6 Pro Tips on Glass Bottle Writing

I had a bunch of champagne bottles to customize and I decided, you know what, let me walk you through the process and share 6 pro tips with you!

Tip 1: How to hold or secure the bottle

Option 1: You can put a cushion underneath your bottle and it will be a lot easier on your hands so that you don't have to carry it.

Option 2: Hold the bottle by the neck with your non-dominant hand, which is my preferred method because I find that it's a lot easier to pivot the bottle in small increments so I'm essentially tilting the bottle bit by bit, pivoting it against the table at the bottom of the bottle.

Imagine the bottle is tilted up at an angle and this allows me to visualize a straight line easily without any parallax error. I generally go for the second method, but if you find it a bit tough on your wrist, you can go with option one: using a cushion underneath and still tilting the bottle. It's just a bit more tedious - just imagine you have the bottle flat down and you have to overarch your back or neck to look at the bottle compared to tilting it up with your hand so that it faces you.

Tip 2: If you make any mistakes, use an alcohol wipe to scratch the ink off

Tip 3: Add flourishes or decorative illustrations to centre / balance your composition

If you are not confident with centring your lines - if let's say it's a little bit too near to the left or a little bit too near to the right and it's not exactly balanced you can always add flourishes to extend your sentences to balance it out.

So for example in this case, the "Frederic" name, I wrote it a little bit too near to to the left so I extended it by adding a little heart shape at the end and that's my usual go-to, to balance things out. In this case and it's only appropriate if it's relevant e.g. if it's a couple, I can add the heart shape but let's say if it's ambiguous I'm not so sure if it's anything like Valentine's Day related or Anniversary related, then I don't add the heart shape. I'll add something else that is like a simple flourish but essentially it works both ways.

So let's say if the word was a little bit too near to the right, I'll add an additional flourish on the letter F - entrance stroke of letter F to extend it further to the left.

Usually I just kind of freehand and freestyle and whatever comes, whatever goes, you know? In this case, there was a bit too much extra space at the bottom, below the date, So I added a little bit of decorative flourishes at the bottom. And I just completed the whole thing by adding the illustrative stars, especially if it is a celebratory or congratulatory message.

Tip 4: Use an oil-based marker

The gold pen I'm using is called the Sakura Pen Touch Gold Pen in fine-tip size. Essentially, you want to go for an oil-based marker and not an acrylic marker - not like a Molotow or any other acrylic-based marker, not a water-based marker like a POSCA because we want to ensure the ink can last. Usually for champagne, the customers are going to put it in the fridge and chill it before they bring it out and you don't want the water from the condensation to ruin your artwork. So you want to go for an oil-based marker because it's more long-lasting and it is ... I wouldn't say it is scratchproof because you can technically scratch the ink off but it's definitely waterproof. For water-based markers, they are not waterproof and acrylic-based markers, they usually water resistant but not waterproof.

My personal preference is… I like a very specific shade of gold which is this particular shade of gold. Not too yellow and not too red tone. If it's red-toned, it's like copper or rose gold and if it's too yellow, it feels very old-fashioned so I like it somewhere, just right. And I also like markers where they dry off with a matte finish, where it looks really clean, very nice, shiny, reflective under the light so yes, it checks all the boxes.

Tip 5: Increase the size of your pen or decrease the size of your pen tip, according to the text length and the bottle size.

For example, if I have a small bottle like a mini champagne or half bottle, I can reduce the marker size from fine tip to extra fine tip. Or let's say I am writing on a 750 ml bottle but the text is long like a 100-word poem, let's say. I don't know who will get that but let's say it's 100 words and I don't want the entire piece to feel very overwhelming, you can reduce the pen size from fine tip down to extra fine so that all the lines still look easy to read with all the negative space.

Likewise, if I'm writing a really big bottle let's say 3 litres, and I only have one word that says "Congrats". Then I can increase the size of the tip from fine to medium-sized.

It's good to have various pen sizes and you can switch accordingly depending on the 1.Text length and 2. Size of the bottle itself.

Tip 6: Recommend a custom message that fits the bottle shape for a well balanced composition.

If you notice the shape of the champagne, it's narrower at the top and it goes wider and wider to the base so generally speaking if let's say the client comes to me and says they want a really long word and that's the first word - I try to advise the client: "Is there a way you can rephrase, if possible?"

So for example "Congratulations" is a really long word relative to the word "Audrey" I mean of course if they really want this fixed text I would just say "Yes let me do it for you, I can get it done" but if they are like "Can you recommend me something that is fitting for a birthday?" then I will recommend a phrase that doesn't have a really long word as the first few words.

Generally speaking, you want it to look nice across the entire bottle so if the longer words can sit at the bottom, that would be a lot easier, composition-wise.

