Dip pens and ink

Well, I bought some dip pen stuff and here is what I got:

A variety of speedball nibs/holders and 24 colors of bombay
ink.

The colors are great and that stuff is incredibly tenacious.
I've not figured out the best nib/ink combos yet but used a
sepia to pen a letter with a c-5 nib I think. It was not as
consistent as I would like but that could be said about more
than the ink/nib combo. Along those lines, does anybody know of
any italic writting nibs rather than calligraphy? Wonder if
Williams-Mitchell might be a better choice.


I used some of the white ink to mark a moleskine cover. It
shows not sign of coming off easily with anything but acetone.
I've sampled most of the inks and am always pleased. The letter
I wrote used sepia brown, cherry red, and maybe purple.

I've used an eyedropper and have dipped the nibs to fill them.
I think the eyedropper is best for the thicker inks. The
flexible nibs demand to be dipped in my opinion.

I guess maybe it's not fair to call these "letters" that I
write. They are really one page letters or fold-notes. Does
anybody else here do simple fold-notes or the like?

matthew

MatthewK wrote:
I guess maybe it's not fair to call these "letters" that I
write. They are really one page letters or fold-notes. Does
anybody else here do simple fold-notes or the like?

I'm a big believer in the unfolded card without an envelope.

--
_Deirdre web: http://deirdre.net blog: http://dsmoen.livejournal.com/
"Memes are a hoax! Pass it on!"

On 2008-06-27, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
MatthewK wrote:
I guess maybe it's not fair to call these "letters" that I
write. They are really one page letters or fold-notes. Does
anybody else here do simple fold-notes or the like?

I'm a big believer in the unfolded card without an envelope.

I've never sent a postcard. Can you use any card stock as long
it is the proper size?

matthew

MatthewK wrote:
On 2008-06-27, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
I'm a big believer in the unfolded card without an envelope.

I've never sent a postcard. Can you use any card stock as long
it is the proper size?

Sure. I tend to send them in with a package or the like, though.

Pendemonium has some from G. Lalo that aren't horrifically
expensive. I do have some matching envelopes, I just don't use
as many of those, so I wanted a line where I could buy cards and
envelopes separately.

You've seen Post Secret, right?

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

It's an art project designed around one side of a blank card.

--
_Deirdre web: http://deirdre.net blog: http://dsmoen.livejournal.com/
"Memes are a hoax! Pass it on!"

"MatthewK" wrote in message
...
Well, I bought some dip pen stuff and here is what I got:

A variety of speedball nibs/holders and 24 colors of bombay
ink.

The colors are great and that stuff is incredibly tenacious.
I've not figured out the best nib/ink combos yet but used a
sepia to pen a letter with a c-5 nib I think. It was not as
consistent as I would like but that could be said about more
than the ink/nib combo. Along those lines, does anybody know of
any italic writting nibs rather than calligraphy? Wonder if
Williams-Mitchell might be a better choice.


I used some of the white ink to mark a moleskine cover. It
shows not sign of coming off easily with anything but acetone.
I've sampled most of the inks and am always pleased. The letter
I wrote used sepia brown, cherry red, and maybe purple.

I've used an eyedropper and have dipped the nibs to fill them.
I think the eyedropper is best for the thicker inks. The
flexible nibs demand to be dipped in my opinion.

I guess maybe it's not fair to call these "letters" that I
write. They are really one page letters or fold-notes. Does
anybody else here do simple fold-notes or the like?

matthew

How interesting. Are great minds thinking alike, once again?

I went to Hobby Lobby last Friday and got the Speedball Sketching set
because the nibs of the other set were too broad. Unfortunately, the white
ink I wanted wasn't available.

Because there was a 25-50% off sale on some artist supplies, I also bought a
set of brushes, watercolor paints, watercolor pencils, and instruction
books, etc. (I should write a book on "How to spend $100 when all that is on
your shopping list costs less than $15.")

On Saturday, I painted my first picture and decided I could decorate my
plain pearl white notes and correspondence cards with little watercolor
paintings. Since my cousin's wife's birthday is coming up, and her favorite
color is yellow-green, I next painted part of a lime onto the front of a
note that I'll use as a birthday greeting. I posted a photo of it in
binaries if anyone wants to see it.

