Can Some Help Me With A "calligraphy" Question....

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

I have watched a few documentaries that dramatize people writing with dip pens and they use a metal "stick" or "pin" to hold the paper flat on the writing table while they did their scrip. Is there an official name for this metal device?

Edited January 15, 2015 by Zaphod_Beeblebrox

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

 

 

Screen shot of item in question, what is the official name of the device used to hold the paper flat?

[Yaakova]

I've never used anything like that myself. I always just taped the paper to the drawing board and used scrap paper under my hand to keep the oils from my skin off the page. Sign painters and artists use a device called a maulstick to keep their hands off a vertical service, but that's not precisely what this is. If someone else knows, I'd be interested in learning myself!

[caliken]

I've never used anything like that myself. I always just taped the paper to the drawing board and used scrap paper under my hand to keep the oils from my skin off the page. Sign painters and artists use a device called a maulstick to keep their hands off a vertical service, but that's not precisely what this is. If someone else knows, I'd be interested in learning myself!

I think that you're right. It takes the place of an artist's Maulstick but on a smaller scale to suit the purpose. The point of a medium-sized screwdriver would probably do the job just as well. I use the wrong end of a pointed brush.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulstick

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

Thanks you!

[Yaakova]

I was right? Well, color me surprised!

[Inkysloth]

The calligraphy tutor at a class I'm taking uses the wrong end of a pencil - she stated at the beginning of the term that she was taught that way, and can't write without her left hand being supported with a stick.

I've tried it out, and found that it does help me feel more stable and controlled.

[PS104]

Glad I saved my chopsticks from the Chinese restaurant

Never mastered eating with them (although I'll keep trying) but this seems like a good unintended use for them

Thanks for the idea

[Randal6393]

No! Not a chopstick! You may transfer grease to the paper and then your writing may skip. The wrong end of a brush, especially if you are filling your dip pen with the right write end, works well. As does the eraser end of a pencil.

 

Best of luck,