We Love Pens!

You need to consider a few things before you select a scrapbooking pen. First, and most importantly make sure that the pens that you choose are free of acid. Most often the scrapbooking pens that are available in general stores are not acid free. If you take a close look at the pen, it will be stated on the pen itself, if it is acid free or not. Some of the finest quality pens are available in Art & Craft stores, you may get them in a few general stores, but it’s quite rare.

Another thing that you would need to consider while buying your scrap booking pen is, what type of pen are you looking for. There are a myriad of different scrapping pens and you want to make sure that you choose the right type of pens. For example the scrap booking pens that you would need to write in your journal, would be different from the scrap booking pen that is used for creating titles. So, choose the right pen as per its application. Zig memory systems, are one of the best options for scrapbooking pens for writing titles. These come with pointed tips that are of vary in its thickness. A writer pen has a double tipped point. One end is extremely fine, whereas the other is sort of like a bullet, which is helpful in illustrating color in an explicit way. If you want to write a title, you can use both the tips, that is the bullet, as well as the fine tip. These pens are available in standard colors such as pink, red etc. Zig systems also has a choice of calligraphic tips. These tips are chiseled and are used for calligraphy. There are various new scrap booking pens that are constantly being released, and you can try these out, in order to enhance the appearance of your scrap book.

You can also use these scrapbooking pens for drawing and doodle. They provide wonderful designs to the scrap pages. There are a varied tips that you find in the market, these have unique design patterns and helps to create different layouts.

Doodles can also be created by using gel pens for scrapbooking. They come in a variety of color scales. Gel pens are also available in glitter, which add a sparkle to your scrap books.

A simple journal pen is apt for journal writing. These pens have a small tip for close writing. Millennium Zig pens are good for journal writing, and come in an extensive range of colors. The points of the tips, range from 003, 005 and 008.

These pens are flexible while writing, and are extremely useful as they enhance minute details while writing or drawing.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of scrapbooking pens that are available. List down your requirements and choose the right ones that fit your needs the best. These pens are used for different purposes and enhance the appearance of your scrapbook.

Before the beginning of the 20th Century little had been written about calligraphy except The Story of the Alphabet by Edward Clodd and Maude Thompson’s fine work on Greek ana Latin Paleography together with his volume on English Illuminated Manuscripts, published in 1895 and out of print before 1906. But since the time that Edward Johnston published his book on Writing, Lettering and Illuminating a steady stream of works upon all aspects of the subject have been written; probably it was because of the interest aroused by the pioneers in the practical side of the craft that this flow of literature occurred, both here and in the United States.

The following are among the most important. The British Museum published a guide to the collection of manuscripts they had in 1906. About the same time John W. Bradley was publishing illustrated books on illuminating, its history and development. During 1907 the British Museum published Reproductions of Illuminated MSS., a series of fifty collotype plates. In 1920 W. A. Mason published in New York a work of considerable scholarship dealing with the subject of picture writing in the Americas together with the growth of letter-form in Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylon, Assyria, Crete, Greece and Rome, a book of great interest to all who wish to study the formation of alphabets.

With the development of photography and process reproduction the range of examples showing epigraphy and paleography has increased to a degree unthought of during the early days of the century. During 1932 B. L. Ullnan of the University of Chicago published Ancient Writing and Its Influence, which brings the history of the alphabet more up to date and includes some observations on the Sinai stones, which may eventually help to solve the riddle of the alphabet. Professor E. A. Lowe of Oxford wrote in The Legacy of the Middle Ages a chapter on “Handwriting” which deals with its growth before the time of Charlemagne. This is an excellent essay, which should be known by all serious students of calligraphy. James Wardrop of the Victoria and Albert Museum has also written on “Palatino and His Circle” in Signature, No. 14, 1952.

World origins and development of alphabets are also dealt with in great profusion by D. Diringer, a scholar in these matters. The French just before the war of 1939-1945 issued some newly discovered material in plates dealing with early specimens of the written small letter under the title of L’ Eicriture Latine by J. Mallon, which takes history back earlier than Maude Thompson’s great work.

Finally among the smaller and more recent publications comes the “King Penguin” on the subject of writing by Alfred Fairbank, which makes a rapid survey from the fourth to the twentieth centuries; and some beautiful photographic reproductions of the detailed work of twelfth-century artists taken from the Winchester Bible by Walter Oakshott.

From about the year 1930 writing and lettering had made such progress that it had become a subject in the training of Art Teachers and was taught by the immediate followers of the two who had given their lives to its cause. Lettering of Today, first volume, published in 1937, showed the work of some of these who had taken up the craft and were in their turn passing it on to the new generation.

As the art itself has progressed, so has the literature representing calligraphy. The aforementioned books are great historical references, but technical books that will walk you through the art of calligraphy are also available.

