Just thought I would dip in and make a post.

I can't believe I had the gall to make that pun.

I received a very big scroll assignment the other day for {THAT PERSON YOU LIKE}. The scroll will be on pergamenta and I have no doubt that the illumination will be up to snuff (which means that it will be nothing to sneeze at), but I want to make sure that the calligraphy will be nice.

Well, acceptable; my calligraphy is, at best, terrible. I am concerned that I will smear the ink as I write. When I was a landed Baron, and had to sign Baronial scrolls, I hated pergamenta. The ink wouldn't soak in, it would smear and run. I hated them and treated them like they were brussel sprouts and I was two.

So. I took one of my sheets of pergamenta and cut it in half. I pounced the paper, drew some guide lines, and started writing. First was a cartridge pen that I just bought, Manuscript brand. It was a pain to get the ink to start flowing (I had to dip it into my ink bottle first), it leaked and wouldn't flow onto the pergamenta or the bristol scrap I used. It worked okay on an index card, but not great.

I tested my Cross fine tipped pen and it worked just fine. The ink flowed and stayed put. Then I loaded up my dip pen, with a new nib, and tested my Speedball ink. The ink didn't flow as well as the Cross pen, but it did stay put. I haven't tried erasing the guide lines, yet. I hope that the ink won't smear after 24 hours.

Calligraphy is not my thing: I really don't do calligraphy, I just try to print neatly. I don't want to mess this up. The illumination is very nice and I don't want the calligraphy to look like Charlie Brown did it.