Season Greetings Cards

[Free Citizen]

Hello lovers of fine writing, I have been thinking, we spend a reasonable amount on greeting cards every year. I know it is the thought that counts but E-card is so cold and lifeless. How about doing something different this year. Make our own cards! I am sure family and friends will be thrilled that we take the trouble to actually write the greetings instead of buying pre-printed well wishes. James, can you give us some ideas. Better still, some samples Basically we will need to consider the material we will use. Calligraphy style, pens of various nib width and ink in multiple colours How much will it cost?

 

Media: USD2 or 3

Pens: USD10 x 3; Broad for titles, Medium for wordings and Fine for sketching. Signature will be by your favourite fountain pens of course.

Ink: Make do of whatever you have.

 

Let's get cracking and see some samples!

[James Pickering]

.....  I have been thinking, we spend a reasonable amount on greeting cards every year. I know it is the thought that counts but E-card is so cold and lifeless. How about doing something different this year. Make our own cards! I am sure family and friends will be thrilled that we take the trouble to actually write the greetings instead of buying pre-printed well wishes. James, can you give us some ideas. Better still, some samples .....

I produce my own Christmas cards every year, Lim. I have used many designs and approaches and have learned a lot in the process. Probably the best way to respond to your request on my part is to scan and post a variety of samples I have saved and comment on the techniques, methodologies, costs, features ..... and so on for each.

 

I will start that project tomorrow morning.

 

James

[James Pickering]

There are so many ways to make your own greeting cards (single sided or folded) -- plainly written masters that you reproduce (quickest, easiest, cheapest and least trouble); decorated masters that are fully colored and reproduced (more difficult and slower to draw up -- and more expensive); masters with the decoration in outline and reproduced -- hand coloring the decoration on each copy (not too much more difficult or slower to draw up -- and not much more expensive -- but very time consuming) ..... and so on. I have done them all, and my advice is to start off with the KISS principle -- (Keep It Simple Stupid ) -- nice and easy -- and inexpensive.

 

Greeting cards are expensive these days -- postage too. I use a variety of mailing principles: I reproduce the more elaborate masters (usually folded) on fine paper and mail them to close relatives and friends in elegantly addressed envelopes. I reproduce the plainer renditions (single sided) on appropriately colored card stock, include our return address and a simple salutation (stick-on labels) on the reverse and mail them as postcards to acquaintances and casual associates (by far the least expensive way to go). Strangely enough, family members and friends often request these simpler greeting postcards in preference to the more elaborate renditions.

 

Here is a very simple postcard style greeting card master.

 

Outlined humanistic small roman header (can be colored in as a preference). Uncial greetings and stylized Italic sentiment. Variety of fountain pens/nibs used -- Waterman ink on card stock.

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal114.jpg

Edited December 4, 2004 by James Pickering

[James Pickering]

Here is a fairly elaborate decorated New Years greeting card -- colored-in master reproduced as a postcard (card stock). Humanistic Roman and ligatured Italic hands. Osmiroid fountain pens, Waterman inks, designer gouache colors.

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal113.jpg

[Free Citizen]

Here is a very simple postcard style greeting card master.

How do you do that "Christmas '87" title? That looks like a lot of practice is required.

Edited December 3, 2004 by Free Citizen

[Free Citizen]

Here is a fairly elaborate decorated New Years greeting card -- colored-in master reproduced as a postcard (card stock). Humanistic Roman and ligatured Italic hands. Osmiroid fountain pens, Waterman inks, designer gouache colors.

James, that is very impressive. How did you have it reproduced as postcard? At the printers?

[James Pickering]

Here is a very simple postcard style greeting card master.

How do you do that "Christmas '87" title? That looks like a lot of practice is required.

I don't remember what I used for that writing, Lim. I frequently make up double line writing devices using pencils, ballpoint pens and crowquill pens -- I tape them together like these two BIC Stic BP pens held together with masking tape .....

 

http://www.jp29.org/twinpens02.JPG

 

..... sometimes using the inner "cartridges" only for narrow spacing. I sometimes do a similar thing with pencils, shaving away the wood until the desired line spacing is achieved. Writing is very easy using these devices -- as long as you let "the pen rule the hand" and maintain the points consistently at the correct angle

to the line of writing and keep them in contact with the paper throughout the letter formation. The very ends of the letter form strokes have to be finished carefully using one of the points. here is an example:

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal53.jpg

[James Pickering]

Here is a fairly elaborate decorated New Years greeting card -- colored-in master reproduced as a postcard (card stock). Humanistic Roman and ligatured Italic hands. Osmiroid fountain pens, Waterman inks, designer gouache colors.

James, that is very impressive. How did you have it reproduced as postcard? At the printers?

At the time I was producing these cards I was taking them to copy shops for reproduction. Now I reproduce things on my Lexmark combination Printer/Copy/Fax/Scanner -- I think you mentioned you owned such a device, Lim?

 

BTW, in the US postcard size cannot exceed 6" (152 mm) x 4.25" (108 mm). Again, I employ single page (cardstock) hand made greeting cards as postcards or as inserts with correspondence.

