Through the amazing and evil powers of Ebay, I can sit in my pajamas and garage sale for crap that I don’t need or never new existed until I accidently came upon them somehow through their search.
As my current obsession is Knitting, I jones every morning for Knitting Bags.
Now, I don’t need a knitting bag as I have about 16 totes of various sizes and uses, but then I saw this and just go gah over it .
French Trapper’s Hat which I want to make one for my husband. ( I emailed the lady and she is asking her mom for the instructions…woooo!)
Then there are the Wooden Castles for toys that I would love to get my kids but a) we have no room for them b) the shipping ! c) everything I like is from England…you bastids!
I’m not sure how I found them, but I have stumbled across glass dip pens (just Google the phrase “glass dip pen”) and I finally bought one. They’re for dipping in ink, and some of them are lovely. The whole pen is made of glass, even the nib, which has little grooves for the ink. Originally they were used in stores to test ink before purchasing.
Yes. I want a [url=http://cgi.ebay.com/Signature-Series-Roboraptor-New-in-Package_W0QQitemZ6013834805QQcategoryZ232QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]Roboraptor.[/ur]
I do not think my husband will let me have one, though.
Ohh, this is easy; it’s not weird but definately out of my reach. 1968 Oldsmobile 442. I want’s it sooo bad, but there is no way I could get it. Unless I win the lotto tonight that is. I need a cold shower.
evilBay has done far more to fill my home with useless-but-fascinating stuff than it has done to empty it of same. Like the set of German porcelain animal teeth. I had to have them. Just had to. Or the 19thC chalkware bust of a woman that had been exposed to the elements, and turned from what was probably an elegant Nubian woman into a rotted zombie horror that I use at Halloween.
Ohhh…I LOVE these. There’s a local store where I live that sells them (or at least, they did a few years ago). As a long-time calligraphy fan (although sadly not so much these days due to nerve degeneration), I adore these things and wish I could still use them to their full potential.
I finally found a bottle of ink today, and tried out my pen. Sadly, I can only write about four words per dip. I don’t know if I’m doing it wrong, or if I have a bad pen. This pen has straight grooves, not twirled ones. Dangit.
Nope, that’s about it. I was sincerely disappointed when I got one as I gift - I had been so excited and it was so beautiful. It’s now merely decoration for me.
I like knitting bags too, but I always use the one my Grandma made. She knitted the outside and sewed the cotton lining. The trappers hat looks like it would be fun to make.
Straight grooves vertically or horizontally? Vertically would suck, for sure. Most mass-market fountain pens have horizontal grooves for more ink retention. As mentioned, my calligraphy skills have withered with age, so I haven’t tried a spiral/twirled pen, but they should last longer than ones with grooves straight toward the page (I’ve seen the glass pens, but not used one yet).
Still, as someone else has mentioned, dip pens don’t hold nearly as much ink as resevoir pens. They’re more a labor of love than a convenience.
On a somewhat related subject, there is currently a project underway (I don’t remember the name exactly, but I’m thinking the St. John’s Bible) to create the first entirely hand-calligraphed/illuminated bible in several hundred years. I saw a program about it on PBS recently, and the guy who has been contracted to (literally) write the entire thing is using medieval calligraphy techniques, including cutting and using his own quill pens. They have to hold less ink than a fluted glass one…ohh, it made me nostalgic for my early days.
I am disappointed that I can’t find any good images from this work, but it is worth paying attention to. Amazon has published copies of parts of it in smaller editions, if you want to get an idea of what it’s like. The real thing is like 3x5 feet, or something. It’s huge.
Unless I win the lotto tonight that is. I need a cold shower.