[All My Hues]

3rd Batch of Stationary

2009-11-16T17:18:49Z

Here are the last two watercolor-on-Crane-paper that I did: Another peacock, and...an owl!

It finally occurred to me how to photograph these to try and capture the sparkliness....hehe. I like how the two-tone gold circles on the tail feathers came out...I'll have to do that trick again.

Here's the owl:

The eyes glitter, as do feathers on the top of the owl's head (a little) and a teensy bit on the tufts on either side of its head:

Too bad it didn't capture how the lines on its tummy glitter. It's kinda subtle but looks nice, IMO.

Finally, here's a simple "sunburst" design I did with my new markers (yay!). High quality art markers they ain't, but they work well enough, AND have a brush tip on one end and fine tip on the other :D Whoo!

Watercolor on Crane Paper II

2009-11-10T03:16:35Z

Here are more of the stationary decorations I've done using Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours and a Sakura Brush Pen on Crane & Co. Ecruwhite Letter Sheets (reviewed here):

The blue night sky on top is darker IRL (and actually looks like a night sky, heh), and has gold glittery dots that are supposed to be stars, which the camera failed to pick up. Alas.
Detail shot of the peacock on bottom; the spots on the feathers were embellished with a yellow-gold glitter gel pen so that they would shimmer and stand out--

I also did....betta fish!

Betta fish, I've found, lend themselves wonderfully to watercolor. They really do have vivd coloring that softly blends together, and it's a lot of fun to put different combinations of colors together and see how it ends up looking. No glitter here though:

And a close-up of the fishies:

My sister was making fun of these; she said the fish had really vapid looks on their faces. My response to that is, Well duh -- they're fish! What, you expect them to start quoting Shakespeare at you?

And, finally we have a panda bear rounding out the set. He is happily munching on some bamboo:

I did have two other ones I did -- an owl (which I really like) and another peacock, but my digital camera is currently elsewhere; I will photograph and post them later.

What other animals should I do? Any suggestions?

Watercolor on Crane Paper

2009-11-08T03:25:53Z

Remember yesterday's post where I reviewed Crane & Co. stationary, and mentioned that the thick cotton paper took watercolor extremely well?

The sheets of Crane paper are blank, and although the paper is nice, I decided to spruce it up a bit using my Sakura Brush Pen -- I was going for a Far Eastern brush drawing sort of look.

Well, that ended up going out the window; I only have one brush pen, and I'm not very good with it (Inkophile is much better -- though, granted, she does have an actual brush pen with bristles, unlike mine which has a felt tip...lame). But I could control the line variation a little bit, and liked the look of the image that came from using a brush pen.
But it was still a bit too dull, just black ink against an ivory-cream background. I decided that adding watercolors would fix that, and make it more interesting. And, what do you know -- it did :^)

Done with Sakura Brush Pen and Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours

After the watercolors had dried, I used a gold glittery gel pen to highlight the tail feathers; if you look closely, you might be able to tell that it's glittery.

I really like how it came out, especially the contrasting effect of yellow-gold tail feathers glittering against the flat watercolor image when you hold it at an angle. Plus, I had a ton of fun doing it. It was quick and easy and I wasn't going for detailed perfection -- casual coloring looked good for this image, I thought. It looked even better after adding in the glitter pen embellishments.

Which is why I proceeded to do about 5 more, all with different designs.

More to come!

Review: Crane & Co. Ecruwhite Kid Finish Letter Sheets

2009-11-07T00:15:34Z

I've been looking forward to doing this review, as I really do enjoy this paper. As always, hope that this is useful. Enjoy!

Crane & Co.'s 100% cotton paper is currently my favorite stationary paper to use for writing letters (I like to pair it with one of Crane's equally high quality wasabi green or celadon blue envelopes, which I then seal with wax before mailing off to a snail mail buddy).

The paper combines two very important elements for me: It's environmentally friendly, being made of cotton waste instead of trees; and the quality of the paper is excellent. There's a reason Crane & Co. is a highly preferred brand among fountain pen users, and that is what we will explore today.

Each pad comes with 50 removable, high-quality sheets. The pad is gummed on top.

THE PAPER

The paper is a bit more cream-colored than the photo shows, but not by much. It's a very soothing ivory-cream color which is easy on the eyes, as opposed to glaring white -- however, this stationary also comes in pure white if you prefer that.

