BRAUSE ROSE NIB FOR PAINTERLY STROKES

Okay, the Brause Rose nib is slowly becoming another favorite nib.  It has not made its way to favorite yet, because sometimes it feels like I am trying to hold on to a slippery piece of pasta. It's aesthetically beautiful, it has an embossed rose on its body which feels so very Victorian and lady like to me. This nib takes a lot of practice to get comfortable with for a newbie to the craft.  I have only been doing this for a few weeks so I don't know how long it shall be before I can pull this out and scribe without fear of ruining what I am working on. When I am having a good practice session I can make the nib create beautiful thick stokes that mimic what I imagine I would want a paint brush to do (lettering with a brush is VERY difficult), this is a good 'cheat'. You can also get very thin hairline strokes as you can see on the uppercase 'L' and the word 'rose'.  My suggestion would be to try the Zebra G or Nikko G and get a feel for the dip pen and then work your way after a couple weeks to this nib.  It feels very 'springy' to me and is categorized as a flexible nib, meaning to get those hairlines you are going to have to have a feather light touch and to get those thick strokes will take nary any pressure. I don't know for certain, but it seems like a calligrapher like Molly Jacques might use a nib like this to create the beautiful thick strokes of her lettering.

In doing these posts I wanted to be sure to add in some random lettering tips. One I should have made clear immediately before practice is wear clothes you won't care about getting ink on. I ruined 3 shirts and my favorite pair of jeans before I started putting on an outfit specifically for lettering practice. It's just a black t-shirt and black leggings (I look like a cat burglar), but I don't have to stress about ruining another article of clothing.  I also always put down a piece of butcher paper; I love my desk and would be so sad if I ruined it. I have already spilled an entire container of black Sumi ink on my desk (and keyboard) and I never want to re-live that experience. Again if you have questions ask me in the comments, I am so new to this craft, but at least I can share my experience.

You can read about the Zebra G + Nikko G nibs here and the Gillott 404 nib here.

P.S. You will find when you start out that certain letters will vex you. I hate my 'k's and seriously can't believe I posted one. I am also having the worse time with the letter 'B'. My favorites letters are the uppercase 'L' and 'G' I want to find words that start with them just so I can write them all the time!