Putting the Cr and Feh into Art

Another bout of tidying suddenly came upon me.  Not for long, thankfully, but long enough to happen across a postcard from an good friend sadly no longer with us. As ever, she'd found an apposite and interesting postcard to send; an Italian cabinet in the V&A.

All the info on it is here on the V&A's page. You've gotta love the 50s, despite the bum rap they so often get; there was a lot of innovation that went on. Yes, a piece of hand-cut marquetry on a cabinet would be my first choice if the option was offered, but this is actually pretty cool, isn't it? Really worth hitting the link to see it with the doors open too.

Can't help but notice the actual maker gets third billing on the info page. So it goes. But at least there's a mention at all. I may have already told you this story, but by curious by-ways I've ended up hearing tales from a workshop that is employed, amongst other things, by artists to realise their artistic vision. Thoughtfully these incredibly skilled welders and joiners often get invited to the previews of said artist's exhibitions - on strict condition that they don't reveal that they were the ones who actually made the stuff...

Apparently they don't mind, as long as the drinks and nibbles are up to standard. ;)

Monday Stinks

This is mainly for my benefit; rather like listing tools used. If I keep a record of what pen and inks I'm using every week so often, I can see what keeps cropping up, and whatever vanishes from sight can be disposed of.

See? I'm totally going to stay on top of this thing from the start.

Yes, I am.

Should a flicker of interest flare briefly in anyone and they want further illumination of any aspect, speak up.

Have notebook; unlikely to travel

Apparently they reckon four million tablet computers are going to be sold in the UK between now and Christmas. Four million. My mind, she boggled. But then I'd failed to take into account that, apparently, many of them will be for the kiddies. Sheesh. When I was an infant I could whine for the latest trendy gadget 'til I was blue in the face and I'd end up with... a blue face.

Mind you, the latest trendy gadget at the time was a Filofax, and the lack of business contacts to keep track of and international conferences I was attending age ten-ish does, in hindsight, seem a reasonable argument by my parents. Undeterred though, I naturally turned to the DIY option instead. A cannibalised ring binder, some cardboard, and lots and lots of sticky tape later and I had... a not very good DIY Filofax. But it got the thing out of my system at zero cost (apart from the ring binder), I learnt that sticky tape is not the answer to everything, and generally it was a Good Thing, so that was all right.

Probably a bit much to ask the tablet-seeking youth to DIY themselves a printed circuit board and so forth, unfortunately. Perhaps the modern equivalent would be a Raspberry Pi?

Anyway, moving on some *tumpty-tumpty* years, recently I seem to be reliving those glory days of desiring the Trendy Thing, having the financial Powers That Be say "Nope" (The voice of conscience in this case), and turning once more to the DIY option.

The Trendy Thing is the Midori Traveller's Notebook, which is essentially a Filofax but with more elastic. Like the Filofax (and many another Trendy Thing), it promises much; your horizons will be remorselessly broadened and you will likely become a world traveller to rival Alan Whicker just by buying this notebook. Much like the beguiling idea that you'll become really organised by buying a Filofax. Well, no, you won't. But how appealing that it might possibly be so.

What's not appealing is the price, and particularly the cost of the (oddly-sized, and thus next to impossible to get from anyone else) "inserts". Or "notebooks" as the less broadly-horizoned stay-at-home such as myself might call them. So very like a Filofax then.

But it had hooked me despite my better judgement and the Wisdom of Age (yeah, right), and these days with the effects of the aluminium pans kicking in, I really need to make notes of things then and there or they will be utterly lost to me. Plus I find I need a diary; having to keep track of the folks' appointments for this'n'that really wasn't working on my iPod's calendar, because they won't believe it's true unless it's written down on paper...

Anyway, many excuses justifications later I went forth to a) DIY it, and b) Make it a more useful size, and c) Find lots of other people had got their first and the web is littered with instruction on making your own, and inserts to go with it. Huzzah!

I went with the info at My Life in One Place; there is much there, and a video somewhere that I can't currently find going through it all step by step. A general Google search will find lots of info, videos and etc. The 90mm x 140mm notebook size means it'll take notebooks by all sorts of manufacturers (Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Calepino, as well as Field Notes and the over-hyped but readily available Moleskine), but actually I ended up making my own notebooks as well.

Idiot that I am; shoulda put the knot on the outside. It's a learning process. Also had mediocre success with printing out a diary - it works, but the size won't come out quite right. But hey, wide margins for notes are a feature, right?

The cover itself is rescued from a chisel roll that I have always hated. I pretty much still hate it - the split leather effect is not great, and the colour is... well, yeah - so now I've ascertained this system does seem to work for me, I'm considering actually purchasing some leather that I like to make a replacement (*swiftly gags the voice of conscience before it points out the likelihood of spending more on the DIY version than it'd cost to buy the real thing*). Elastic is 2mm round, widely sold to the beading fraternity. 1.5mm seems to be okay too, but 1mm I found a little too thin.

For this pocket sized version, hair bands - yes, hair bands - make excellent extra elastics for joining notebooks together, and have a neat joining metal crimpy thing, thus eliminating a need for knots. Something other than neon orange would probably be preferable, but that's all I could find at the time...

Still very much a work in progress (it's already changed from these pictures), and some improvements needed. Not wildly happy with the current pen holder, f'rinstance - and not just because it's ugly as hell...

Anyway, all good fun and useful. Oh, and an excuse for some tool use; aside from a leather punch, an in-canel gouge makes a neat job of rounding the corners, and an awl unexpectedly found itself plucked from obscurity and re-designated as a bookbinder's tool. 

Bookbinding; now there's a whole other slippery slope... No. Nope. Not going there.

Fountain Pen Day Epistle

Text version:
Behold! 'Tis Fountain Pen Day!

For it is written that today ye shall go forth (or fifth) and Fount in a Pen-like manner.

I had planned to engage your interest with cunning employment of a WOODEN pen, but alas, the only one available to me is this example in the Old Man's possession and it is rather too short and tapering to be comfortable to use.

I did dally with investing in a new wooden pen of my own (any excuse), for there are many beautiful examples to be had. Alas, many of them are Limited Editions, and virtually all of them have considerably less attractive price tags. So the most likely candidate was the Lamy ABC, which is aimed at the infant fountain pen user, and has a barrel made of maple. It does have an attractive simplicity, but also a nib capable of withstanding being mashed by the heavy hand of youthful enthusiasm, so not really my thing. Had I an infancy scribe about my person to whom it could have been passed on, that would have been a different matter.

So instead I am writing this with, I think, the cheapest non-disposable fountain pen that Earth pounds can currently buy. With the on-going 20% off offer at Cult Pens at the moment (Oh, dangerous website, get thee from me. But not too far…) you too can be the proud owner of a Platinum Preppy for £2.60.

You get a cartridge with it, so it's ready to go (The purple is vile, btw. And the blue is more a blue-black, so okay for business use) And it's really not half bad.

Plus it has scope for adjustment; this one has been converted to an "eye dropper" filling system, and I've been using them as guinea pigs for nib grinding, This one is now a little finer and with a hint of italic.

Now you can't do THAT with a ballpoint.

Happy Fountain Pen Day! 

Paper: Nu: elite B5 notebook

Ink: Diamine Syrah.

N.B. This is what my writing looks like when I'm not being precious about it (and when my back's killing me); it's a lot better than it was, but I suspect apologies are still in order...