The measurements of the sheets are 6 3/8 x 8 1/2 inches.

This paper is not smooth like Clairefontaine or Rhodia paper is; it's textured, so there is some feedback when writing. Though I usually like to write on smooth papers, I must say that I enjoy the texture of this stationary: It feels nice under your fingers, a nice subtle texture that gives the paper elegance and character.
If you are a paper junkie, like me, you'll be able to understand/appreciate what I'm talking about; if you're not, I probably sound like a crazy person to you. Heh.

EDIT: A number of fine folk over on The Fountain Pen Network have pointed out that very fine nibs may get "caught" on the paper when writing. I'm assuming that this refers to fine nibs with dry flows only, as I've used wet fines and extra-fines and had no problems whatsoever :) You can see the thread here. Thanks to everyone who commented for your input!

THE INK TEST

So let's get to the good stuff, already. Check it out:

Beautiful. Not a hint of feathering anywhere at all, even with feathery inks like J. Herbin -- which is fantastic, because I can use my beloved J. Herbin Rouge Bourgogne ink (reviewed here) on this paper without it feathering like mad. Hooray!

Something to note, however: Though Crane's letter writing sheets are indeed fantastic on the front side, the back side of the paper is of slightly lower quality. Meaning, certain inks or wet-nibbed pens may feather slightly.

No matter what side you write on, however, the paper is adequately thick to ensure practically zero chance of bleedthrough.

PURCHASING CRANE & CO. ECRUWHITE KID FINISH LETTER SHEETS

This wonderful paper can be purchased at the Crane & Co. website, and any retailer that sells Crane & Co. products.

On the Crane website it is listed as costing $13 per pad (which come with 50 sheets).

CONCLUSION

The combination of high quality and eco-friendliness (more so the latter than the former, truth be told...I'm such a hippie...) makes me want to keep restocking on these once I run out. Unless I find some paper that is lower in cost but that matches this in terms of quality, this will be my go-to paper for letterwriting. Highly recommended.

Speaking of, you know what else this paper takes well? Besides fountain pen inks? Watercolor. Done very lightly of course, but that's still impressive. And why would I bring this up?

Well, stay tuned to find out!

New Diamine Inks -- Full List

2009-11-03T18:48:44Z

Remember this entry, where I blogged about the 8 new ink colors Diamine had released? Turns out I was mistaken. There aren't 8 new colors at all.

There are 10.

Here's an email I received today:

Dear Tejal

The following inks will be posted to you tomorrow.

30ml of each colour

Midnight
W.E.S Kensington Blue
Marine
Delamere Green
Havasu Turquoise
Majestic Purple
Classic Red
Rustic Brown
Lavender
Hope Pink

I really appreciate the time you take to review our inks.

Kind Regards

Phil

Phil Davies
Company Director

10 inks?! Insane. Needless to say, I cannot wait to review them :D Whoo!!

EDIT: Since Diamine is giving profit from the sales of Hope Pink to cancer research, maybe they should do that with other inks as well? For instance, green colored inks that go to environmental causes? Blue inks that go towards water sanitation projects in 3rd World Countries? Just a thought for ink companies to consider. Not that I think that anybody particularly important would bother reading a humble lil Livejournal blog, but I'm just saying :-)

The Contest Winner

2009-11-03T03:42:54Z

After seeing some of the insanely creative costumes that you folks have come up with over the years, I decided to pick the most original to receive the Diamine orange and black ink set.

And so, the ink set goes to...

Withoutink! Congrats!!! Here's the description for his winning entry:
"I was dressed as a UPS driver that was in a wreck. My girlfriend at the time was a box that had been run over. All nice and gorey, we both looked like zombies. I had 'shards of glass' sticking out of my head. She had tire marks and such all over her. We had the clipboard scanner etc =) It was spot on..."

Now THAT is awesome. Zombies and a UPS wreck in one! What I wanna know is, how the heck he even came up with that.

