mending time

This week I finally caught up on some mending — I like to sew by hand more than dragging out the sewing machine. It just seems more relaxing.

After a bit of watercolor, I tried to draw the needles and a bit of white thread on the felt pages of the needle book with a white gel pen or a Posca marker but neither worked on this soft handmade paper.

brush repair & testing inks

While at our son's as "granny nanny" last month, I laid my smaller travel squirrel mop brush on the counter . . . where it promptly rolled off onto the floor and broke. I thought at the time that it seemed odd that the break was so even.

Then this past week I was gently squeezing excess water from my larger brush of the same style and it broke off as well, in the same way. Now I realize that this is a weak spot in how the bristles are attached --- I am hoping that super glue will fix both of them. I did a search online but could not find either brush in a travel form so I would really like to save these.

Then a couple of sample inks arrived from Goulet Pens. I have been wanting to try De Atramentis Document white ink for fountain pens ever since learning of it from Liz Steel's blog. Currently I use a Uniball Signo Gel Pen for white lines but really want a fountain pen white ink -- it would especially be cool to fill my white Lamy Safari pen! Unfortunately, it just doesn't write as consistent of a white line as the Uniball Signo pen. Ink goes on smoothly enough but it dries much lighter than when wet. In one spot, where I may have gotten some skin oil on the dark paper, it would not write at all even after repeated tries.

I also tried a sample of Platinum Mix-Free (whatever that means?) Earth Brown. Here, I was looking for a water-soluble burnt sienna colored ink that I could 'bleed' with a bit of water added. I have used Platinum Carbon Black ink and loved it, so I thought their brand might be good. I love the color, with just the right amount of 'bleed', but it is so thin that I cannot fill my pen's converter. It took 5 or 6 tries to even get it half-filled. Maybe I could fill an empty cartridge with the ink, using a syringe. Or perhaps it would work better in a Noodler's Creeper pen? Not sure . . .

testing inks (& wash) on toned paper

I'm really not used to sketching on this darker toned paper (Canson Mi-teintes in a handbound journal). Watercolor tends to dull quite a bit. Gouache works . . . but I'd really like to get better at pen & ink sketches, using the toned paper as the middle tone and black and white for darks and lights. So I tested my current pens on this journal page.

My new Kuretake brush pen is filled with Noodler's Lexington Gray ink -- I'm liking the possibilities of using this as a lighter tone in black and white work. It may be useful in light shadows for colored sketches as well since the ink won't smear when watercolor is added.

I need to learn to use a lighter hand and more variable lines with brush pens, so I've included three total in what I carry with me currently. From the top, the pens shown are:

white gelly roll pen

Kuretake brush pen with Lexington Gray ink

Pentel Aquash brush pen with light black ink

Lamy Safari pen with Platinum carbon black ink

Pentel Pocketbrush pen

Sharpie white water based marker with extra fine point

Platinum desk fountain pen with very fine nib

M. Graham gouache, zinc white

a mixed-in-the-pan gray watercolor (ultramarine blue & burnt umber) --- there is also a brown watercolor in this tiny set for when I draw with brown ink. I can't remember if it is burnt sienna or burnt umber.

Only two more double-page spreads left of this gray paper in my journal with which to practice . . .

is it Christmas already?

Yesterday, as I placed some paid bills in our mailbox to be picked up, I found a package in the box . . . apparently left there sometime the day before. I had ordered a Kuretake brush pen along with a converter for using it with alternate inks -- excited that it arrived! I was surprised to find that it came with not one but three cartridges, though I've read that this ink is not water-soluble.

Then when the mailman came later, he brought a package from Rosemary & Co. in England. Several weeks ago I ordered a travel dagger brush from them to carry in my bag. Daggers work as both a flat and a round brush -- and even make a good "rigger brush" line! And surprise! Rosemary even stuck in a couple of chocolates with a Merry Christmas greeting!

Later I found a box at our front door -- a copy of Richard Sheppard's new book, "Impressions of Wine Country". Our Christmas shopping was finished before Thanksgiving but I did take advantage of Amazon's "Black Friday" 30% off any book coupon to buy this gorgeous book! (Maybe it's now a good time to thankfully play with my new toys and hide the credit card for a while!)

On Monday afternoon, we went to watch Macy, the daughter of friends at church, as she played  basketball at her middle school. Her little brother, Blake, borrowed my sketchbook and entertained us all with his fun sketches and stories. (I added the referee and large basketball to his pages.)

BTW, I did a very silly thing . . . I drew the things I received in the mail late last night while catching up on some recorded Dr. Who shows. Then discovered this morning that the book was upside down as I was sketching. Oops!

For those interested, the upper left quote is from Victorian artist and missionary Lilias Trotter:

"The things that are impossible with men are possible with God. May it not be that the human impossibility is just the very thing that sets His Hand free? ---& that it is the things which are possible for us to do that He is in a measure to let alone?"

new drawing supplies

Having found the best pens to use on this handmade paper ___the Uni-ball Signo UM-151 gel ink pens___ I ordered a couple more colors of them. I already had brown-black so I ordered a black and a bordeaux black. Actually I got a couple of sizes in each color; they come in .28, .38, and .5 nibs.

While looking through Jet Pens' web site, I also found these two mechanical pencils. The long 2-pointed one is an Auto Point Turnpoint mechanical pencil --- it has a .7 graphite lead at one end and a .9 red lead at the other. I thought I would put a .9 2B graphite lead in the red end for wider, darker pencil lines.

The other mechanical pencil is in a real wood case and is very tiny! Fits easily inside my favorite watercolor palettes. Besides that, it's just cute!

Because this gel pen's line does not bleed through the paper, I am able to use the back of each page for notes and journaling. This facing page was used for notes during last night's Bible study.