RESOURCES FOR CALLIGRAPHERS

I am often asked about my favorite supplies, especially for beginners. I wanted to put it all together in one place, along with some links to make it easy for you, so I put together this guide.

One of my favorite online shops for supplies is Paper and Ink Arts. They have good prices, almost everything I need, and ship really quickly. I also love that they are a small business, and exclusively dedicated to calligraphy.

Here’s what I always order from there:

Brause EF66 Nib — My absolute favorite nib. I hardly ever use anything else. It’s very flexible but creates nice hairlines. Ink flows from it really easily. It’s my teeny tiny baby love.
Nikko G Nib — I also give this nib to students in my workshops because it’s a little easier for beginners to use. It is stiffer than the EF66 so doesn’t snag as easily if you hit an angle wrong. I use it when I have tougher paper that the EF66 might get caught on.
Speedball Straight Holder — I use a straight holder (not an oblique) and it doesn’t get cheaper than this. Standard but works totally fine and I can have a lot of them and not feel bad about it.
Koh-I-Noor Cork Tipped Penholder — This is a little more expensive, but nicer than the Speedball, and it has a flexible prong to hold any size nib.
Tachikawa T40 Holder — Even more expensive, but super cute, with a nice rubber grip and slots for different sized nibs.
Higgins Eternal Ink — The ink we use in our workshops. Great for beginners because it’s very thin and flowy and inexpensive.
Winsor Newton Calligraphy Ink (in black) — My go to black ink. It’s not too thin but still flows nicely.
Dr. Martin’s Bleedproof White — My go to white ink. Opaque. Flows nicely once you get it to the right consistency.
Dr. Martin’s Iridescent Colors (Copperplate gold) — My absolute favorite gold. Nice color. Nice shimmer. Flows when a lot of metallics don’t! (I also use the Silver and the Copper)
Winsor & Newton Gouache — I almost always use gouache over colored inks, and you can’t go wrong with Winsor & Newton.
Pentel Aquash Waterbrush — My favorite brush to use, whether it is filled with water or not. I love it because it keeps its point so well.
Single Refill Jar with Cap — Great inexpensive jars for mixing and storing gouache or ink.
Uniball Signo Roller Ball Pen (White) — A great monoline white pen. Writes on a lot of different surfaces and goes on very opaque and very smooth.
Small Staedtler Mars White Plastic Eraser — The eraser I’ve been using for about a million years.
Deluxe SpeedStir Magnetic Ink Stirrer — This is great for metallic inks, which tend to settle. Now you don’t have to stir your ink for every envelope!
Canson Marker Paper — My favorite paper for spot calligraphy and practice. It is really smooth and semi-transparent so you can see liners under it without using a light box.
Lightbox — Could not live without this. Makes my life one million times easier for sure.
Laser Square & Mat — I’ve been using the Slider Writer for a few years to get a laser line on envelopes or paper that you can’t use a lightbox with. But it has been discontinued. This looks like a perfect replacement.
And of course, my magical Envelope Template Liners. I have been using them for years and years and can’t imagine my life without them!

Also, I recommend these books to all of my students:

Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy by Eleanor Winters (the book I taught myself pointed pen with)
Modern Calligraphy by Molly Suber Thorpe (so many exemplars and fun projects)

And last but not least, calligrafile.com is a great website with a ton of different resources and tools.

*** Some of the links here and on the site are affiliate links, meaning that we may receive a commission on sales, but we want to assure you that we only recommend and work with companies that we absolutely love and use personally.