Withoutink, email me your mailing address, and your inks will soon be on their way!

my e-mail addy: allmyhues@gmail.com

Finally, here are some of my favorite entries:
madamemarsouin: Probably my favorite costume I've executed so far was my 'walking disaster' costume, where I was covered in bruises and cuts, my clothing was torn and bloodied, and I was draped in caution tape.

brokendove021: The best costume I ever wore was actually a pair costume:  I was the crash test dummy, and my friend was the smashed car. I wish I had better pictures of the car costume, but it won TWO best pair awards.

avalenc: ...magnetic poetry. Made by printing out words on sticky paper. Interactive, fun, and shareable!

inkthusiasm: Once as a child, I dressed up as a local T.V. Weatherman I'd walk around with a map, point at it, and say "Looks like SUNSHIIIINE!". My loving mother who tagged along, would then pour water on my head from a plant waterer to look like rain. I thought it was terribly clever for an 8yr old =P

penspouse: I wore a Flapper dress & mink stole from my Mother-in-Law. Hubby wore his dad's black pinstriped wedding suit, complete with fedora and shaped violin case. We went to a party as Bonnie & Clyde.

This next one involves the most hilarious Halloween story I've heard, ever:

fuzzybutchkins: I've already done my Halloweening for the year, but this was my costume.  
You see, I wore black to the party this past weekend. That's because my great-grandmother always wore black on halloween, and a lot of other times, too. She was an odd old bird, and everyone but my grandmother thinks she was a witch. I think she was a witch, too, and according to all the stories I've heard, she also sounds like she was an absolute riot to hang around with.
So, my grandparents inherited her house, yanno, like ya do, and my grandmother was fussing around in the attic one day because she was miserable in a loveless marriage with no friends and no hobbies and she just couldn't find anything *else* to clean, and she comes across...an old journal of Nana's, and grandma gave it to me...
...in it were stories of Nana's day to day, raising her kids, frustrations with this and that, and memories of when she was younger.  
It'll kill my grandmother if I tell her, but one particularly racy memory that amused the hell out of me happened when she was right out of school. Apparently, my Nana had a short but wild affair with a woman who wore nothing but tuxedos and top hats.  
And so that's why I decided to dress as Rick Astley for Halloween.

Thanks to everybody who entered! Your costumes were a delight to read about.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T19:53:06Z

Remember folks: Today's the last day to enter in my Diamine ink Halloween giveaway. Tell me what you're going to be for Halloween, and you could win set of Diamine Pumpkin and Diamine Onyx Black fountain pen inks (30 mL bottles).

I'll be at a friend's Halloween party tonight -- I'm going to be Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter and he's going to be Lucius Malfoy -- so I hope you all have a spooky night filled with gluttonous sugary decadence, creative costumes, and possibly alcohol (*wink*).

Have a fantastic Halloween, everyone!

Contest Alert!

2009-10-29T18:17:15Z

Duh me, I didn't even realize till today: Jackie Flaherty's blog Letters & Journals is having an awesome contest in which you get to help shape how the magazine-in-the-making turns out! Give suggestions, and win prizes -- how neat is that?

Check it out here.

There will be 6 winners chosen, and the contest runs till midnight on Sunday, November 1st (CST).

Good luck!

Calling All Ink Addicts!

2009-10-29T18:03:24Z

I just learnt about this today via The Fountain Pen Network (FPN) -- Diamine has released a handful of new fountain pen colors! They are:

Classic Red
Delamere Green
Hope Pink <--- Proceeds from the sale of this ink will be given to Cancer Research
Lavender
Majestic Purple
Marine
Rustic Brown
WES Kensington Blue

Take a gander here.

Wow, 8 inks! Now that is impressive. I would love to try them out. Hopefully I shall get a chance to, in the coming weeks...

REMINDER: If you're interested in acquiring Diamine Onyx Black and Pumpkin fountain pen inks, enter the contest! It might be your lucky day :-)

Salamander

2009-10-25T20:29:08Z

I have slowly but steadily been catching up on my mail pile (whoo!), so there will be plenty of mail art to show in the coming days. Till then, though, have a salamander:

This guy was done in watercolor. The leaves are a far more vivid red-orange in real life, which my digital camera failed to pick up :-( Boo.

It was based off of this image by Thomas Kitchin and Victoria Hurst, from my Sierra Club 2007 Engagement Calendar. I always keep old calendars to use as image references:

I was going to make it more realistic, but I was having far too much fun with the autumn leaves :-)
I did this image in maybe 3-4 hours, during a dinner party in which I retreated to my bedroom out of boredom ;)

Hello Again

2009-10-24T21:07:55Z

Um...wow. 4 weeks it's been? Really?

