Letter Writing Group: Follow Up

[nomadicdragon]

Your friendly Post Mistress here.

I just wanted to follow up to see if everyone has received and exchanged at least their first set of correspondence.

If anyone is still waiting, please let me know so that I can follow up on the matter.

As always, if you'd like to join our writing club, please feel free to send me a message. Here are our rules of engagement:

We shall endeavor not to discuss the above mentioned topics of religion, sex or politics. Also, we shall attempt to use the style and language of the period whenever possible.

Promptness, barring familial or personal emergencies, would also be greatly appreciated in correspondence.

[nomadicdragon]

So here's a question for my fellow letter writers.. where do you write?

I write my letters in our master bedroom as my husband works from home and has pretty much taken over all the spare rooms in the house. As such, I am creating my own old school lapdesk. I re-purposed the wooden top of a TV tray. I am just going to add some foam covered in fabric to the bottom of it.

Though I am considering sanding down the top and putting some sort of stain. Or I could stick with the beloved Regency theme and cover it with decoupage style art.

[celticgoddess81]

Where do I write?

Well, I have a beautiful mahogany Secretary's desk that is currently in my bed room. And it is simply beautiful... however I do not write my letters on it. One would think that I would love to write my letters upon a beautiful piece of furniture, but alas I do not. LOL

I actually have a lap desk that I varnished myself that I do my writing upon, it sits on a wooden table that I use for crafting, arranged with all the things I need to finish a missive, in my living room. I have attached a picture of the surface.

Side note:

Yesterday I went down to my local Art store, (Artel's) and brought in my quill and nib that I have been trying to use to write all my letters. The nib was actually my grandmother's and she used it to write all her letters. My mother even remembers it. Well the nice clerk took one look at the nib and was like, this is a different shape than we sell. I told her the back story of the nib. She asked if I would mind her cleaning it off. I kept apologizing for the messy state it was in. I said I was very disappointing that I could not get the nib to write without applying a great amount of pressure and even then it wouldn't write more than one letter. So she matched the nib as best as possible and told me that the ink was most like the problem, not the nib. To make an even longer story short, she sold me the new nib, new ink, and a nib cleaner. I got home and immediately went to work seeing if I could write with my new treasures. I am delighted to say that Higgins ink is the BEST ink in the world and I can even use my grandmother's nib still. : D

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[nomadicdragon]

Yay! So glad that you were able to get the right ink and everything. That's wonderful. Your lapdesk is beautiful. I can't wait to finish mine and take photos of it.

[celticgoddess81]

THANKS!

I found the lapdesk at Beverly's... its a small time fabric store. It was completely plain when I got it. I knew I wanted a nice rich tone so I went to it. LMAO I should have varnished it as well as stained it but I didn't have time and well honestly it is a really strong scent. >,<

As for the ink! I'm so happy. You should have seen me when I got home yesterday. I sat down and went to town writing. Its a shame I already sent out all the letters for the group otherwise I really would have had fun. I am going to have to buy another couple of bottles, there are a whole bunch of shades. I see multiple small jam jars in my future. LOL!

[Miss Clockwood]

What type of ink is it? I mean, I looked up Higgins ink and found they have different types. And what type of ink were you using before? I have been looking at getting some Italian ink.

Where do I write? Anywhere I can find a good surface. Sometimes I stack a bunch of papers on my lap and place the letter on top so that I can write there! I really should find somewhere else to write, though. Perhaps my desk would be a good place! LOL Sometimes I write on the table in the kitchen or on the coffee table in the living room or I find a book or something hard and write on my bed. It just depends on where I am.

[celticgoddess81]

C- I can't believe I mentioned it before. Its india ink. I was using speedball acrylic and it was the worse. But Higgins India Ink is GREAT. I love how easily it writes. And I use a "Hunt 513 EF" in addition to my grandmother's which is similar to the one I bought (which is in the picture. LOL) And just so you know I trying to see how the pen was working and made up a "mock letter" in the corner of a scratch piece of paper. LOL

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[Miss Clockwood]

LOL, I would have been wondering about that letter had you not said anything. Hmmm...I shall look into getting some Higgins India ink since you seem to like it so much. I daresay you have more experience in the realm of ink than I do, so I shall trust your opinion on it.

[nomadicdragon]

I must look into Higgins India Ink as well, if not for me, for my dear husband who is a calligrapher. I was wondering about the mock letter myself. =)

[celticgoddess81]

LOL! Ladies, well in all honesty I didn't realize I had take a photo of it until I went to shrink the pic to post it. LOL But yeah I had already sealed up my letter to CLockwood (we correspond as well :D) so when I got my pen I was all sorts of excited but had no letter to write, so I wrote a mock letter on the side of the paper, after going through my "calligraphy" LMBO.

Which reminds me: A- Do you know what kind of nib your husband uses? And what style calligraphy he does?? I'd be most interested in finding out. :D

I love writing letters I just wish the post office was more prompt in delivering my missives. LMBO. :D

[artemisiajolie]

I too like Higgens ink, although I haven't tried the india ink yet. I have a black 'calligaphy' waterproof, and a brown fadeproof ink. My writting surface is a lap desk also. I use the term desk loosely as it is just a large piece of hardboard.

[Eleanor]

To my pen pals: Forgive my missing replies for the last few weeks. I've not forgotten you! We've been dealing with some family health emergencies. My brother-in-law had a heart attack and needed a 5-way bypass! All this in the middle of he and my sister trying to move into a new house.

Anyway, things are looking much better, and I'll be back to my writing table soon.

Kindly,
~Barbara

[nomadicdragon]

So sorry to hear about your family health problems. I do hope that everyone is starting to recuperate.

[nomadicdragon]

My letters may be a tad late this month, a lot of things going on around here.

[nomadicdragon]

A thought, Ladies, as it is almost the end of August, fall is nearly upon us. The Yuletide season is not quite here but close enough to start pondering. I was thinking perchance we could exchange cards with each other this year for Yuletide??

Any thoughts? As part of our Letter Writing Group

[celticgoddess81]

A lovely idea!! I will see about making my own cards I haven't done so before but I think it would be fun.