2012 Art Journal, Week 2 - Parker Pens and Creepy Dolls

 
Gifts - best and worst

I know I am behind with weeks, but I'm hoping to catch up sooner or later.  Anyways, Efemera's prompt for week 2 is as follows:

"This weeks prompt word is GIFT
1 Your best gift? could be any occasion and any time
2 Your worst? " "
3 Include some recycled packaging/ recycled card on your page"

Being disorganised I did not have Efemera's prompt in front of me when I started the page, meaning that all I could remember was "best and worst presents".  I completely forgot about the recycled packaging/ recycled card.  Although I use recycled material in virtually every project I undertake, I think that the patterned paper I found in my scrap box came free with a magazine, so it is not recycled.  (Boo.)  Normally I would be saved by a tendency to collage, so usually at least some recylced item would have found its way into the picture, but since the Moleskine journal I use doesn't exactly lend itself to layers, so I missed out on that opportunity too.  (Dang.)

In progress

Since the artists' inks bled through the Moleskine journal pages, I am wary of the same happening with fountain pens.  For this reason, I am using different bases and sticking them into the journal afterwards.  I daubed "Sunflower" coloured ink from an pad ink around the edges of the page and then drew the pen and doll in pencil and then outlined them using Lamy Safari fountain pens (fine and medium nibs).  The journalling is done with the Parker 51 itself.

Parker 51 detail

"BEST PRESENT - My original Parker 51 with its italic nib which was given to me by my father a long time ago"

 

Creepy doll detail

"WORST PRESENT - A very beautiful porcelain doll with perfect but deeply sad features.  She looked abused.  I hated her.  I couldn't stand her looking at me.

I coloured the drawings with watercolour pencils and metallic pencils and journalled around them.  I stamped a few small images (rose, sunflower and ladybird) using a dark pink ink pad, just to break up the patterned paper a little.  The edging of the journal started as vermilion ink that had bled through the previous page, so I simply touched it up to give a (slightly more) consistent colour and stuck the patterned paper on top.

Original Parker 51 with italic nib

And here is my most treasured gift!  The fountain pen is one of a pair that my father, then a young naval officer, bought when he decided to improve his (perfectly neat and adequate) handwriting, by teaching himself italics.  He changed his handwriting completely by refusing to allow himself to write in his old style.  

When I was old enough to be interested, Dad bought me a Sheaffer calligraphy set.  I adored the Sheaffer pen set with its three different italic nibs and its brilliant booklet on calligraphy (which I believe I still have!).  I used it so much that it begun to fall apart.  Under supervision Dad had begun allowing me to write using his Parkers and one day asked me to chose one of them to keep as my own.  [Note that it isn't really advised to allow other people to use your italic nibbed pens, as they wear themselves in to your handwriting and a worn-in nib could be damaged by someone with a different writing angle.]

I chose the wider nibbed pen (silver cap) over the narrower nibbed pen (gold cap).  Vintage pens are supposed to be a mixed bag, but I have been using mine every day for 20 years and besides having a chipped top replaced and a single service by a professional for good measure, it continues to be the most lovely pen to write with that I have ever come across.  Sadly, unlike my father, I never mastered calligraphy.  My "biro-style" and "italic-nib-style" look totally different and I can't describe the later as calligraphy.  Nevertheless, I mastered a signature and I still love writing with it.

Ingredients for 2012 Art Journal, Week 2

Moleskine sketch journal

Patterned paper free with magazine

All Night Media "Sunflower" pigment ink pad
Rose and sunflower rubber stamp from same set (origin unknown) and Anita's ladybird rubber stamp

Distress Ink "Tattered Rose" stamp pad

Parker 51 fountain pen with italic nib

Lamy Safari fountain pen with fine nib

Lamy Safari fountain pen with medium nib

Caran d'Ache Supracolor soft water colour pencils: white, black, umber, scarlet

Derwent Metallic pencils: pink, silver

Windsor & Newton inks: vermilion