Man. I am sorry about that, guys, really I am. I would have updated sooner, except, well...I've been a bit...distracted lately. In a nutshell: Breakups are not fun.

As an apology for my sudden lack of posts, however, I have for you all.....a Halloween giveaway!

What are the two main colors for Halloween? Black and orange! And that's the ink set up for grabs.

I have two 30-ml plastic bottles of Diamine ink to give away: Diamine Pumpkin and Diamine Onyx Black. Both were reviewed earlier this year, and they will be given away as a set.

How to win? Simple. Comment below and tell me what you're going to be for Halloween/the best Halloween costume you ever wore. Winner will be picked at random. The contest will end at 12 midnight on Halloween.

Good luck!!!

Ink Review: Private Reserve Arabian Rose

2009-09-20T17:36:37Z

How about another "pink ink" review?

I didn't do a color swatch with this ink because I don't have a bottle of PR Arabian Rose; instead, I have a 12-pack of international size cartridges. Something odd: The closer I got to finishing the cartridge, the darker the ink got! I'm guessing it has to do with pigment settling to the bottom, just like with bottles. Shake your ink cartridges, people!

The truest color representation, I think, can be seen in the henna-like doodles at the bottom right (the bird is supposed to be a phoenix).

The paper is O'bon notebook paper.

Ink Review: J. Herbin Rouge Bourgogne

2009-09-16T22:34:35Z

About damn time I did another ink review. This is my first ever J. Herbin ink review, and it was really my first time playing around with J. Herbin inks. The verdict? The feathering is an acceptable trade-off for the gorgeous shading (and there can be quite a bit of feathering with J. Herbin inks, sadly).

J. Herbin inks are sold in 50 mL bottles. I've heard a lot of complaints about the bottle design and how it makes for a lot of difficulty refilling your pen when the ink level drops, but my bottle is full and so I can't say I have any comments as to that (yet). The pen rest on the bottle is an interesting feature.

And heeere we go:

The crossed-out scribbling above the PR Burgundy Mist sample is PR Arabian Rose.

The excellent shading has piqued my interest in J. Herbin inks. I really want to give either Lierrre Sauvage or Vert Empire a run. ~~Gris Nuage looks interesting, too, and I normally dislike grey inks.~~ I just looked at scans of it. Too pale, I think...

EDIT: While the ink is indeed feathery on most papers, on Staples bagasse the feathering is barely noticeable. I just took note of it for those picky about feathering. It's certainly not enough to keep me from using it on the bagasse paper :)

Gold Glitter On Leaves

2009-09-14T20:26:02Z

Going off from the previous entry's jungle-ish theme, I sent this postcard to GirlZootZilla (who blogged about it here). The postcard was very plain, but if you look closer you can see how I accented the leaves with gold glitter to jazz it up some. I also put my signature golden-sun-moon seal in the blank area on the top right, for fun.

Monkeying Around

2009-09-14T17:26:39Z

I'm not completely satisfied with the new layout and will likely fiddle around with it some -- for instance, I really dislike that there's no longer a listing of tags -- but for the most part I'm happy with it, at least for right now.

Anyway! I was going to do the O'bon L'Artiste Series Art Pencil Set review, but wouldn't you know it, I've had absolutely 0 inspiration so far as pencil art goes, so we're going to put that on the back burner a bit until I get the itch to make a black-and-white pencil piece...which, really, is the only way to test out art supplies, yes? So, we shall revisit the art pencil set sometime in the [near] future. Promise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, time for the actual subject of this post :P
After getting this quirky monkey envelope in the mail:

Sparkly monkey sticker!!! Awesome! Can you spot the almost-translucent banana in the lower right corner?

...I was absolutely tickled pink, and once I discovered 2 sheets of (fuzzy!) monkey stickers for $1.99 at Walgreens, set about making my own series of monkey-themed envelopes. The envelopes I used were Crane's 100% cotton envelopes in Wasabi (pale green). The vines were drawn in glittery/metallic gel pens.

[Envelope 1]

[Envelope 2]

This one had a bunch of glittery golden bananas on back.

The recipient of this letter blogged about it here, and included some details I would have posted if not for my sorry digital camera.

I did this next one a little differently. No monkeys on the front:

[Envelope 3]

...but a monkey sealing the envelope on back :)

The text on the envelope flap simply says, on both sides, "Enter the jungle" :P

Since I couldn't seal it, I then put my seal on the front:

I wrote my name and address with the same golden yellow gel pen used to draw the bananas.

