I hate lettering

[Leland Davis]

Pipe tomahawk that I have been putting off because of my disdain for lettering. J J posted his pipe hawk inspired me to get started. The letters are inlaid with fine silver. this is my first attempt at inlay in letters the fine silver was almost as easy to use as gold. It is very obvious I need to work on my lettering.
Leland

 

[JJ Roberts]

Leland,That lettering looks really nice. J.J.

 

[sam]

You did a respectable job of it.

 

[troutbox]

i hate lettering too.

 

[papart1]

looks pretty good to me too.............even the scroll workon the reverse side is quite nice too!!

 

[monk]

i'd be overjoyed to receive a job such as you show here i'd also bet the recipient will feel the same way

 

[SamW]

You can often tell how engravers got started by their "lettering attitude". Those who start out on guns and such, like me, cringe at lettering and learn to tolerate it. Those who start out in the jewelry trade learn lettering first and develop a liking for it before moving into other areas. Nice Tomie.

 

[Strelok]

I think the style of lettering is a good match for the scrollwork and the piece as a whole. Looks good to me!

I love lettering, but I used to be afraid of it. Didn't hate it, I was intimidated because mistakes are easy to see. Just keep going! If you have favorite quotes, put those on something! Might not hate it as much

 

[Big-Un]

I learned to write cursive when in the fifth grade, spending a lot of time with exercises as well as actually writing letters, so I love lettering. When doing lettering jobs, I always lay it out as perfectly as possible, then engrave it upside down and backwards in order to keep my mind from looking at the letters instead of the cutting. My minds will read what is there and interfere with my concentration. Maybe others don't have that problem, but it certainly affects me!

 

[sam]

When I started I wasn’t so interested in in lettering but I got so many requests that I learned it out if necessity...and I’m glad I did. It’s made me a better engraver.

 

[Leland Davis]

Thank you all for the comments. SamW was right on about my attitude about lettering doing guns I just don't have any call for it so I don't practice. When I do have to letter I put it off until I have to do the job. The hawk lettering was going well until the H. I did all the rest and just had the H left when a customer called after 30 min discussing his job I sat down and cut the top of the H on the wrong side of the line now my H is bigger than the T most of the source of my frustration just a stupid mental mistake that I always seem to make when lettering. I know practice would help but when your staring at a years worth of work that does not need lettering it's hard for me to devote the time.
Always something else to try and learn.
Thanks again for your comments and thoughts
Leland

 

[T.G.III]

Having started in this art form as a hobby.

For me lettering is what seemed the easiest to start with, in my mind there are far fewer design restrictions with lettering than scrolls, also being in my 50's penmanship was still being taught and graded upon in many of my years in school, as a society we are exposed to far more lettering examples than scroll work.

I'm just now starting to understand some of the design principles of scrolls and putting them on paper, scrolls for me are still intimidating, the backbone is cake walk but the leaves and tendrils and the shading of them, not so much, still practicing drawing them though.

 

[Jonathan.Silas]

I learned to write cursive when in the fifth grade, spending a lot of time with exercises as well as actually writing letters, so I love lettering. When doing lettering jobs, I always lay it out as perfectly as possible, then engrave it upside down and backwards in order to keep my mind from looking at the letters instead of the cutting. My minds will read what is there and interfere with my concentration. Maybe others don't have that problem, but it certainly affects me!

That makes a world of sense, you aren't cutting a letter, you are cutting a collection of cuts....