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Alright, I hope you enjoyed this blog post - if you did, let me know which tip you found most helpful. If you’ve any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to comment your question below or DM me on Instagram and I’ll be sure to answer and help.

Last but not least, I share these thinking that most of the people who watch it would likely be a practising artist - maybe you want to venture into a new material or surface or item or a new service but if you are someone who has not tried calligraphy before and you want to learn and you want to master calligraphy, then I would point you towards my calligraphy course. It's completely online or if you're in Singapore, you can also take it with me in person and even if you are practising calligrapher and you want to level up, feel free to check it out as well.

Anyway, I'm just sharing so if any of you guys are interested you can check it out and there's also a free class preview, you can watch one lesson to see if it's a right fit. If it's not, no pressure, no worries. You can always wait till my next tutorial - feel free to comment on what you want to learn!

How to Hand-engrave on Metal, What Engraver I Use, Full Engraving Process & More

Hi everyone! I’ve engraved on various materials before such as glass and plastic (process tutorial on engraving on glass is linked here, and plastic is linked here).

And recently, lots of metal! So I thought I’d share what I learnt with you, along with my full process of how I engrave on metal.

First off, the engraving tool. It is called a nail drill or a dental drill.

And the reason how I know that is because if you go to a manicure or pedicure, they would usually use a similar tool but they will switch out the burrs that you know instead of using a diamond burr, they would use a different burr to do the filing of the nails and other nail things. And for dentists, it's a really uncanny encounter because I went for a wisdom tooth extraction. And it's like almost like a deja vu moment because I usually engrave on different items like glass and metal and acrylic and all like different products for clients. And when I was doing the wisdom tooth extraction, the dentist pulled out a tool that looks exactly like my engraver and he used it on my teeth. Yes. So that's how I know um it's also used by dentists so you can either Google a dental drill or a nail drill, and something similar would pop up.

Or if you want to avoid any hassle - I will link down the product links to the 3 engravers that I currently have and you can definitely check those out. And I will broadly explain the differences as well so that you can make a more informed decision.

Engraving Tool 1: Dremel Stylo +

So the first engraver that I got was the Dremel Stylo+. I would highly recommend this over the other Dremel tools in the market because this option here is ergonomic, small and lightweight which is very important, at least to me when I'm engraving. Because I want to make sure that I can create a smooth line and I can control it well, I don't think I can do that with a bulky and heavy engraver. That being said, there are also several disadvantages to the Dremel Stylo+.

1. It is fairly noisy. It almost sounds like you know when your neighbour is doing a renovation next door, it kind of sounds like that. I do have a comparison video of the noise level between the Dremel and the other engravers that I have. Link here.

2. It is not brushless. What brushless just mean is whether or not you can feel the vibration in your hand when you're engraving. I would say if you are a full-time engraver or if you are doing a long-term project, definitely you want to consider this feature in mind because while it is bearable and it's not terribly uncomfortable, it still exists.

3. It only goes up to 25k RPM. While it is able to cut into glass and metal and all that, it's not the highest horsepower machine out there available. So let's just put it as that meaning it's not bad but it's not great, you know what I mean?

Engraving Tools 2 & 3: Nail Drill / Dental Drill

Moving on, the next two engravers that I'm gonna talk about are exactly the same. It is the one I’m using in my above Youtube video. The difference is they are packaged differently and priced differently as well.

Broadly speaking, these two engravers are brushless, no vibration on the hand, very lightweight, and small. It is also you know higher horsepower; it goes up to 35k RPM. That said, you should also be able to find engravers out there in the market where it goes up even higher up to 40K RPM so if you prefer 40K definitely feel free to Google for those options.

The second engraver I got is from Laura, she goes by the name of @ingkstudio and she's from Australia. She does this all-in-one kit, beautifully packaged, so it includes everything that you need in a project from start to finish. Here is the link to her product. Because of that the price point is higher as well so I paid a total of 570 SGD (435 USD) after the conversion and inclusive of shipping and tax right so the shipping and tax are already well over a hundred so you may want to check it out and kind of see how much it costs depending on where you stay and what are your local tax rules.

But other than that you also want to consider the electrical power point. The plug in Australia is not the same as the plug in Singapore so I do have to purchase an additional adapter to make sure I can use it in Singapore.

So moving forward, I then purchased a third engraver and this is my backup engraver for events, so it's very important that when you're doing live events you want to make sure you have two so just in case one dies out, you have the other as your backup. This backup engraver is the exact same ie. it looks exactly the same it performs exactly the same as the engraver that I got from Laura. The difference is the price. I got my 3rd engraver from Alibaba. It cost me 120 SGD dollars nett or 90 USD and I was also able to choose the power plug, right so there's an option of US, UK and EU and because UK is the same as Singapore, I chose the UK option. So hopefully that's helpful for you to make an informed decision. *Update: Here is the link to purchase something similar.