New & Improved Blog

2009-09-14T03:06:03Z

YAAAAAAY, renovations done! Hope y'all like. I certainly do :D

Having the links right here on the blogspace is so much more nifty than having to go to my profile, don't you think?

Take note that my email has changed as well. It's now AllMyHues@gmail.com

Signing out for tonight,
T

Name Change!

2009-09-11T17:17:11Z

Ok, friends, so I've narrowed it down. Here are the possible choices for renaming this blog:

+ Artistic Inklinations
+ Artistik Inklinations
+ All My Hues
+ (suggest something cool)

Prepare for a massive overhaul, readers: New design, new links, new giveaways, new reviews, new userpics....

So, what's your title of choice? :-)

I Call This "Cat Carrying Dead Pigeon Home"

2009-09-03T21:00:18Z

What do you do when you find a dead, decapitated, half-eaten pigeon in your backyard, then go out a few hours later to remove it, only to find it missing?

Why, you assume that the cat which killed it returned and carried it off, of course.

And then you draw said scene.

This was done very hurriedly. I wanted to quickly test out the O'bon Art Pencil Set before I went away for Labor Day Weekend (I'll be down in Maryland for the huge Renaissance Festival -- whoohoo!!) in anticipation of the coming review. IRL, it's slightly darker than the scanner made it out to be. I should just photograph my art...

Also, I have never owned a cat (though I have dearly wanted to), and based this drawing solely off of photos, so if the kitty is anatomically off....that's why : ]P Feel free to comment with corrections.

New Stamps at the Post Office

2009-09-03T17:18:11Z

I was running low on stamps, and paid a visit to the town PO. Lo and behold, new designs!

We had the .42 cent Alaska stamps, now there's one for Hawai'i as well. I like the surfer dude.

Just came out today: Muslim greeting stamps. Aren't they pretty? The stamps are dark blue and decorated with sorta-shiny gold foil...very nice.

And of course we have the Gulf Coast Lighthouse series, which I restocked on:

I really like how the back tells you some information about each lighthouse. When they do an East Coast series, do you think they'll include the Sandy Hook lighthouse? It is the oldest working lighthouse in the US, after all...in fact, I think I'll be insulted if they don't include it (I work part-time at Fort Hancock in Sandy Hook).

Ok, so I'm stupidly impulsive and bought all the designs and now I have 60 stamps. Good grief. I was toying with the idea of purchasing some vintage stamps, but I guess that's out for a while...

O'bon Notebook Review

2009-09-03T00:32:10Z

INTRO

I was pleasantly surprised by this notebook. Like the Staples sugarcane bagasse paper, the O'bon notebooks are made from the waste pulp of sugarcane after it's been crushed for juice. Now, how does this notebook stand up to its cheaper Staples counterpart?

CONSTRUCTION

The notebook comes in a variety of cover designs; I happened to get the signature green one. On the back cover is a paragraph explaining what sugarcane paper is, and why one should opt for it instead of regular paper (saves trees, duh).

The notebook is wire-bound, but unlike most other wire-bound notebooks, this one has a double loop of wire, so it won't get easily twisted and warped while in your backpack. Goodness knows that's a huge gripe I have about most wire-bounds.

The lines look weird in this photo, at least on my monitor; IRL, the lines are very clear.

There are 80 sheets of paper per notebook. Sadly they are not perforated...ah well. Not a big deal.
One interesting thing is that the lines inside the notebook are actually black (instead of, say, blue or grey). Oh, and the pages are college-ruled, not wide-ruled. Hooray! I'm always dismayed when great notebooks/journals have big wide lines, so I was happy to see that the lines in this notebook are nice and thin :D

PAPER

So, how does it fare with various different pens?

