I have been at home in isolation with Covid the past few days. I am grateful to have contracted the virus after being fully vaccinated and boosted and that my body has a set of instructions on how to deal with the virus, resulting in a fairly mild case. TV, movies, and the internet all wore thin after the first day or so. There are also only so many postcards, letters, and journal entries one can write. I decided to turn my focus to another low-impact activity–learning how to write with a fountain pen.
As a child, my grandmother wanted me to learn calligraphy. While I enjoyed playing with the pen and ink, I never had truly consistent practice since the pen set was kept at her house. I bought a basic calligraphy set for myself during the initial lockdown phase of the pandemic intending to give it another go. I played around with it once or twice but couldn’t really focus on learning a new skill with everything else going on in the world.
I mentioned the calligraphy set in a conversation with a friend, who suggested looking online for instructional videos for calligraphy since it is quite helpful to watch someone else hold the pen at the correct angle and to mimic their gestures as you learn. I ended up spending most of yesterday going down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos on fountain pens, calligraphy, and cursive writing, and teaching myself to write using a fountain pen. One of the videos I found most informative so far is from gentlemansgazette.com called “Writing By Hand Matters! Benefits (& History) of Penmanship”. Writing By Hand Matters! Benefits (& History) of Penmanship - YouTube
One of the most interesting things I learned from this video is why my cursive writing is different from my parents and grandparents. They learned using the Palmer method, designed for use with fountain pens. I learned the D’Nealian method, which took the foundations of Palmer and updated them for use with ballpoint pens, beginning in 1978, which explains why I have a difficult time forming certain letters with a fountain pen, having learned cursive when I was in third grade in 1988 after ballpoint pens had taken over.
Gentleman’s Gazette also has an entire series covering topics of letter-writing, fountain pens, ballpoint pens, rollerball pens, etc., which are obviously important tools for those of us in the Postcrossing community! They discuss etiquette, how-tos, what not to do, and writing instruments from high-end Mont Blanc pens costing hundreds of dollars to disposable pens costing only a few cents in their videos. Pens Archives | Gentleman's Gazette
I hope other Postcrossers find these videos interesting and will share their favorite online resources related to these topics. Happy Postcrossing!
(I have searched the forum to see where this post might fit best. If this is not the correct place, please feel free to move it elsewhere.)