Good Art Pens?

[Nancy Bell Scott]

What are your favorite pens to use in mail art?  I have a few good (sort of) ones for my regular-size collage work -- for applying lines, not for actually writing -- but they aren't turning out to be great for mail-art scale.  New ones for writing, asemic writing, drawing, and outlining are needed.  All suggestions welcome.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

This is called "overdoing it," but here is photo of my two fountain pens, which you all gave new life to by reminding me:

[Cathérine Petré]

I love the green one! :-)

[Theresa Ann Aleshire Williams]

When I was a child, my father used to give me a ten dollar bill at the start of every school year with which to buy school supplies. To me, that was almost better than Christmas. :-)

[Nadine Wendell-Mojica]

Ahh, yes this touched me. I remember so well that week before school; organizing,fixing up and looking at my stuff. Better than when I organized my candy from Halloween.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Same here. By early August I was sick of the summer floundering and dying to get school supplies for the new unknown year. Didn't love school that much, but the supplies! My pals thought that was nuts -- didn't want to go back to school, didn't give a rat's patooty about pencils and pens and rulers and erasers and pouches. Weren't we lucky.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Thanks everyone, and now new issues: how to keep a simple bamboo dip pen clean and in good working order?  Pen and ink (unbelievably) is one of the few art techniques I've never experimented with, but today I bought a big fat bamboo dip pen (it is 3/4 inch in diameter, I LOVE it) and then a thinner "regular" size one, also wood (and with a brush hidden at the other end, it turns out). Also bought black sumi ink, and tonight had an exciting time trying these new materials out for the first time.  This sample of the very first thing I did (with the fat bamboo pen) will show why I have some questions!:After reading online, I've learned more about holding the pen and how to work it to avoid blotches, for example.  One suggestion that appears everywhere is to use a pulling rather than pushing action. That's a bit strange for a left-hander, but by the second or third line I was pulling the pen -- from right to left!

All suggestions welcome, but my main question is how not to ruin the pens and have to replace them every few weeks, which I can't afford to do.  The helper in the store said to clean them under running water, to avoid letting any ink dry in the split part and make it impossible for ink to run up the nib.  But if I want to work with both pens for an hour or two without rushing to the washroom every five minutes to clean a pen, how is that done?  Can you leave a wood pen sitting in shallow water for that amount of time, to avoid letting the ink dry in it but also avoid leaving the studio to clean it before the time is up?  Or do you just dip it in a bin of water near you in the studio and wipe it off with a towel and it's good till next time?

How long is it ok to leave ink on the pen before cleaning?

I spent a lot of the evening trying to find answers to these questions online and there's an answer for just about every  question except these.  Could find nothing.

Frieder and Catherine, you each showed wood ink pens in your photos, some with metal nibs, some one-piece wood pens like I've now got.  How do you care for yours?

Anyone else with suggestions, I am all ears, thank you kindly ~

 

[Lesley Magwood Fraser]

Nancy I think you should just rinse the pen in water and wipe with kitchen paper towel. At the end of the session maybe wash with some soap ready for next time. Works for me!

And I LIKE your blotches by the way!

[Cathérine Petré]

I don't think I'm the right person to answer this question... I don't think I've EVER cleaned one of my bamboo pens!
When I'm done I only wipe them with a piece of clean cloth. So far I never experienced problems, but I never used Sumi ink. Like Frieder, I like the blotches, they are part of it.
By the way, I'm left handed too :-).

[Nancy Bell Scott]

All so helpful, thank you! Frieder, I like how you are "rude" to your pens as I tend to be rude to all my supplies. They seem to enjoy it. Just did more work with the pens this afternoon and am liking them very much, and kept a little water there, Lesley, like you recommended and then would just wipe them. But if Catherine gets away without even cleaning with water, maybe she has a secret we need to know, eh?

Catherine, what kind of ink do you use? I thought sumi ink is basically india ink -- the store guy said that. ?  Yah, I have a milion different things in the studio to use, Guido, but feel the need to go "classical" when I'm first trying ink, then branch out. Besides, I do have a thing for pens, period. There are so many possibilities, though, as you say. I played around with rocks today too. Your etching into plexi is a very interesting idea for printing.

The blotches I fell in love with about 5 minutes into today's work! I'm curious about using your fingers, Alicia -- your work doesn't look like fingers were involved, or maybe it's just the pieces I've seen ...

[Frieder Speck]

The ink question: Sometimes I mix different inks smetimes i make myself by the chines way of inkmaking with a stone.If I want really perfect black I mix a little red ink into the black ink. Now I work with a mixture of different old inkrests mixed together, sometimes they are very fat and I hav to mix some water or inkthinner?( Tuscheverdünner) from Kremer Pigmente in it. Try and look what happen...

[Nancy Bell Scott]

A little red mixed in with the black sounds perfect, Frieder, I will remember that.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Just wrote a reply to you all and it landed smack in the middle of everyone else's. You may need a GPS to find it.