 

Bear in mind I am only illustrating the simplest cards here -- both because I think that these kinds are the ones to start with, and also because it is too close to Christmas now to produce elaborate ones. I will illustrate these kinds of cards later.

 

James

[JDShaffer]

Very beautiful card, Mr. Pickering. Thank you for sharing! If I didn't have to many cards to send out every year, I might be tempted to try this! But as for now, I'm trying to make a small book/card for my wife for Christmas with "Twas the night before Christmas" on the right-hand side and some yet-to-be-decided illustrations on the left.

 

Thank you, again, for all the wonderful examples and all the time and effort you put into this forum!

 

Jeffrey

[James Pickering]

This is an example of a season greeting card page where the decorative elements were outlined with a crowquill pen and india ink on the master which was then reproduced in quantity. Each decoration was then colored in by hand using gouache. It took me a week to finish one hundred cards -- I haven't done many like this since.

 

http://www.jp29.org/File0184.jpg

[James Pickering]

"Swashed" or flourished Majuscules as shown on this exemplar can be used with good effect on greeting cards (Rotring Art pen with 1.5 mm nib using Waterman black ink on Clairefontaine paper):

 

http://www.jp29.org/File0089.jpg

Edited December 4, 2004 by James Pickering

[James Pickering]

Here is a simple card cover:

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal115.jpg

[Free Citizen]

This is a great idea. I think I can use colour paper of a thicker gauge and fold them. Will that work?

[James Pickering]

This is a great idea. I think I can use colour paper of a thicker gauge and fold them. Will that work?

Yes, Lim, I do that frequently.

 

James

[inkflow]

Hi James,

 

When you did the "C" in "Christmas 1990" with all of the vines around it or the long vines going down the page, do you follow a template? Is there a set way to do it or do you just wing it?

Is there a book with just pictures of the decoration (not fonts or hands) done in Calligraphy? Do the decorations have names like the hands do?

 

Nancy

[James Pickering]

Hello, Nancy -- you asked:

 

When you did the "C" in "Christmas 1990" with all of the vines around it or the long vines going down the page, do you follow a template?

 

Sometimes yes -- sometimes I create such decoration specifically for the rendition. If I particularly like the decoration and it has universal application I may reproduce and save the outline as a template for further use.

 

Is there a set way to do it or do you just wing it?

 

There are universally accepted applicabilities -- for instance, the style of vinework I depict in the accompanying exemplar below is suitable for use with italic or humanistic small roman writing but would not be suitable with, for instance, uncial writing.

 

Is there a book with just pictures of the decoration (not fonts or hands) done in Calligraphy?

 

Yes, I will dig out the references and post them later.

 

Do the decorations have names like the hands do?

 

Yes, there is a vocabulary that is universally understood and accepted by calligraphers and limners (illuminators). For instance, the large lead-off letters (such as the "C" you reference) are called Versals. Illumination in this sense refers to the inclusion of colored and gilded devices, vinework and stylized depictions after the text has been written out. The gold leaf is applied on raised gilder's gesso (asiso) -- and burnished -- or flat on glair.

 

The following simple vinework exemplar is an outline template I use for informal renditions, coloring it in using gouache, watercolor, colored ballpoint pens, etc.

 

Practice with it if you wish, Nancy. (any other FPN member too).

 

James

 

http://www.jp29.org/cal127.jpg

[inkflow]

Thanks James, your explanations were interesting and enlightening!

 

I went to a library recently and saw a tiny calligraphy display under glass. I asked the librarian about it and then she took me to a locked room and let me in. All four walls were covered with a few dozen framed calligraphy works. It was lovely to look at. She stood there patiently while I looked at each one, but I felt a bit rushed knowing she had other things to do other than babysitting me as I excitedly looked around. Only towards the end did I realize that I should have taken out my camera and photographed them so I could view them later at home, but I had already taken up enough of her time. Maybe I'll make it back to that library so I could see them again.

 

The work was done by the Island Scribes. I asked about them at the library desk and was told that they meet once a month on Thursday nights, but that they're changing it to Thursday afternoons because most of the members are elderly and won't drive at night.

[James Pickering]

Thanks James, your explanations were interesting and enlightening!

 

Thank you, Nancy -- I hope you pursue document illumination.

 

As a point of interest, I have constructed an adjunct to my web site called "Calligrapher's Corner" which is an online Forum for discussing all aspects of Calligraphy including Italic handwriting, techniques and methodologies, materials and equipment -- pencils, pens, paper, Vellum & Parchment preparation, ink, gouache colors, formal & informal writing, illuminating, gilding, ..... and so on.

 

Calligrapher's Corner

 

It can also be toggled from my web pages making it handy and easy for me to operate and maintain.

 

I found that the FPN "Penmanship" Forum was naturally drifting toward general Calligraphy -- which seemed to me a little un-natural for a Forum devoted to fountain pens.

 

James

Edited December 13, 2004 by James Pickering