Calligraphy Supplies Guide

Purchase from us, or source your own.

Supplies questions?
Email Melissa at melissa@calligraphy.org. She knows her calligraphy supplies.

Quick shipping from Calligraphy.org

You can purchase our Modern Calligraphy Kit or the Brush Calligraphy Kit at our online store.

Not sure what any of this is? Check the FAQs or email Melissa with your question.

Modern Kit

Our Modern Calligraphy Kit includes everything that you'll need to get started with both Melissa's Modern Calligraphy class and Hoang's Spencerian class. We've changed this kit over the years, and we're very happy with our current selection of supplies.

We're particularly excited about the walnut ink crystals that ship dry and will not explode and destroy your kit! You simply add water until you like the consistency, and you have a high-end bottle of ink.

Brush Kit

We designed our Brush Calligraphy kit for Melissa's Brush Calligraphy class. It includes a selection of brush markers to give you a taste for what high-quality supplies can create.

Try Paper & Ink Arts

You don't want to order our kit? No problem. We’ve teamed up with Paper & Ink Arts to provide you another way to order the supplies you need.

Purchase the basic supplies at a minimum. If you think you may fall head over heels for calligraphy, go ahead and get the optional supplies to save yourself some shipping costs and time.

Get it locally.

Sourcing locally can be time consuming and frustrating unless you live in a relatively urban area or an artsy college town. If you do, you may just be able to find everything you need in one stop.

To expedite your shopping trip, print out this page (or save a tree and pull it up on your phone) and have your local art supply store employee help you find everything you need.

We love Michael’s, JoAnn and Hobby Lobby, but they won’t have what you need. PROMISE. If you want to waste time and money, go ahead and get one of those yucky Speedball calligraphy kits. If you want to enjoy your time with pen and ink, see Melissa's recommended supplies list.

Modern & Spencerian Calligraphy

Required Supplies

Wooden or plastic pen holder, try to find an oblique holder and a straight holder
Black ink
- FW
- Higgins Eternal
- Sumi 60
- walnut ink
At least 2 Nibs
Organizer box
Rhodia grid or Bienfang grid paper
Marker Layout Paper
Pencil
Eraser

Additional Supplies

Sumi 60 ink, Dr. PH Martin’s Pen White ink
Finetec Gold (and coarse bristle brush)
All the pointed nibs you can find
- Hunt 22
- Hunt 101
- Gillott 303
- Gillott 404
- Brause ef66
- Leonardt Principal
- Zebra G
- Hiro 40
- Hiro 41
Drafting pencil
Click eraser
Clear grided ruler

Brush Calligraphy

Required Supplies

Marker Layout paper or Rhodia Gridded paper
Small brush marker
Medium brush marker
Pencil
Eraser

Additional Supplies

Bristle brush markers
- Zig cocoiro
- Pentel Colorbrush
Waterbrush - Pentel or Sakura
Watercolors
Watercolor paper
Drafting pencil
Clear, gridded ruler

Chalk Lettering

Required Supplies

Chalk. Any chalk. You can buy colors if you like, but white is usually best.
Paper towels
A cup with water
Slate chalk board