I recently saw this video on YouTube …..

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We have just taken delivery of some nibs. The nibs came in a storage box which holds 24 small partitioned containers. Each container has a varying number of nibs in them. Some have just a handful of nibs whilst a couple are nearly half full.We are in the process of sorting them out before they are made available for purchase.So far we have found some vintage Gillott 170, 290, 303 and 404 nibs. Also William Mitchell Round hand nibs, but I don’t know what sizes yet. There are a couple of nibs that I have never heard of, so I’ll ask in the Scribblers Community.

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The Olympics are over for another four years, and what a great Olympics it was.Great Britain did brilliantly! The team GB have now returned from Beijing following their best Olympic medal performance for 100 years.

With the end of the 2008 Games, the baton now passes to London – which will host the next Olympics in 2012.London 2012Now, there is no excuse not to get on with the calligraphy!

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Last Thursday and Friday saw the best start possible to the summer holidays – The Lowestoft Air Show. Each year the show gets better and this year was no exception. Unlike last year, the weather was was perfect; sunshine and blue sky.The air display takes place along one of Suffolk’s finest beaches, in our natural coastal amphitheatre.For the two days of the Festival, our sea front is transformed, with something for everyone whatever age, with funfairs, rides, simulators, stalls, caterers, music and a great family atmosphere!There was around 4 hours of spectacular flying displays on both days by all sorts of aeroplanes, including the world famous Red Arrows performing their magnificent routine on both days. My favourite was the Avro Vulcan, whose display was slow and graceful.

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We are currently working hard on the backroom part of the business.As part of our plan of improvements, we are now using Worldpay as our Payment Service Provider. Worldpay, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) processes online, your card details, rather than us manually entering the card information. This also means a wider range of card types can now be accepted. Now, we never see your card details (unless you order by post or telephone).Start Shopping!

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The other day I was relaxing and spent some time looking at videos on YouTube (like you do!). I came across several calligraphy videos which I will share with you at some point in the future.The follow clip was fascinating. The video is made by the user Yang Haiying. You are shown how to paint an orchid using traditional Chinese painting techniques.Yang also has a website www.yanghaiying.comIt was funny when I went to see if I could find out more about this lady, on her YouTube profile it said:“It’s an accident that you bump into my video. Don’t watch too long. Spend your time with family and friends. Thank you.”So, I closed my browser and did as I was told!

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The Lay Member’s day was a great success. The event was sold out with around 300 calligraphers attending. There was much to see and do.We were amazed how busy the event was. We had not quite finished getting ready when had our first customer. From then on we were continuously serving customers throughout the whole day. It only went quieter while many of the guests attended the lecture. During that period I was able to have a quick look round and chat to some of the other stall holders.During the convention I got to meet lots of new Calligraphers. What was very interesting was meeting the customers I already know. I have several repeat customers who I chat with over the telephone, and looking around at the name tags I found on several occasions familiar names. I did in fact get to meet some of my long time customers so now I can put faces to names!And the thing that made it worth all the headaches, late nights, furious organising and even a last minute blunder when the business cards with the coupon codes on, decided they didn’t want to tag along and seemed to go into hiding(!) was the fact that we have officially been invited back to next years convention

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We are almost ready for the SSI show. Sorting out the nibs and deciding how to display them has been a big challenge. What is the best way to display a large range of nibs in an eye catching, yet practical way without taking up too much space?Well, luckily I managed to get a deal with Manuscript. They kindly offered to sell us some of their display boxes. These are usually only available to a few art shops to display their Manuscript merchandise.The next challenge was how to organise all the nibs between the boxes. I was surprised how many different nibs we stock; Chronicle Nibs for left and right-handed calligraphers, William Mitchell Round Hand Square cut and Left Oblique nibs, William Mitchell Poster and Scroll Nibs, Speedball ‘B’ and ‘C’ style nibs, Brause Bandzug, Ornament and Plakat nibs, plus around 25 different pointed nibs. In total around 125 different nibs. Browse our full range of nibsWe have tried to group similar nibs together. So we have kept the different types of nibs for left-handed calligraphers in the same tray, and we have got our range of pointed nibs in a tray on their own.

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I read a book about time management last year. It was really good. One tip was to take a bit of time out each day to stop and think! The author says that people spend all their time rushing around between activities (true for me). Often these activities never get completed (true for me).Many people use to-do lists. These in themselves can be stressful when you have listed all the items only to discover there are 20 to-dos – what is the chance of doing them all? So I was not sure how taking time out to think about things would help.The idea seemed odd but I gave it a go. What I found was that I thought through what hand to be done. Then when it came to working on the activity I was more focused and could complete the task more efficiently Taking the time to think has increased my productivity and increased my efficiency. Thinking has also lead me to have new ideas. Thinking can help make sure you are focused on the things that are really important to you.I would recommend it!

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Over the weekend saw our blog’s first birthday.On Saturday we had a big party The morning was spent preparing food; making sandwiches, cakes and trifles etc. I love party food!People starting arriving in the middle of the afternoon. In total there were about 20 of us.After chatting to all the guests I came to conclusion that with the exception of my family and a couple of other guests, no one knew what a blog was, nor had they ever been on the Internet! In fact they did not own a PC. Perhaps this observation was something to do with the age group. The youngest guest was 5 and eldest was over 100. I reckon the average age was about 70.Well after all it was Grandad’s 102 Birthday Party! A good time was had by all. Afterwards, Grandad said what a nice a time it had been and he had particularly enjoyed talking with his 85 year-old apprentice who had not seen for decades.

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