys" used mud a lot after WWII for lettering on the cans for neon signs. Lots of red letters on colored grounds - since you sprayed the red it got a long lasting coat. They said it took awhile to get the feel of it, and you had to reserve some quills just for mud 'cause it ruined ...
by Lee Littlewood
Tue Jun 29, 2004 1:25 am
Forum: The Hand Lettering Forum
Topic: AKA: Handlettering
Replies: 21
Views: 17652

handlettering/money/passion

You know, maybe we've got it all wrong, thinking that it is 'vinyl' versus 'hand'. If it is all about passion/emotion/feeling/humanism/whatever, maybe we should be trying to se how best to put that into vinyl/digital print/CADrouter work. I mean, it is hard to deliver emotion when it has to go throu...