Calligraphy Writing with Gold

Series Summary

Calligraphy is the art of stylistic writing. It is also known as the practice of giving an artistic form to letters and signs. It is considered a skill and is often taught in art classes or craft seminars. The skill set learned in calligraphy classes ranges from practical usage to artistic interpretation. In the latter form, function takes a backseat to artistic expression. Practical uses for calligraphy include fancy invitations, font design, logo design, maps, and documentation of other sorts. Depending on the area you are in, different types of calligraphy include East Asian character calligraphy, Indian calligraphy, Persian calligraphy, Islamic calligraphy, or Western calligraphy. There are many different tools used in calligraphy but the two most important are the paper and the pen.

In this series of instructional videos, you will learn more about the art of calligraphy. Our expert explains the history and demonstrates Western calligraphy. You will learn more about the resurgence in popularity and the functionality of this style of writing. Watch as an expert demonstrates each letter, number, and symbol used in common calligraphy. Get instructions for changing colors of ink during a calligraphy project. See examples of upper and lowercase letters written in this style of calligraphy. See different examples of calligraphy styles and get ideas for projects. Get recommendations on types of paper and pens or markers used for creating beautiful calligraphy pieces in these expert videos.

Video Transcript

"Did you know that real gold doesn't tarnish and that it reflects the light? And so an illuminated manuscript technically speaking, is a manuscript hand written manuscript thing, that has real gold on it. So this is my jar of real gold. And actually this is just little scraps of gold. Gold comes from my purposes anyway, it comes in gold leaf, and it's like about one thousandth of an inch thick. So, this looks like a lot of gold, but it really isn't. But it still is very beautiful. So I'm going to show you how to put gold on something. So I've made this preparation and there's little place here where I've put the sticky stuff that you're that's going to make the gold stick. So the sticky stuff you can buy, there's different brands that you can buy of it. Or you can even make your own if you're really smart enough to do it, but I usually buy the stuff that comes in the brand. Now this is a little book, this is a little book that you buy that has gold leaf in it. And here's a piece, oops, here's gold leaf. You have to be really careful with it. But, I'm going to get a little static electricity going on this brush by rubbing it in my hair. And now it's going to pick up, right, so I pick it up, and then I just kind of brush it over this sticky place, and the gold sticks. And I got to brush it here. Try not to waste any. Take a little bit more. Yes, this is expensive. And this is just a card, which I've done for this demonstration, but if you're giving something to someone and you know they're gong to appreciate it, I think it's OK to use real gold. I'm not particularly fond of putting gold on things that are what we call a femoral, which means that they're, you know, there's something that might get thrown away. I'm not feeling too good about that. Alright, but then the rest of this gold that when there's also another kind of, another way that you can have gold, which would be on a sheet of paper that's stuck to a sheet of paper, in which case you would turn it over and then with something called a burnisher, which I can't quite find right now, here it is. OK. Something called a burnisher. Let's say there was a little space in here that didn't take the gold. So then I could actually press it on like this."