A random selection

This post is a collection of a bunch of random things that have been happening in and around the studio and life of late.

When I taught in Toowoomba  few weeks ago, Barry drove me over  and returned home - a 5 hour drive. On his return trip he went to a market and bought me these nib holders!

What a delightful and random gift to receive. Their joyous and exuberant colours and patterns make me most happy.

And the next day he drove back to Toowoomba and collected me and we drove home - a big effort and muchly appreciated.

And Thursday afternoon last week, working away in the office I thought that the light was so odd, it made me go look out across the valley. As the sun set, there were storms and showers about and this partial rainbow looked as if it were a torch or a lighthouse beaming light...

On Saturday, my letter to the editor of The Saturday paper was published!

On Sunday morning the valley was so beautiful.

And when we went into own for coffee on Sunday morning we found it is now being yarn-bombed in time for KnitFest which is this weekend - it looked so chirpy in the sunshine!

And my eyes went all a-boggles as I set this this 8pt type...

You can see how each piece of type is around 1mm wide, which is pretty tiny, and working out each letter upside down and back to front is quite the challenge.

 I am yet to properly proof it, so when I do I will find out how good my eyes really were!

Filing nibs

It's strange the things you do to resettle into a rhythm or routine.   We returned home from a few weeks away - with work-work and celebrations - and I knew I needed to be in the studio doing stuff.

But I was feeling my way back - it's not always easy to dive into something straight away; I need to re-familiarise myself with the space, the way I work and move through it; consider what I need to do. Work out where to start. So I started with tidying (which was long overdue) and filed and put away and threw away and set aside, and lo and behold the work surfaces returned!

Then serendipitously, we went into town and whilst Barry was asking about some photocopying, I saw on the shelf of the newsagent's a box filled with nibs. Like real nibs.  I almost fell over.  I took it off the shelf and opened it and played with them and thought good grief, how good is this? I could buy William Mitchell nibs and their reservoirs in my tiny town of 3, 500 people!

So I bought a few - including the blue pumpkin - and thought I'd better put them somewhere safe when I got home.

So I sat for a wee while, cutting up some corrugated cardboard into 10cm wide x 5 cm high strips and placing many of the nibs I re-discovered around the studio into compartments, naming them and having them ready to go should I ever need them.

These nibs are mostly NOT broad-edged nibs (I keep them in pen-holders elsewhere). These are nibs for copperplate or pressure-release writing. Some are stiff, some are very flexible.  The ones I use often I have popped into nib-holders; these are the ones I rarely if ever use. Most have come from op-shop finds or when I literally couldn't walk past some old nibs.

Then I found a beautiful old wooden crate-box and they fitted perfectly.  The other bags of nibs have now joined them and I reckon I'm ready to roar!

Filing nibs - who'd have thought?