From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V2 #168 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Saturday, July 18 1998 Volume 02 : Number 168 In this issue: Re: [scribes]: Tools of the trade [scribes]: Arches Papier Re: [scribes]: Lettering Guide ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 21:04:14 EDT From: SCOTSWMMN@aol.com Subject: Re: [scribes]: Tools of the trade (snip) << Arches 140 lb. hot press - probably the best paper I have ever used. The stuff can take abuse like nobody's business! I did a scroll recently that was laden with disaster - smeared ink, dropped a paintbrush of green paint across the top border, misspelled some calligraphy - just to name a few of the small disasters that the scroll met with in production. Fatigue was my enemy most of the way but I managed to clean up the bad spots to where the recipient (a really close friend, too, to make it even more frantic!!) could not even tell anything ever went wrong!! >> Great stuff, Arches. I use the 140 lb hot press, too - mainly because it's the closest thing I've seen to the vellum I remember using a number of years ago (but can't afford right at the moment). It's got a fantastic surface for my inks and gouache. Occasionally I've used the 90-lb., but really prefer the 140 lb. Our Scriptorium has been traditionally using white 2-ply bristol board, which I don't like nearly as well. A question, though - I've always been told that I should be using acid-free paper (comments from one of the C&I Laurels in the area). I thought that Arches was acid-free. Was I mistaken? Does anyone out there know for sure? Margaret Cameron ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 19:02:08 -0700 From: "Thomas Brownwell" Subject: [scribes]: Arches Papier I just happen to have my pad of Arches 140 lb hot pressed paper next to me, and it says it's 100% cotton rag, chlorine-free and acid-free paper. They add no optical whiteners to the size (glue holding fibers together) so it will not change color (i.e. yellow) over time. It's appropriate for watercolor, gouache, pen & ink (technical pens?), and calligraphy. The pads of 20 sheets come in blocks of 7x10, 9x12, 10x14, 12x16, 14x20, and 18x24 so there's a great variety. Some properties to note. The blocks of 20 pages are actually glued all the way around so that the pad doesn't warp in transport. The pages are on the average about 1/2 inch bigger in each dimension to allow a cut-off margin for tape-downs, messes, cutting off the glue, etc. The surface is much rougher than vellum to the touch and to the pen, but in better than most other papers or surfaces I've calligraphed on (another favorite surface of mine is real Papyrus -- the pen feels like it skates across the surface!). Price: about $3-4 per sheet, a lot per pad but not much per project, unless you mess up and have to re-do it like I did on my most recent scroll... I recommend it, though I'll always suggest vellum as the #1 surface :-) At $30 per project for that stuff, there's not really any competition for the Arches. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Douglas Brownell AKA Thomas Brownwell, Calligrapher, brownwell@home.com Dancer,Silversmith,Singer,Cobbler,... San Diego, CA Barony of Calafia, Caid The 4 elements = good physics stuff:: Or,a fountain, a chief rayonny gules. Goutte enough herald:: (Fieldless) A goutte barry wavy azure and argent. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 22:32:40 -0400 From: Linda Pancrazio Subject: Re: [scribes]: Lettering Guide Greetings Ms. Aidan and the list, Boy there's a lot of mail on this list this week - if someone has already answered this and I missed it, I apologize. I am a drafter - now mostly CAD - but I still have a gorgeous board in my office that gets used for scrolls on my lunch hour and for piling stuff on the rest of the day. The lettering guide isn't all that bad. There are, of course, the eighth inch holes up the side - because that's a standard size for mechanical lettering. But the nifty wheel in the middle will produce lines at whatever spacing you might desire. I still ignore most of the stuff on the darn thing, but I'm going to tell you how to use a little more than the holes up the side. At the very bottom of the part that doesn't move pointing toward the wheel is a little tick mark (holding it with the long flat side at the bottom, the angled side on the right and the curve of the top of the wheel at the top). Rotate the wheel (it might be a little hard to move) until the rows of holes on the wheel are oriented like this / (and the rest of the thing is still oriented like I described before) now you'll see a series of numbers at the bottom of the wheel that go 2 3 4 5 6 etc. (not the series with decimals or fractions - I think they do the same thing but in metric???) Align the 6 with the tick mark. The wheel has four rows of holes - - we're only going to worry about the row that doesn't skip any places. If you use every one of those holes to make lines - your lines will be 6/64" (equal to 3/32") apart. If you use every other hole your lines will be 12/64" (equal to 3/16") apart. You can rotate the wheel to get an infinite number of spacings. When the tick mark lines up with a number in that series your lines will be that many (from 2 to 10) 64ths apart. To get wider spacings you skip holes. To use it for calligraphy, make your nib width ladder and measure it, then set the wheel. I usually tape the wheel to keep it from spinning when I don't want it to - they can get loose. Most of the other holes are used for mechanical drafting. I don't really know what the rest of the marks mean - I just use these. What I really do most of the time is draw my lettering guide lines in AutoCAD and practice and fiddle with my text (and guide lines) until I'm satisfied. Then I transfer those measurements to the scroll. Genevieve d'Evreux high tech scribe :) At 10:53 PM 7/15/98 -0600, you wrote: >OK, still feeling dumb and inadequate here...grrrr...just exactly how >does one use the (Ames) lettering guide? I never got it, still dont get >it.... > >Ms. Aidan, the eternally clueless > > Linda Pancrazio | SCA: Lady Genevieve d'Evreux Selma NC, USA | Elvegast, Windmasters' Hill, Atlantia lindap@ipass.net | http://www.ipass.net/~lindap Windmasters' Hill Scriptorium: http://www.ipass.net/~lindap/whscript.html In the Gallery: http://www.ipass.net/~lindap/whs-gallery.html Lady Bridgette's Pearl -- by Lady Lucia Bellini Lord Jason Kinslayer's Tempest -- by Lord Tankred bras de Fer Lady Stephania's Don Quixote -- by Gd'E ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V2 #168 *****************************