I tried out my Pelikan M200 once with Noodler's Navajo Turquoise and again with J. Herbin's Rouge Bourgogne. The RB displayed a bit more feathering than the NT. This plus the fact that the Poussiere de Lune from my vintage Waterman 56 feathered a lot leads me to conclude that J. Herbin inks (which have feathery tendencies) are not the best choice for this paper. Private Reserve inks, on the other hand, seem to fare very well. Noodler's displays moderate feathering, and my MontBlanc Violet was surprisingly well behaved. So, I'd suggest Private Reserve as the best choice for this paper. Not that there's a particularly bad choice for this paper; even though there is feathering, it's so slight that you have to really look hard to notice it! Even with wetter nibs. What remarkably resilient paper :D

It's odd; the scanner made it look as though there's far more prominent shading than there actually is. In reality, cut the shading down by 30% or so. It's there, it's noticeable, but it's not glaring. Anyway, on the back we see that there's shading but extremely little bleedthrough. The J. Herbin bled a bit (especially coming from my Pelikan, which is a wet writer), and the MontBlanc did too (though again, I was using a wet nib). Other than that, there was a moderate amount of shading. Not as much as the Staples paper, but fairly noticeable.

The blue astericks indicate which lines have been written with fountain pen ink, both front and back, so I could easily judge how FP ink fared overall as compared to other inks.

PURCHASING O'BON NOTEBOOKS

O'bon notebooks can be purchased at -- gasp! -- the O'bon website, which is:

www.myobon.com

Check out some of the other cool goodies O'bon offers, as well =)

CONCLUSION

O'bon paper is some of the best recycled paper I've tried. With the majority of pen/ink combinations, there's no feathering or shading, and like I said -- the feathering/shading that DOES occur is very, very slight.

Thus, I find myself liking this notebook more and more. It has thicker pages than the average notebook and it takes fountain pen ink remarkably well. If you're hunting for school supplies ('tis the season, after all) I definitely recommend the O'bon line of sugarcane tree-free notebooks!

EDIT: I was asked how O'bon fared against Staples bagasse paper, and which I preferred. That's an excellent question. My response is: Both are excellent papers, BUT the Staples bagasse takes fountain pen ink better than the O'bon does. The Staples bagasse is more tolerant of feathery inks. In addition, the O'bon notebook paper is toothy, whereas Staples bagasse paper is much smoother. So, for me personally, I would choose Staples bagasse over O'bon.

However, coming from a dryer nib -- for instance, my Pelikan extra fine nib -- even J. Herbin inks behave on this paper. So if you write with dryer pens and like toothier paper, this is the stuff for you.

Thanks for asking!

3-Step Clownfish

2009-08-27T18:06:38Z

Here's the whole "making-of" process of the clownfish picture from earlier....just cuz.

Sketching!

Inking!

Coloring!

Thrilling, isn't it? XD

Envelope Template

2009-08-27T17:53:39Z

Making your own envelopes is fun and cheap, and certainly saves money. Plus, it can be done in less than 10 minutes! While I was sick and unable to do anything remotely productive, I made envelopes.

Here are some really cool ones I've received. Check out this Obama-themed one from James at Everyday Correspondence; it made my week.

Isn't that great? He made it out of a magazine page, I believe.

Or this one, from Passion at The Pen Archives.

So much flexibility and creativity when making your own envs, and Passion certainly took advantage of it. In addition to a great quote (which appeals wholeheartedly to the writer in me!), she even wrote my name in Elfish on the bottom :) And you gotta love the random elephant. I know I did.

Then there are some that I made, like this watch one with a choppy address label (which I thought made it look cooler, hehe):

I made this from a Macy's catalogue : ]P

I really enjoy corresponding with this person, so I hope he writes back soon.

And a daisy one (part of my flower series), in which I had fun with the back and side flaps, making them curved instead of angular.

Why don't you try making your own? Here's a template I made. Print it out, trace the shape around any picture/paper you desire, and start folding! You'll need tape or glue to hold the flaps shut; for the envelope's main opening flap, I use sealing wax.

Once you get the hang of it, feel free to alter the template as you would like, changing the shape of the flaps to suit your creative tastes. If you're going to post this on your blog/site, feel free; just give me credit and provide a link back, please :)

And, please ignore the writing you can see on the back; I try and reuse paper as much as I possibly can, and this includes rough drafts of my thesis paper ;) Bwahaha.

Upcoming:
O'bon notebook review
Monkey-themed envelopes (no, really)
Sharpie Pen review
J. Herbin Rouge Bourgogne review
O'bon art pencil set review

Postcard Dreams Deposit

2009-08-25T15:21:23Z

I came across this post on http://postletters.org/, and it is possibly the best postcard sentiment EVER:

Meanwhile, if you have a dream about your dad being turned into a tray of things – and he wants to push himself off the table because he doesn’t want to be a tray of things anymore – or if you have any such dream that wakes you up and makes you cry!, I think the best idea is to write someone a postcard about it. A dreamy postcard! When we go on holiday we send postcards, so why not when we go on dream? Perhaps there should be a Postcard Dreams service – a national deposit for all our night posts.

