Hand Lettering

Hi,
Have you heard of the term “hand lettering”? It’s actually calligraphy
(that’s what it used to be called). It’s not hard at all and it’s really fun. Check it out online. Here are a few more pictures for you.
Love, Nadiwagn

We learned from one of our teachers in art class how to write and read Sütterlin script. I can still read it reasonably well, but I can't write it anymore at all.

@Akela 
I believe you

@nadiwagn

That looks really nice and is a great tip. Thanks for that! I still enjoy writing greeting cards by hand, and you can create something really beautiful just with the lettering.

I also learned Old German script in school and can still read it.

Best regards, Monika

My teacher thought I had “awful handwriting.” That’s why I had to stay after school regularly to practice calligraphy. Back then, I thought German script was so lame, but today I think it’s great. I haven’t tried writing in ages, but I can still read it.
I still write greeting cards and, above all, letters by hand, and I also like to send postcards. A handwritten greeting like that is always nice.

Yeah, I’ve heard of hand lettering, too. Your first attempts already look great.
Some of the stuff you find online—there are some real works of art out there. It’s fun.

I still really enjoy writing by hand today. Greeting cards, especially. The more ornate the handwriting, the better.

In school, you always had to take notes quickly or copy texts off the board before the teacher wiped everything away. At home, I’d then rewrite everything neatly, sometimes filling entire notebooks. Everything carefully color-coded or underlined with a ruler. I was very particular about that. #laughs# I always got top marks for neatness.

My mom also learned German script back in school. I can’t always read the cursive version of it, but I can read those old fairy tale books with that old printed typeface, even though we never had that in school. I started school in 1970.

I love anything that’s ornate.

That reminds me of something else.

We had art class in school—I think we used to write with this Redis pen (is that what it’s called?), and it was called a “pull-out ink pen,” that’s right.
There were different kinds of nibs for writing, which let you create beautiful effects when writing in cursive and so on.
Do you guys still remember those fountain pens you had to fill with ink from a glass inkwell?
Oh man, those were such exciting school days!

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no talent for beautiful handwriting. Even back in elementary school, my report cards always said, “Your handwriting needs to improve a lot.”
Today, my handwriting is reasonably neat (if I make an effort), but whenever I have to write something that looks nice, I’m always dissatisfied with the result. So designing my own greeting cards and things like that—that’s just not for me. 

Yes, of course I remember those—you’d often end up with such lovely blue fingers while filling the ink, or afterward, if it didn’t go the way it should. I learned to write with ink in second grade using a penholder and inkwell—boy, what a splattered mess that was :-)
I also still had a slate in my satchel in first and second grade; I needed quite a few replacements over the year, because if something really annoyed me, it could happen that that child would end up looking through the frame of my slate after I had brought the slate down on them with a swing. Since I grew up between two brothers, I was often just as wild as they were; I even had leather trousers for the summer because clothes never lasted long on me.

Best, Inge

I’m also still familiar with drawing ink and nibs. I started school in 1963. I can also clearly remember inkwells and fountain pens. It was always a bit of a mess, with ink spilling everywhere.
I had a fountain pen that I could write very well with. Unfortunately, my silly sister messed around with it. After that, it was useless. I couldn’t get the hang of its “replacement” at all. Eventually, it turned out that it wasn’t my fault at all. It was a nib for left-handers, and that isn’t suitable for right-handers.

Yes, I still remember the dip pen with ink, too. There used to be special pen holders for drawing, but I don’t remember what they were called.

In first grade, I still had a slate, and the sponge would peek out of my leather satchel. It was pretty heavy, but we didn’t have to bring that much to school. I even still have my first arithmetic textbook. I didn’t like writing on the slate with the stylus at all because I find the squeaking sound unpleasant.

What your handwriting looks like really depends a lot on the writing instrument. Whether you write with a ballpoint pen or a real fountain pen makes a big difference. Just the other day, I traded for one in my swap group. It uses cartridges, but of course it has a nice nib that simply writes better than a blotchy ballpoint pen.

But when do we even write by hand anymore? These days, everything is becoming more and more digital. I still write shopping lists, greeting cards, or notes for my patterns. But other than that? There’s nothing left. Everything’s done on a keyboard.

Which handwritten documents do you think will stand the test of time and remind people of us later on?

Best regards, Ina

I tried writing with a pen two years ago, and yesterday I found the ink again

Yes, I still write greeting cards, shopping lists, and my patterns—including draft sketches—by hand. I also have a recipe book that I fill out by hand. That’s how I like it best.

That’s true—unfortunately, we’re writing by hand less and less these days...

But tell me... Who else feels this way?
I generally really enjoy writing by hand. It’s a lot of fun for me.
When I’m jotting down notes, I sometimes really take my time doing it. Just because I like it :)
When I scribble notes during a phone call at work, I rewrite them afterward in a neater, more legible way for my coworkers :D 

Hey there,

Krea_Tina, yeah, I know what that is. I also like to write by hand, and when I take notes somewhere—like a baking recipe or something similar—I’ll copy it out in calligraphy afterward.

It’s true, we have so few opportunities to write these days. If I find a crochet pattern online that I might not be able to copy (sometimes that’s not possible), I write it down by hand. I have special A5 graph paper notebooks at home where I keep all those patterns.
Or if I’m drawing (those Zentangle or doodle drawings), I use these adult coloring books. So I have plenty of opportunities to hold a pen in my hand.
It’s a lot of fun.

Even back in school, I used to love drawing letters on graph paper with those colorful highlighters and adding sort of “shadows” with a black pen. I still enjoy doing that today.