I did a ketubah!
Friday, June 6th, 2003 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanaleh
About a month ago, I got an e-mail inquiry from a couple who wanted the calligraphy (Hebrew and English) done on their ketubah. They live in my neighborhood and found my web page through Google. They had ordered a very lovely print from someone online, but needed the text customized (it's an interfaith ceremony), so I agreed to do it.
Of course, I'm not all that up to speed on my hand work, so I spent a lot of time over the past few weeks scouring art-supply stores (with C's help and expertise), experimenting with pens, and practicing up. I ended up with a wonderful Staedtler Pigment Liner Calligraphy 2.0mm permanent marker for the Hebrew side. I desperately wanted a 1.0mm for the English side, but I couldn't track one down anywhere in black; the only place that had them at all was Pearl, and 1.0mm they had only in brown (!), so rather than try to convince Jay and Lisa they should want the text done in brown... I went with a Manuscript medium-nib cartridge fountain pen. But the paper for the print was Arches 140-lb cold-pressed, which is quite toothy, and though I eventually got a good ink draw out of the Manuscript, I found the metal nib tended to drag on the paper and I had trouble sustaining a nice smooth or consistent line, so the lettering ended up a bit uneven... to my typographer's eye, anyway.
But I finally finished the thing late Wednesday night (good thing, 'cause the wedding is this Saturday), and the groom picked it up from me this afternoon. I (spoiled by the flawlessness of electronic type) wasn't totally thrilled with the way it came out... but he was! and that's the important thing.
So... it's official, I have professionally calligraphed my first ketubah! He promised me a picture, so I'll put that up on my web page after I get it.
And now, perhaps, I can rest. :-) Cheesecake with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tapuz, laurens10, and msmidge tonight. Chag sameach, everyone.
Of course, I'm not all that up to speed on my hand work, so I spent a lot of time over the past few weeks scouring art-supply stores (with C's help and expertise), experimenting with pens, and practicing up. I ended up with a wonderful Staedtler Pigment Liner Calligraphy 2.0mm permanent marker for the Hebrew side. I desperately wanted a 1.0mm for the English side, but I couldn't track one down anywhere in black; the only place that had them at all was Pearl, and 1.0mm they had only in brown (!), so rather than try to convince Jay and Lisa they should want the text done in brown... I went with a Manuscript medium-nib cartridge fountain pen. But the paper for the print was Arches 140-lb cold-pressed, which is quite toothy, and though I eventually got a good ink draw out of the Manuscript, I found the metal nib tended to drag on the paper and I had trouble sustaining a nice smooth or consistent line, so the lettering ended up a bit uneven... to my typographer's eye, anyway.
But I finally finished the thing late Wednesday night (good thing, 'cause the wedding is this Saturday), and the groom picked it up from me this afternoon. I (spoiled by the flawlessness of electronic type) wasn't totally thrilled with the way it came out... but he was! and that's the important thing.
So... it's official, I have professionally calligraphed my first ketubah! He promised me a picture, so I'll put that up on my web page after I get it.
And now, perhaps, I can rest. :-) Cheesecake with
tapuz, laurens10, and msmidge tonight. Chag sameach, everyone.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 01:02 pm (UTC)My sister's ketubah, by the way, arrived on the day of the ceremony--in fact, I think it held up the signing. Four days in advance isn't bad at all by comparison.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, June 11th, 2003 03:19 pm (UTC)Mine is basically just hand-printing, really. I guess I've developed a pretty consistent set, though; maybe I'll try to put up a sampler of some kind.
I also have a calligraphy sampler book I bought ages ago at Pearl which includes a basic Hebrew alphabet that I like, but I'm not sure my letterforms come out all that close to it.
Finally, there are lots of calligraphic-style Hebrew fonts out there which you could model on; e.g., some samples from Davka here, here, and here.
no subject
Date: Friday, June 6th, 2003 03:50 pm (UTC)If fact, a bunch of years ago, some designers designed a PostScript font, called Beowolf, with a randomness function in it, so the letterforms would come out slightly different each time.
no subject
Date: Saturday, June 7th, 2003 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, June 7th, 2003 06:38 pm (UTC)(the cheesecake and its telepathy was really cool, too :-))
no subject
Date: Saturday, June 7th, 2003 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, June 8th, 2003 06:30 pm (UTC)(the cheesecake and the telepathy regarding it were really cool, too! :-))
(Just a "great minds think alike and so do ours scenario"... but telepathic cheesecake would have been way cool.)
no subject
Date: Monday, June 9th, 2003 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, June 9th, 2003 11:01 am (UTC)I can't write a line that doesn't go up at the end or sink down in the middle!
no subject
Date: Monday, June 9th, 2003 02:30 pm (UTC)Congrats!
Date: Monday, June 9th, 2003 06:03 pm (UTC)'lyosha