Did you have mapping pens at school? Showing my age here! I used to love to draw with them, not least because it was an opportunity to buy drawing inks in wonderful bright colours. I hadn't thought about them for years until I found a packet in the local scrap store.. (Do you have one of those locally? Ours is well worth a visit as they often have art materials as well as all sorts of things like mannekins, leatherette pieces, sticky foam etc. - it must be a great resouce for drama groups and childrens' play schemes, terrific place to buy 'junk' to make monsters!)
The pen and nibs cost me a princely £1.95, and after a bit of a search I found I had about a dozen bottles of Winsor and Newton inks which come in lovely little bottles about an inch and a half tall,
So, I'm making a resolution to start using all the 'stuff' I've been hoarding - beginning with my mapping pen and those lovely inks.
Of course, when we were first allowed to write in ink at school we had old-fashioned dip pens - though not with the fine mapping pen nibs. The pen holder was rough painted wood - usually red, and the nibs fairly broad and scratchy and prone to drip and create large blots of nasty idelible blueblack ink. The relief when we were allowed to buy fountain pens - both to us and our inky fingers and our mothers struggling with blotted clothes! Blotting paper was a treasured commodity and woe betide anyone who didn't have a piece - can't remember when I last saw the soft pink sort we were given at school.
Nowdays, of course, drawing pens have been replaced by fineliners. Excellent as they are, it's nice to play around with ink and nibs sometimes.
6 comments:
I used to love mapping pens too; and I have a fair amount of those inks, if they haven't dried out by now. I had those dip pens at school too...
Hey - where's this shop? Is it the one at the top of Church St, or have you got a secret store somehwere by Matalan?
I used to love those little Windsor and Newton ink bottles.
It's in Worcester, Judith (website here http://www.wre.uk.com/) I've got a membership card - I don't go often but I think it's worth supporting - so if you fancy a trip let me know.
I have a few of those dinky little bottles Jane but I bet some of mine have dried up too from lack of use. I do use my dip pen a lot but mainly with indian ink. Must look for my coloured bottles and give them a try. Thanks too for the pink blotting paper memory. I always loved the patterns created by the reversed writing!
Ohhh, I fondly remember those little bottles of Windsor Newton drawing ink, and scratchy nibs, and light on the upstroke, heavier [but don't dig through your copy book!] on the downstroke, and blotting paper and stained fingers and covering school books with brown paper! Children today are deprived....
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