The Calligraphy pens can be traced back to the ancient civilization. The ancient civilization used a stylus on the clay tablets; these were generally used by the Sumerians and the Babylonians. The Ancient Romans also used a tool for writing which was the stylus with the wax tablets. The Chinese Calligraphy was complex and renowned in those times; they used a brush instead of a tool for the Calligraphy pen. Reed pens and quills were also used as a calligraphy pen by monks and saints in the middle age era.

As years went by the Calligraphy pens also went through a few changes. The reed pens actually used inks in them, bamboo or bulrushes were used by the middle age people. Quills replaced the reed pens in the medieval age till steel tips were, they could be shaped often when it blunts off. Metal nibbed calligraphy pens were used in ancient Rome, the metal stylus was scribed into thin wax sheets. Glass Calligraphy pens were used in the 16th century in Venice; they were used to create a steady monocline mark. They were deemed a delicate and fine tool.

The Chinese Calligraphy pen was nothing similar to their western contemporaries; they followed a complex and intricate form of Calligraphy and the tools used were also unique. They use Calligraphy brush instead of a pen; the brush looks simple for a person who is unaware of its detailed methods of manufacturing, it is made either from goat’s hair or wolfs hair. The brush itself is made of two or more layers, the first layer being an inner core which consists of a string of short hairs; they are surrounded by an outer layer of long hairs that end at the tip of the brush. These brush are stiff and strong producing sharp strokes.

The calligraphy pen is a simple tool that takes considerable application to master. Some pens come with little added extras which may also take some time getting used to.

Some calligraphy pens come with a detachable reservoir and some are permanently fixed. A calligraphy pen reservoir is a little piece of metal fitted to the calligraphy pen nib that increases the amount of ink it holds. You’ll find that it will give you a more even flow of ink. It will also reduce the frequency with which you will have to recharge your pen while working.

The calligraphy pen reservoir might be a detachable piece that can be removed for refilling or cleaning while other pens come with the reservoir permanently attached. Both have their pluses and minuses, but using them is just a matter of trial and error and becoming accustomed to the new tool.

Although a detachable reservoir gives you an easier pen to clean, you also have the responsibility of reassembling the pen carefully. Allowing the reservoir to protrude from the nib will reduce the quality of the ink flow and your work will suffer.

A top-mounted reservoir can prove to be a distraction for some people because it can obscure the vision to the writing edge. There are options available to over come this, such as the Mitchell Roundhand Series pens which have the reservoir permanently mounted to the holder sitting underneath the nib.

Care must also be taken when recharging the reservoir that is permanently attached to the pen. Turn your pen upside down and, either with a paintbrush that has been dipped in ink or with an eyedropper , add the ink to the widest part of the nib. This will allow the ink to fill the space between the nib and the reservoir. Make sure the upper side of the pen nib is ink-free.

Careful application of ink to the nib and reservoir will ensure you maintain a smooth, even flow when lettering and you reduce the risk of leaving large ink blots around your work surface – your lines will be consistently wide.

To clean the reservoir, slide it off and simply rinse it under running water. Soak the nib in a special solvent (such as Higgins Pen Cleaner) overnight and then take an old toothbrush to it to get it clean. Take the soaking nib the next morning and rinse it in cold running water before drying it thoroughly with a towel.

When buying a calligraphy pen with an attached reservoir make sure that you have a close look at the nib and reservoir settings to ensure that the tip of the reservoir hasn’t been bent away from the nib. The flange of the reservoir should sit lightly on top of the pen with little excess air space visible.

As with all important tools, the more care you take with maintenance of your pen, the longer it will remain in good working order.

In the early years the ink reservoirs were filled using an eyedropper, but this was a messy process, but the advantage of this pen was that it could hold more ink that any other auto filling pen. The next generation used self fillers which were made up of rubber sacs to contain the ink. The sac is squeezed and released to fill in the ink. In the year 1901 Conklin crescent filler was introduced to the public, it was the first mass production of self filling pens.

The mechanism used in Cresent filling pens: it has an arch-shaped crescent fixed to the strong metal pressurised bar, the crescent section jetting out from the holder through a pressure bar and slot placed in the barrel. The second component has a semi circular tough rubber ring situated in between the barrel and the crescent. The ring is used to block the semi circular ring from pushing downwards. To refill the pen the user has to just turn the ring round the barrel till the C-shaped ring matches to the gap inside the ring. This allows it to push the crescent down and compress the inner sac.

In the year 1950 a new plastic ink cartridge was introduced. Early on in 1820s screw-mechanism piston filler came into being. This system was widely used only when the Pelican was introduced in 1929. The basic mechanism used a simple handle at the bottom of the pen and a piston is drawn up to the barrel by a ***** mechanism, which helps in ******* the ink. In the year 1949 the touch down filler was manufactured by Sheaffer, it had a handle at the bottom of the barrel which can be removed and the plunger can be taken out to the full length. The tip of the pen is sunk into to the ink container, the plunger that is pushed in compresses and then releases the ink pouch because of sir pressure.