"When we go on holiday we send postcards, so why not when we go on dream?" I love it!! I would totally write someone a dream postcard.

Thoughts? Comments? Weird dreams? :^)

O'BONanza Color Pencil Set Review

2009-08-25T04:11:05Z

INTRO
Eco-friendly art supplies? Yes, PLEASE! O'bon is a company who brings us school supplies -- notebooks, pencils, erasers, journals, the works -- made of tree-free, recycled materials. How cool is that? As an artsy tree-hugger, this excites me to no end. O'bon was kind enough to mail me some of their supplies for reviewing -- and for the next couple of weeks, I will be doing exactly that. Whoohoo!

Today's agenda: O'BONanza Series -- Color Pencil Set

COLOR SWATCH:

CONSTRUCTION
This fun colored pencil set discards normal color names in favor of fruits. The set contains:

Pineapple (light brown)
Kiwifruit (dark brown)
Strawberry (red)
Orange (orange, duh)
Banana (yellow)
Apple (green)
Watermelon (dark green)
Blueberry (light blue)
Grape (dark blue)
Mangosteen (purple)
Dragon Fruit (pink)
Raspberry (black...aren't BLACKberries the black ones? :P)

The barrel is made of 100% recycled newspaper (read more here, which you can see as you sharpen them:

A major flaw: Some of these pencils are not sharpener-friendly. Some of them sharpen just fine, whereas others are absolutely horrendous. It's a really odd inconsistency. I have a very good sharpener (iridium, made in Germany, all that), and some of the colors simply won't sharpen properly. This can be extremely annoying, especially because the lead is very soft and breaks easily when you do manage to get a point, and before you know it you've sharpened your colored pencil down by 2 inches on the first day. Since details -- and thus well-sharpened pencils with sharp points -- are important to me, this was extremely disappointing. The tightly-rolled newspaper may provide superior core protection to the lead (according to the O'bon website), but it sure does a lousy sharpening job. If anyone has better luck, feel free to let me know :P

THE LEAD

So, how do they work?

Let's see :)

As we can see, for the most part the colors blend together fairly well....EXCEPT the dark brown. I don't know what it is about the dark brown, but it doesn't seem to want to play nice with the other colors...at least on the Lamali Lokta. Oddly enough, it performed quite a bit better on standard Strathmore Sketch 300 series drawing paper, blending normally into the other colored pencils. So there's a discrepancy in blending characteristics, apparently, depending on the paper one uses. Hmm. It appears to do better on toothier paper (like aforementioned Strathmore), but take that with a grain of salt as I haven't tested it out on very many papers (only 3 -- two smooth, one toothy).

Overall, the colors blended a lot smoother on the Strathmore than they did on the Lamali Lokta.

As far as color goes, the black is not nearly as dark as I'd like it to be.

PURCHASING O'BONANAZA COLOR PENCIL SET

The O'BONanaza Color Pencil Set can be purchased from the O'bon website:

www.myobon.com

The pencils normally cost $5, but are on sale for $4. I'm not sure how long that sale is going to last, though, so if you're thinking about snagging a set, now is a good time.

O'bon is also looking for folks to review their products, so if you're interested in that, contact them -- there's information on their web site.

CONCLUSION

While the idea of these pencils is simply wonderful to me (recycled, tree-free, art stuff, yadda yadda), I simply can't warm up that much to a set of colored pencils which are picky about paper and snooty about sharpening. For the price of $5, they perform okay -- though don't feel like you're the only one if you're left feeling like you didn't get enough bang for your buck. They're not fantastic, they're not the best, but they're good enough for what they were intended for (basically, the occasional school color project). If you want to purchase environmentally friendly colored pencils for your young, non-arts-inclined child/sibling/whathaveyou, go ahead and pick up a set. For all serious artists of any and all ages -- look elsewhere.

O'BONanza Teaser

2009-08-24T16:25:40Z

The end part of O'BONanza got cut off, but eh. Here's a color swatch teaser of the colorful goodness to come.

My apologies for the delay, people; it's been a very busy weekend, what with the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, and all :)

Why am I so tired?? u__u