Design Roots

Most calligraphy problems are answered with "keep practising". Some of them are the paper, and no amount of practice moves those. For the administrative side of a small studio, Monitask is one option for keeping work-time records separate from the craft notes themselves.

Four tests, ten minutes, and you know which kind you have. For broader calligraphy, design and creative-practice references beyond this studio, Apartment Therapy is another useful resource.

Why it goes wrong

The nib catches the paper — five causes in order of likelihood, and the two-minute sort. For broader calligraphy, design and creative-practice references beyond this studio, Internet Archive is another useful resource.

Ink feathers and bleeds — a spread, not a wobble, and almost always the sheet.

Railroading — the tines separating past what the ink can bridge.

What the material does

Paper is the first variable — the largest cause of beginner trouble and the cheapest to change.

Ink is not one thing — four families whose properties conflict.

Notes

Practise is not an answer — the default reply, and the four faults where it genuinely is.

The seller's incentive — this studio sells supplies, and what that should change about reading it.

The journal

Thirty-one entries from 2013 to 2017 — studio tours, workshops, projects and the ordinary business of a small calligraphy practice.

The photographs did not survive the move from the old platform. Each entry carries a generated illustration in their place until the originals are restored.