When it comes to wedding or special event calligraphy, envelopes are often a calligrapher’s bread and butter. When you’re pouring your heart (and hand muscles) into several hundred envelopes, having great tools makes all the difference. Here are the tools I recommend for calligraphy envelope addressing that help make the job run as smoothly and effortlessly as possible - because you KNOW a lot of effort goes into these special stationery jewels.
LASER LINERS:
Slider Writer: no longer manufactured, but if you can find a used one or a friend to sell you one, BUY IT! Seriously, set up an ebay notification on this item. It is my favorite tool.
We R Memory Keepers Laser Square, $55 on Amazon
Black +Decker BDL220S Laser Level, $15 on Amazon (uses AA batteries). Avoid lasers like the model pictured here that require small watch batteries. It gets expensive fast to be replacing the batteries all the time.
LIGHT BOARDS:
Artograph Lightpad A950 LED, this has been my workhorse and I love it! It comes in various sizes, prices range from $90-$322 on Amazon depending on the size. I have a large 17”x24” that I use a lot for wedding vow orders.
Huion LED Ultra-thin Lightboard, ~$40 on Amazon. Surprisingly fantastic for the price point! Very lightweight and has a great dimmable light feature.
PHANTOM LINERS:
Large Phantom Liner: $35 from Paper and Ink Arts
Small Phantom Liner: $24 from Paper and Ink Arts. For Seattlites, our local store Paper Delights in Wallingford also carries these in stock at times.
GRID RULERS:
I loooooove these rulers and use them in several sizes: The 6 inches is helpful for envelopes and I use the 12 inch and 18 inch sizes for other projects daily.
DRYING RACKS:
Print Gocco drying racks by RISO I bought from northwoodstudios.us and you can sometimes find on ebay or etsy.
Wooden Drying Racks: sablewoodpaper.com or Fabulousfancypants.com (both $15)
Etsy has lots of options as well
MAGNETIC INK STIRRERS:
Industrial Chemistry Lab stirrers: o Topolino Magnetic Stirrer ($88) from John Neal Bookseller o SpeedStir Magnetic Ink Stirrer from Paper and Ink Arts ($43)
Ink Me This, Calligraphy Ink Stirrer ($98). I've used this stirrer for several years now and have found it to be wonderful! It runs off a power cord so it does need to plug in, but I found that it works much more reliably than my soap stirrer model (below).
Luis Creations Soap Magnetic Stirrer ($98), sold by John Neal Bookseller. Disclaimer: I purchased this stirrer back in 2017 and didn't have a great experience with it so I can't personally recommend it. To be fair, I believe others have had success with it and and I know Luis takes his creations seriously so I wouldn't be surprised if his model has been updated and improved since the time I purchased mine.
Guide Sheets
I tend to make my own guide sheets, but if you find it helpful to have pre-made sheets, here are a few I can recommend:
Logos Calligraphy Envelope Guide Sheets: scroll to the bottom of the page to find the link for the envelope addressing templates. Ths is a digital file that you can print out.
CalligraPhilly Envelope Guidesheets: These come laminated and ready to go. You can purchase them in various sizes.
This list is far from exhaustive, and I will likely come back to add a few more things as they come to mind. But, I hope this helps in your letter-loving journey!