Calligraphy

Blumberg, Bill · Post by **Blumberg, Bill** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:32 pm

Catherine Kennedy: y our question about offset pen holders, I assume you are lefthanded.. if you are.. no you dont use an offset for copperplate/spencerian. sit at your desk use a straight pen with your lines horizontal, notice how your left hand moves, stay UNDER the lines not over like we usually do as leftys and your hand automatically moves to the required 52 degrees required for copperplate/ spencerian. hunt 101 is the good starter nib, use higgins eternal ink and a large bond pad you can get at john neal.....I've been a signpainter for 46 years and just retired from teaching calligraphy at the local college after 35 years... I can help you....... and will
Bill Blumberg (541) 759-4101 (oregon coast)

Post by **Mike Jackson** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 12:35 am

Hi Bill,
Righties must adapt their lettering techniques when lettering in reverse on a glass window or door. Most gold leaf window "men" I ever saw always used a Mahl stick to keep their fingers out of the painted areas, gilded areas, or just to keep from adding oily fingerprints to the glass surface. Luckily, the first few sign painters I saw used mahl sticks, so I naturally did the same whether surface lettering or working "backwards"...er...forwards on a piece of reverse glass.

This has nothing to do with your calligraphy post, of course, but it highlights the issue that right handed lettering artists often have to make similar adjustments.

Mike (lefty) Jackson

Tony Segale · Post by **Tony Segale** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:25 am

great topic......

I took a week long calligraphy workshop a year and a half ago in North Carolina. The class was italic lettering taught by Gaynor Goffe from England. Gaynor is left-handed, as so am I, and the instruction was priceless.
As a lefty, I learned the best way for me to create black letter, was upside down. And I was having some success with italic that way as well. But Gaynor would have not of that, to my benefit. As Bill posted, the hand is below the line, and wrist bent back to where the knuckles are pointing almost to the nine o'clock postion. After staying up to midnight, two nights in a row, by wednesday morning, is was like riding a bicycle.

And Mike, that is what I enjoy most about reverse glass gilding and lettering...us southpaws get to really enjoy the "natural" motion of lettering from right to left.