Inky Fun

Last term I did some work through my old school with Erasmus Darwin House in Lichfield and helped develop a writing activity to draw in some cross curricular links within the historical and scientific interests for students visiting the house. This morning I worked with two groups of year 6 students trialling the activities and it was so much fun, I was delighted when one little boy wanted to show me his work and found out later that he struggles desperately with his handwriting - his calligraphy was so good, ink pot and feathers might be the way forward for him! I am still ink stained and can only apologise to the parents of the young lady who managed to cover both hands in ink during the session!

Schools who visit are provided with some materials to take away so they can build upon what the students learn during their visit. I provided a tutorial for students to make their own nibs so they could continue with their very impressive calligraphy skills and thought you might like a look, lots of fun and pretty effective if you can't get your hands on feathers and steel nibs.

snip a drinking straw in half

make a mark with your felt tip about 1cm from the end of each half


cut from the pen mark diagonally to the end of the straw to create a pointed nib


cut the second half at a wider angle to create a broader nib tip

Now all you need is a bottle of ink to dip in and some paper to write on, enjoy!