So often we hear from aspiring calligraphers who are trying their best and yet disappointed their work doesn’t look as good as they think it should.
Often the case is that you might see your one calligrapher using a certain ink {ahem, Sumi, for example} and another calligrapher using their favorite nib, say a Nikko G. So you go online and order all these things separately and pull sheets of paper out of your office printer. Then you put the pen down to write, and the ink just bleeds out all over the place and the nib tears into the paper and when the ink isn’t blobbing out it’s still feathered at the edges and you aren’t able to get that smooth, crisp edge. Sound familiar?
The easy answer is, those supplies don’t work together! Not all ink + nib + paper combinations work well together.
Sumi ink is a fine ink {for some, I personally don’t use it} but it’s super thin, the Nikko G is fine, I use it all time, but you can’t do calligraphy with Sumi ink & an un-prepped Nikko G on subpar paper. Investing in your tools & supplies is the fastest, number 1 way we can encourage you to take your calligraphy a step WAY up from where you’re at right now if you aren’t seeing the results you want. Maybe you feel like you’re not ready, you’re “not there yet” – you don’t want to invest until you are “better”. But the truth is, you will set yourself back, struggling to see improvement, if you’re spending all your time fighting with your tools.
This is exactly why we developed our Calligraphy for Beginners: Starter Kit + Video Tutorial plus carry all of our preferred supplies in our online online shop, the supplies are all curated to work together. We’ve done the hard work for you (and have even included a few different nibs in the starter kit so you can try them out and see which one YOU prefer) & now it’s time for you to get to the fun part – the ART!
Below is a gal who wrote into us, frustrated with her calligraphy progress. Our go to answer was, “what supplies are you using?” We quickly learned that she was using supplies that were not good together, so we told her about our inks and paper from our starter kit and highly recommended them to her. You can see for yourself the difference just moments after she received her new ink!


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