Earlier this year Claire and Andrew at Cult Pens got in touch and asked if I’d like to ‘have a go’ at creating some Christmas Crackers for them. The brief consisted of a printer’s cutter guide and a request to create final ‘art’ using Cult Pens fountain pen inks. I have a strange feeling they may have been expecting something other than what I submitted, but I knew exactly what I was going to do and it’s something that I’ve been desperate to do for a long time.
Abstract calligraphy created with an automatic pen and fountain pen ink
This was the perfect opportunity for me to create a repeat pattern using abstract expressive arty calligraphy. And as Cult Pens are one of Europe’s largest online stationers it just seemed blindingly obvious, to me, to use hand generated lettering as the hero.
I spent a morning writing countless Merry Christmas scripts with a range of: self made devices (including a dolly’s hand brush), reeds, sticks, brushes and pens with black ink until finally, I had created something with an automatic pen that I could work with – something that was abstract, expressive, legible and something that would work as a repeating pattern.
The finished lettering pattern and some of the many experiments
Once I’d got the repeating pattern sorted in Photoshop it was swatch time, which included two of my favourite super sheeners – Cult Pens Robert and Maureen. These two inks are simply fabulous and if you haven’t got these in your collection – ask Santa for a set this Christmas! They are brilliant! Not only do you get a stunning blue and a deep fuchsia pink you get a metallic green and metallic red too! I photographed many of these swatches at a very high resolution and imported into Photoshop. I sampled areas from the swatches to create the backgrounds and then superimposed the coloured lettering which was also created by sampling colour and texture from the original swatches. All Cult Pens inks by the way!
After a fair amount of time spent experimenting and art working to the cutter guide, I sent eight design options to the cracker company who came back some time later with some visuals and mock ups.
Supplied art and mock-ups from the cracker company
And what came back looked very tasty indeed. I think Cult Pens were actually quite taken aback, making the final selections somewhat difficult. So much so, that instead of one box of two crackers, Claire and Andrew went for another box of two crackers too!
The cracker company also mentioned that they offered both foil and spot UV varnish options so I cheekily suggested that one set would look fabulous with shiney gold foil lettering and the other set would look great with a spot UV varnish on the lettering. And everyone agreed. And that’s my story.
The packaged items, ready to go for Christmas Day!
So, if you’re looking for something that is totally original, something with a good story behind it, something Christmassy and something with classy abstract calligraphy on Cult Pens inky backgrounds, then here you go. I’m actually chuffed to bits with the outcome. You never really know how these things might turn out, but they do look lovely. So, if you fancy a set or two to have fun with on Christmas Day, and they do have some great stationery related gifts inside each cracker too, plus a hat and a joke, they are available for pre order NOW at: Cult Pens Christmas Crackers 2023
Many many thanks to Claire and Andrew at Cult Pens for giving me such fabulous project. And if you’re interested, here’s a link to my lettering site: https://nickstewarttype.uk
AND HEY! If you’re interested to know more about how to use fountain pen inks in more creative ways – whether it’s simply to observe their chromatic behaviours, or, to recreate one of my swatch cards, or, to learn how to use them in watercolour painting, illustration and calligraphy, why not check out my online course ?
FOUNTAIN PEN INK ART 