We’ve been busy adding more of the Clairefontaine and Herbin range of art and calligraphy supplies to our website. These brands complement the range of Pilot pens and general stationery supplies such as those from Icon and Office Supply Co (OSC)/GBP.
Fountain Pens and Calligraphy
As part of our Pilot range, we’ve stocked a number of fountain and calligraphy pens for a while. These range from inexpensive entry-level pens that still perform quite well up to expensive premium pens. When the ink runs out, or you want to use a different colour, we have a large range of Pilot ink.
A large part of our range includes the amazing Iroshizuku ink in many colours inspired by Japanese landscapes and plants. For more information, JetPens has a thorough description of the Iroshizuku range of inks on their blog with samples of many colours.
Herbin Traditional Writing Set containing nib with holder and Bleu Myosotis, or Forget-Me-Not colour ink – code C27278T. This set is available in other colours.
These come in beautifully presented bottles and would make great gifts for someone who enjoys using fountain pens (actually, as a casual user of a Pilot MR fountain pen that lives in my bag, I wouldn’t mind receiving a few of these in interesting colours myself!)
As a side note, when it came to refilling my fountain pen with a converter, I found the article Fountain Pen Filling Systems Explained very helpful.
Suitable calligraphy pads can be found by Rhodia and Brause. Hot press watercolour papers (discussed later) can also be used for calligraphy due to their smooth surface.
Traditional Writing
Like to get in touch with the past through traditional writing techniques? Imagine receiving wedding or anniversary invitations written with a quill and sealed with a rose on traditional sealing wax!
We supply quills, nibs and nib holders, seals and sealing wax, and calligraphy ink from Brause and Herbin. Herbin writing inks have been formulated for writing and drawing. For calligraphy, there is Herbin calligraphy ink in a small range of colours.
Herbin Wooden Handle for Wax Seal Discs (product code C40740T) in use. A range of seals and sealing wax available in our web shop.
For total luxury, check out this beautiful Herbin glass pen (available in other colours also, see related products). Besides the risk of them shattering, these sound amazing…no nibs to worry about, and the grooves in the glass apparently do a good job of storing a decent amount of ink allowing you to dip less. And…they’re so pretty! A great gift idea for someone who likes to write mindfully!
Our Brause range is small but contains some specialised nibs (including one for writing music staves!), calligraphy pads and nib holders. We have been trying these out for ourselves recently and intend to blog about it soon, so keep an eye out.
Herbin makes gorgeous wooden-handled alphabet seals in illuminated and copperplate letters, and a small selection of shapes (rose, lily, heart, sun, plain). They also supply engraved seal discs and a wooden handle for them to screw into, and a range of sealing waxes.
Need to blot that excess ink? We have blotting paper in pink and white, a wooden blotter and paper refills.
Clairefontaine art papers and pads
We supply specialised art pads by Clairefontaine – these include pads suitable for mixed media and dry techniques, and watercolour.
For dry techniques, we have:
- Lavis Dessin Technical Drawing pads for precision drawing with pencil, technical pen, nib, felt-tip and ink; Bristol pads for technical drawing with pencil, technical pen or Indian ink
- PaintOn paper for mixed media (dry techniques (pencil, felt-tip) but also wet techniques (gouache, acrylic) but not generally watercolour) and CrayOn pads for drawing with dry media
- Sketch pads for drawing with pencil, charcoal, felt-tip or sanguine. and Kraft pads for drawing in dry techniques and inks, Grafit pads for writing and drawing
- CARB’ON® paper for dry techniques such as pencil drawing, felt-tip, chalk, sanguine, pastel and pigment markers
For watercolour, we have a range of watercolour pads including Cardinal and Etival cold press, Fontaine hot or cold press and even the extra-special Flamboyant pad and Fontaine Torchon pad made with 100% cotton. Cold press paper is absorbent and popular, good for watercolour beginners, while hot press paper tends to be smoother in texture and can also be used for calligraphy.
Many of these are also available as packs of paper sheets. Whether your medium is watercolour, pastel, drawing or comics/manga, there is something in our range.
Lavis Dessin Technical Drawing Pad in A3 size (code C96342C) – other sizes also available in our web shop.
Clairefontaine also makes a range of canvases for painting. These come in natural and white colour, and square, circular and rectangular shapes.
If pastel is your medium, there is a range of Pastelmat mount board and paper. Clairefontaine is known for their pastel medium among pastel artists – check out the Pastelmat website and an artist’s review of Pastelmat paper.
For travel, scrapbooking, or whatever reason you might have to draw and paint in a book, there is a range of Clairefontaine albums. The Goldline albums are pretty special – you can paint on the cover to customise it and the paper is sturdy to handle sketching and painting inside. Here is the A4 size Goldline album at the Clairefontaine website, which includes a video showing them in use.
So….go forth and create!
