Calligraphy Review

Review of The Lamy Joy Calligraphy Set

Those who write with fountain pens talk a lot about the ‘joy’ and experience of writing itself. Lamy had this important expectation (as well as their usual principles of wonderful design, famous German practicality, and affordability) in mind when it designed the Lamy Joy Calligraphy set which is designed for everyone to discover their best writing styles and to write with flair.

 Price: £39

The Joy set includes one Lamy Joy fountain pen, and three different italic steel nibs (1.1, 1.5, 1.9). The nibs easily screw off with the cartridges neatly attached, so there’s no messy ink leakages to worry about, and the nibs not in use can be slotted back into the case with the cartridges attached to preserve the ink. This also makes it a great art pen – you can keep three different colours ready to go at any one time.

Like all Lamy pens, the Joy uses the standard Lamy cartridges which are cheaply available in Washable Blue, Blue Black, Turquoise, Red, Violet, Green and Black. And like almost all Lamy pens, the Joy can also be fitted with a Z24 Converter if you’d like to use bottled ink – and then the spectrum widens, i.e. Diamine ink. For this review, disappointingly, I’m only using standard blue so that you can better see how the nibs compare. 

The selection of the 1.1, 1.5 and 1.9 provide a good and diverse range of lines to play with – all the better to begin to practise calligraphy with if you don't yet know which one you're best suited to. I started in the middle, with the 1.5 for that introduction above. Here is a direct comparison of the three:

My normal, (restrained) handwriting in each of them, below:

 

                                             (The last line is written in standard biro).

I’m reliably told that the 1.1 nib is wider than a Lamy broad nib, though in the context of this set it doesn’t feel any bigger than a medium. If you’re looking to be writing everyday correspondence with a little bit more flair and modest twirling, and space isn’t generous, this would be the most useful. It’s also good for adding detail onto the wider lines – the spindly extras and shadow lines. 

(I soon got carried away)

The broadest nib, the 1.9, was my favourite. It’s versatile, and switching fonts hasn’t been so easy since Microsoft Word was invented. The line edges it leaves are wonderfully crisp, and it spreads ink impeccably, so it really isn’t hard to get perfectly smooth lines. The ink distribution is very even, no skipping – especially convenient with the wide lines as any fill ins are more noticeable. This also makes it good for colouring in letters, or pictures.  Any ink blotching/cross over above is me experimenting, adjusting and widening the letters; someone who knows what they are doing on their first attempt could easily achieve something much more professional.

It's a testament to the design and how easy it is to use the Lamy Joy fountain pen that before long, admittedly helped along by copying examples, even I felt like I'd produced something that I was quite proud of:

 

The three pens are great for someone just starting out with calligraphy - three very different tools to try with, that have great and varied potential. We do also sell them separately if you have a preference and a specific style in mind. It's something fun and artistic to have a go at even for those people who profess they 'can't draw', and who doesn't appreciate beautiful writing? Practise no doubt goes a long way towards perfection with calligraphy, but even with a small amount of practise I soon saw a marked improvement. It's a skill to impress your friends and family (though perhaps not the postman who has to decipher the addresses) with every birthday.