I think Noodler's bulletproof inks would be better for these types of
decorations for those who are able to do pen-and-ink drawings. Since I'm not
there, yet, I've been wondering if I should put/spray(?) some kind of
protection over the painting.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi, but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"MatthewK" wrote in message
...
On 2008-06-27, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
MatthewK wrote:
I guess maybe it's not fair to call these "letters" that I
write. They are really one page letters or fold-notes. Does
anybody else here do simple fold-notes or the like?

I'm a big believer in the unfolded card without an envelope.

I've never sent a postcard. Can you use any card stock as long
it is the proper size?

Sure. Some of Crane's correspondence cards are available w/o envelopes. Just
write your message on one side and put the address and stamp on the opposite
side.

Here are the open stock cards in pearl white:

http://www.crane.com/prdSell.aspx?Na...spondenceCards

or, http://tinyurl.com/5sqm92.

Kent envelopes, lined or unlined in several colors, are available separately
for those times you choose to write a more personal message on a
correspondence card that other eyes shouldn't see:

http://www.crane.com/navDepartment.a...ustEn velopes

or, http://tinyurl.com/6fo357.

The Sales section sometimes has envelopes, too.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi, but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

"Deirdre Saoirse Moen" wrote in message
...

You've seen Post Secret, right?

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

It's an art project designed around one side of a blank card.

LOL! Bookmarked. Thanks.

--
~~Bluesea~~
Spam is great in musubi, but not in email.
Please take out the trash before sending a direct reply.

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:50:39 +0000, MatthewK
wrote:

Well, I bought some dip pen stuff and here is what I got:

A variety of speedball nibs/holders and 24 colors of bombay
ink.

The colors are great and that stuff is incredibly tenacious.
I've not figured out the best nib/ink combos yet but used a
sepia to pen a letter with a c-5 nib I think. It was not as
consistent as I would like but that could be said about more
than the ink/nib combo. Along those lines, does anybody know of
any italic writting nibs rather than calligraphy? Wonder if
Williams-Mitchell might be a better choice.

If you come up with any italic or stub nibs that top the Speedball
C-5, please post about.

The ****nuts on FPN all talk about the Jackson Stub, and I finally got
one and used it and it's really not worth ****. I think all they're
doing with the Jackson Stub is signing their names or something, not
writing lines with it.

I believe there are other good nibs out there, but, damn, I had a lot
of trouble when I was looking around for them, and I found that FPN
wasn't much of a resource on this and nobody else was either. Your
experience may be different though.

On 2008-06-27, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
MatthewK wrote:
On 2008-06-27, Deirdre Saoirse Moen wrote:
I'm a big believer in the unfolded card without an envelope.

I've never sent a postcard. Can you use any card stock as long
it is the proper size?

Sure. I tend to send them in with a package or the like, though.

I see, I've seen the post office mailing guidlines for size but
wasn't sure of I could use anything I wanted.

You've seen Post Secret, right?

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

It's an art project designed around one side of a blank card.

That is the first time I've seen it, thanks, some of those are
pretty good. Are you familar with japanses postcard sketches?
Most are not sent but some actually do. I guess it is a pretty
popular hobby in japan and some papers have a section devoted
to it.

matthew

On 2008-06-27, Bluesea wrote:

On Saturday, I painted my first picture and decided I could decorate my
plain pearl white notes and correspondence cards with little watercolor
paintings. Since my cousin's wife's birthday is coming up, and her favorite
color is yellow-green, I next painted part of a lime onto the front of a
note that I'll use as a birthday greeting. I posted a photo of it in
binaries if anyone wants to see it.


That is a cool idea and I saw the picture you uploaded.

I think Noodler's bulletproof inks would be better for these types of
decorations for those who are able to do pen-and-ink drawings. Since I'm not
there, yet, I've been wondering if I should put/spray(?) some kind of
protection over the painting.

I forget what it is called but there is some kind of sealing
spray for paper/pencil sketchs that would probably work fine.
I'm not sure wax would be good for that.

The only bad thing I've heard about noodlers bp black for
sketching/water colors is that it smears some.

matthew

p.s. I too spend too much money on art supplies...