Or if you’re in Singapore, here’s a more affordable option linked here.

Engraving Process

Before I start any engraving, if I see that the surface is dirty, I will wipe it down with a wet wipe or rubbing alcohol. Once that is done, then I will proceed with the engraving itself.

You also want to make sure that the amount of pressure that you apply is even and consistent. Meaning, you do not want to apply heavy pressure. You want to go slow and steady and let the tool work for you. There's no need at all to apply too heavy pressure. You know if it's too heavy when your hand starts to get tired quite easily from holding it really tight and applying heavy weight on the item itself. At the same time, you do not want to apply too light pressure. If it's too light, first of all, you wouldn't even make a dent on the item but likewise, if it's too light and furthermore if it's not consistent, you may also see that your line is not smooth. To get a smooth line, you want to make sure when you are drawing one line from point A to point B, the amount of pressure applied is exactly the same. Consistent, even pressure. That's how you get a smooth line.

If it's not smooth, it's very likely either 1. The speed is not right. Meaning if you're going too fast or too slow abruptly, you would maybe have a skipping of lines or 2. It could also be the material itself. Yeah, let's just blame the material (haha!) Certain materials right for example a low-grade metal is going to be smooth, it's gonna be slippery, it's gonna be very hard to control so I highly recommend you slow down two things 1. the engraving speed itself ie. the RPM and 2. slow down the writing speed meaning your own hand like the strokes that you are doing in real life.

Other than that, you also want to consider:

• Is the metal coated or uncoated?

• What type of metal is it?

• Is it aluminium, is it brass, copper, or stainless steel?

Things like that so I do not have a fixed RPM magic number to provide you with because it really depends on all the above factors that I've just mentioned.

How to draft a design before engraving if you’re not comfortable with free-hand engraving yet

Use a ruler as well as a water-based marker or pen to draft two things 1. guidelines as well as 2. my calligraphy design. You can either use a water-based marker or a water-based pen to do this. Something inexpensive would be great because you're gonna wipe it off later on so there's no need to use an expensive Molotow one for all acrylic marker or anything like that. Something inexpensive like a micron or a posca pen will do.

After I'm done with the draft, I'm gonna proceed with the engraving and trace over the lines that I just drew. After I trace finished the lines, I will then use a wet wipe or a spray bottle and just spritz it down. Because the ink is water-based, you can easily remove the draft design and that would leave your calligraphy design on top.

Hot Tip 1:

If you're doing a monoline engraving, use a bullet tip. If you are doing a shaded script engraving, you can use a water-based brush pen. Because that's gonna show you the thicks and thins just by using the brush pen itself so there's no need to do any faux calligraphy in that sense because you already have the design there.

Hot Tip 2:

If the pen ink is not showing up on the item itself or if you see that the surface of the item is repelling the ink, use a marker instead or a wax pencil such as the Stabilo All pencil.

That’s all! I hope you will find it helpful for your personal projects as well as our client projects.

At the same time, if you're looking to master calligraphy I do teach an online course. It's called The Ultimate Calligraphy Course. There's also a free class lesson for you to view right now so do check it out if you're interested. There's no experience required because I teach everything from the ground up: basics, intermediate, all the way to advance. If not, if you have any questions about today's video feel free to leave them down below and I'll be happy to answer them!

How To Engrave On Plastic - Process Tips & Tricks

Today I'm going to be sharing about engraving on plastic. If you’re looking for a brushless engraving machine, here’s the link to purchase.

If you have tried it before, you would know that it can be quite a frustrating experience - just because the plastic material is likely to get chewed up along with your engraver as you are doing a single stroke.

So this happens because of one of two things.

Number one: the plastic itself is not suitable for engraving.

If it's a thin material - like, plastic water bottle thin, don't bother. Just skip.

If it's fairly thick and sturdy, then we move on to the next step. Usually, what I would do is I would kind of flick on it to check the sound. You know how you flick on someone's forehead with your middle finger and your thumb like you know that kind of action? I'll do that on the plastic itself. So if I hear a hollow reverb, it's very likely not suitable for engraving. You can get a bunch of different plastics - maybe cosmetics or candle jars whatsoever. Gather a bunch of them and you can tell the difference between what is hollow and what is not!

Or another easier way is just to check the price point. Usually, cheaper products would use cheaper packaging and very likely if it's a cheap piece of plastic, it can't be engraved on.

Moving on to point number two is the actual engraving speed of your engraver. So usually for me, when I engrave on glass or steel metal, I would go 26 rpm and above. But plastics, you want to go with a single-digit number - anywhere 6, 7, 8, 9, maybe 10.

What I would normally do is... I will try it first. I'll put it at 8000 rpm and depending on the actual plastic, the reaction and how it feels - I would either tune-up or tune down.

