One of the pleasures of calligraphy is handling the traditional tools and materials that have been used for centuries. I mean, I love gel pens, which have their own delightful tactile properties: the glistening of the gel as it comes out of the pen and forms a line that sits on top of the paper … but I digress. As fun as they are, the experience of writing with a gel pen on black paper, even, doesn’t hold a candle to the delight of writing with a quill and freshly ground stick ink on a piece of parchment. That’s really the point of this rambling, in case you were looking for one.
Joe Vitolo at the Ornamental Penmanship list on Yahoo Groups has drawn our attention to several interesting YouTube videos having to do with stick ink:
In the first video, Haiying discusses what makes a stick ink good or not so good.
In the second video, she talks about how to protect your stick ink during use, and more about the qualities of stick inks.
In the third video, Hirokzu Kosaka talks about how stick ink is made.