There she goes, my beautiful world
I hear all the time about John Law. He’s the guy with a long arm, who will catch you when you do bad things. I became curious: I’ve heard about him many times, but I don’t really know who John Law is. Fortunately, I have my set of Chambers’s Encyclopedia, 1883 Edition handy. Yes, I could have googled it, but that takes all the fun out, doesn’t it?
Turns out John Law was born the son of a Scottish banker and … Read the rest
According to the Book of Genesis, Pharaoh took one part of five of all that the people on the lands of Egypt produced, and the people kept four-fifths, and these were the conditions of slavery. Today the government takes two-fifths and we call it freedom.
I’m not even saying it’s wrong, but it gives one pause.… Read the rest
I have a project that may have just cost me my favorite pen. I’m exaggerating. A little. It’s not quite over yet, and I knew the Rotring 700 was not going to survive this process. I knew there was some risk involved, and I may yet find a solution.
The problem is that my Rotring 700 had seen better days. The barrel had been dented, the cap no longer fit securely over the nib, the cap also would not post … Read the rest
I did mention several weeks ago that Armenian Remembrance Day had arrived. I’ve been meaning to write about that day for some time now. Armenian Remembrance Day, April 24th, is one of the two days out of the year in which the Mount Davidson Cross is illuminated so as to be visible for miles. The idea to go shoot some photos up there had been percolating in my consciousness for some time, and as I gathered my things … Read the rest
Despite my recent grumblings about the paper quality of Moleskines, I’m pleased enough with the design to have a few in my current rotation. I’m embarrassed by how many notebooks I have started right now, each with its own dedicated purpose, at least vaguely. The one that I’m most intrigued by as a project is the Moleskine City Notebook for San Francisco. The idea is simple: they provide the basic ingredients of a city guide, the rest is essentially blank.
There … Read the rest
This past weekend at Flax’s pen fair I was able to put my hands on the Waterman Edson Diamond Black. There is in fact something really amazing abut the pen. I can’t put my finger on it and it may just be the rush of anticipation, but writing with the Edson was electric. At first I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking!
I was in a big hurry to get back to Open Studios, and only there at Flax … Read the rest
For some time I’ve marveled at the consistency that calligraphers are able to maintain when doing their work. Everything else is just knowing how to move a pen to get a particular shape, flourish, or effect. No individual part of calligraphy is all that mysterious, but actually getting the letterforms the same again and again, that’s a skill that has so far eluded me.
Posts on the Fountain Pen Network led me to Paperpenalia’s handwriting method of writing by moving from … Read the rest
Saturday afternoon I went to the Pen Fair and Sale at Flax Art for one purpose: to give the Parker representative a hard time.
I should back up and explain why that was necessary. The first fact you need to know is that Parker is owned by Sanford, the company that makes Sharpies. Sanford also owns Parker competitors Waterman and Rotring.
Rotring is one of my favorite pen companies, for a lot of reasons. First, they make an excellent Rapidograph, one … Read the rest
Woke up this morning to the sound of my upstairs neighbor hollering and banging on the door. When I wandered out to see what was going on, it turns out he wasn’t banging on my door, but the back door of the next-door neighbor. Smoke was pouring out of the second-floor window and he was shouting to wake the neighbors.
I dialed 911
just to be safe, but a ladder engine pulled up out front before an operator came on … Read the rest
One of the things I feel best about from this past weekend’s Open Studios was giving out promotional freebies. In my last order to Photoworks, I included a run of 100 4″×6″ prints of a photo of the Mount Davidson Cross and all weekend I gave them out. I signed them, numbered them, and dated them and gave them away at no charge.
Part of the rationale was promotional. I put something in people’s hands and they … Read the rest