A Few New Calligraphy Things

It's Friday! And it's back to school! What could be even better?? We've got lots of new products to share. Here are some of the first few, mostly calligraphy related. We got a few new nibs in from Brause - the Rose, the 1 mm and 2.5 mm and the Index Nib (can you guess which one is my new favourite?? - having tried none of the four, of course my new favourite is the Index Finger). While we mostly are expanding our nib selection based on calligrapher's and customer's requests and recommendations, I've also had a few customers bring in their Noodler's Flex pens and other fountain pens modified to take dip pen nibs for true flex. I'll have to try one myself to see how it works!

We definitely have our sights set on carrying some calligraphy books, examples and photographs of calligraphy along with instructional calligraphy books, but in the mean time, we've just received these great calligraphic alphabet templates or lettering cards. They're large, thick card stock alphabets that give you different hands or fonts. You can obviously look at them to see what the letters should look like, but they also give you stroke instructions so you know the proper order and direction to make the strokes, and you can also use them underneath paper to trace.

And most exciting of all! We now carry loose leaf Seyes Ruled Paper in a package of 100 A4 sheets. I think it must be a combination of fall and my once-a-teacher-always-a-teacher because a fresh pile of loose leaf ruled paper is always a sign of something new and hopeful, mainly that the kids have not yet arrived to knock over the whole stack onto the floor ;) I can hardly believe we haven't been carrying this all along. Seyes Ruled paper is good for practising calligraphy or regular cursive handwriting (check here for a quick primer), but I have already sent off two letters on this crazy paper.

We've been running our calligraphy classes in the shop, and we're thrilled at how popular they've been! We've got a few new classes posted. I know they seem a bit far away, but they do fill up quickly, so register early if you know your calendar in advance: Introduction to Pointed Pen with Michele Nidenoff Saturday, September 26th from 10 am to 1 pm Introduction to Calligraphy with Mark Lurz Saturday, October 24th from 10 am to 1 pm Saturday, October 24th from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm And in case you missed it on Instagram, we just filled up our Raskog Sales Cart with new sale items! We usually have open box or slightly damaged items there (like if an ink bottle breaks and stains the boxes of other ink bottles, but the ink itself is still good, etc.), but we're starting this new thing where every once in a while we fill it up with brand new merchandise at a discount. This time we've got some really good stuff! A few Lamy Copper Orange fountain pens, some Leuchtturm and Coach House Press notebooks, Midori Brass, Stormy Grey and...discontinued Sailor Jentle Ultramarine ink! I'm not supposed to be sharing too many details because it's supposed to be a surprise when you come in, so you'll have to stop by to check it out before it's all gone! Discounts range from 10% to 40%. We're going to be filling this up every once in a while as a special treat. When we were setting it up, I felt like I was shopping at the grocery store, because I was just pushing this Raskog cart around the store and picking things up off the shelves to put in. We're also working on something for you folks that aren't in the neighbourhood or who can't make it in to the bricks &mortar. I'm not exactly sure what it will look like yet (I'm guessing it will look like a link of some sort...), but it will be coming... Have a great weekend, everyone!