The last pro tip is your actual engraving speed. Not the machine but the actual writing speed of your hand. Even if your number is set you know maybe at 8 rpm but your actual writing is really fast, it will not show well so you want to go really slow. Really, really slow. Let the drill do the work, don't press too hard as well. Just go slow, have a lot of patience, like let the magic appear slow and steady. Don't rush it. If not - if you rush it you can really tell like in the lines, it will be really jagged. So it'll be rigid, jagged, and rough on the edges and we do not want that!

So that's all for today's tutorial. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, just let me know.

P.S. If you’re looking to start your calligraphy journey or improve your current skills, feel free to check out my online calligraphy course here!

Live on-site calligraphy event process, insights and tips

I'll be at LANEIGE's ION Orchard store on 27 Aug from 5-8 pm! Customising on their new foundation:

Since it's an upcoming event and I know some of you creative peeps may be keen on doing events in the future, I thought I'd let you in on my process!

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Here are some behind-the-scenes pictures of me testing on their product:

​Before a client event, I'd always request for the product item to be sent to me for testing. This helps me to test inks beforehand and ensure that the event will run smoothly as anticipated!

As an artist producing art live, on-the-spot, there's no room for screw-ups and/or guesswork. You're representing not only you yourself as the artist but also the brand who hired you too, so ensuring everything runs perfectly is a minimum requirement.

Other than that, punctuality is a must and customer service and are-you-able-to-handle-potentially-difficult-customers are also great pluses as a live artist!

Producing good work also means 2 things:

1. Are you able to create good work that both the customer and client are happy with and

2. Are you able to produce work at a satisfactory pace esp. when there are many waiting in line for your service!

To share, the craziest event I did was at Uniqlo's (linked case study here). One time I had to write 150+ quotes on cards in 4 hours, which was 37.5 quotes per hour. In other words, I had to write 3+ cards every 5 mins (RIP to my right hand).

In hindsight, it was still doable as I think I'm a pretty fast writer but I was also trying hard to maintain the quality despite being fast. If there were more customers in line, perhaps having an additional calligrapher for that event would be really helpful! So another good tip is to ask the client how many customers they're expecting for the event so that both parties expectations are aligned!

Anyway, as you can see - these testing pictures above usually aren't "pretty". There was some back and forth between me and the client when it comes to choosing the exact shade of green and pink that they're looking for! :-) In the end, they chose the soft pink shade as well as the turquoise (more blue-green) shade.

Another tip: if the project scope changes, you can always provide alternative suggestions and be a communicative collaborator instead of scraping the whole project!

Initially, it was supposed to be an engraving event where I'll engrave on the item, but this surface wasn't the most suitable. I then suggested to engrave on the mirror inside the foundation case instead but later on, I learnt from the client that some customers may be sensitive to others touching anything inside the foundation case ie. the cushion. So we had to scratch that idea and change it to custom ink instead.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post! Feel free to leave a comment if you’ve questions and I’ll be sure to get back to you.

P.S. Watch a free class preview from my online calligraphy course!

[NEW] Calligraphy Kits! - The Ultimate Calligraphy Course

I'm excited to share that Calligraphy Kits are now available! 🎉❤️🙌🏻

With Singapore's recent tightened covid measures, I've since cancelled upcoming in-person classes, and those occurring in the later months are on pause until further notice.

It's kinda like a semi-lockdown right now. I hope you're keeping safe wherever you are, and staying sane! 

Coincidentally, my urge to bake is resurfacing again…

*Update: we made brownies and coffee! & nope it isn't dalgona coffee 😂

Anyway, because of this semi-lockdown situation, I've been getting more enquires about my online course recently and some of y'all mentioned that you don't have access to a printer to print out the course worksheets.

So I've decided to put a calligraphy kit together! 🥳️

Essentially, this workbook contains all 200+ pages of worksheets for the entire 6-week course, covering everything from Copperplate basics, minuscules and majuscules, flourishing, modern calligraphy, ligatures, composition and layout, digitization and more. Double-sided print and ring-bounded.

Together with the workbook, this kit will also include:

• 1 Writing Pad or Tracing Pad (depending on stock)

• 1 Pentel Touch Brush Pen (Black), 1 Koi Brush Pen (Colour)

• Several heavy-weight paper in various sizes for you to create your very own calligraphy art masterpieces with

• Custom place card of your name flourished by myself!

Of course, the online course will have the worksheets downloadable when you sign up. But if you'd like me to prepare all the materials for you on my end and mail em' to your doorstep (worldwide shipping), this is a supplementary optional add-on without the hassle. 

And you can get started on learning a new skill straight away! :-)

Sign up for the course here! And for the calligraphy kit, you may purchase it as an add-on here.

I hope that you'll find this addition helpful. If you've any Q's, reach out to me at hello@leahdesign.sg and I'll be there to help!