| So go on then - tools.
Brilliant! I get to talk about pens for the next half hour. I have a heavy artillery of
pointy-ended objects with which to create marks. First, there are the dip pens -
handles into which I insert assorted nibs depending on the line I want. (Picture no. X.)
With years of practice (I started using my Dad’s Witch Pens aged about 11) they can
achieve a fabulous range of line quality from sylph-like and gossamer-thin to brutal
assaults on the page.
The photo shows my current faves - the one bottom left on the second page is a
monster, I get a proper chill down my spine when I see the mark it makes. I got it
at Pearl Paint in New York. I wish I’d bought loads more now, they had tons of sizes.
My best drawing nib at the moment was originally bought for me by my friend Richard Hogg
(http://www.h099.com) in Japan, where apparently they go nutzoid for these:
the Nikko G5. Fine, razor-sharp, tense, its responsiveness is almost sexual.
But it can take a beating too, which mine often have to. I received an almost ridiculous stash
of these from our friend Warren who lives in Japan recently - keep me going for years.
It’s brilliant having chums around the world!
I must point out that apart from a tiny handful, where I still have packaging, I do
not know what these nibs are called. I do know that Birmingham - about thirty miles
from here - used to be the centre of production for nibs for over a century, in the
jewellery quarter (when the city was divided into four trade quarters, another being
the gun quarter, both still thriving).
At one point over 100 companies made nibs there. Swan Pens opened a gold pen
factory in the early 20th century, but other big nib manufacturers - Leonardt; Mitchell
- the first to use machines to cut the nibs - and Gillott, who made beautiful nibs,
were among the first. In a tragedy of oversight that haunts me to this day, every
time one of these factories closed down - which happened quite rapidly once the
ballpoint pen got a grip after WW2 - hundreds of thousands of leftover nibs were
simply tipped into the earth. Why am I not spending my weekends digging
desperately with my bare hands to find them? Because they were steel, and therefore
would, by now, be mere dust. I’m sure the sprits of all those unused pens still scribble
away like lunatics when the sun goes down. It makes me want to cry.
Right. That sounds like another article, perhaps entitled
‘Sarah gets Anally Retentive About Pens’.
What about the other ones you use?
Ah, these are the new kids on the block for me - the Japanese brush pens.
These I can edge, fine-line and fill in with all in one go. I’m not actually trying to create
a Japanese ‘look’ - but these beauties have the power to combine brush-softness and
expansion with tiny-tip precision. And, I don’t have to dip them - the ink is inside!
They come from a variety of sources - the Japanese shop near my agent’s office
overlooking Bryant Park in New York provides a positive orgy of pen-buying,
Dick Hogg (again), and various mail order sites.
Don’t attempt to ask for these in WHSmith. It’s not going to happen.
What about colouring in?
I adore felt tips, but they have to be the good ones - Staedtler Triplus Fineliners are
the DADDIES. Get the BIG box set - the packaging is revolutionary and they NEVER RUN OUT
- their ink capacity quite spooky. I’ve had my latest box for two years, and they enjoy a
proper caning.
Also, I have coloured versions of the Japanese brush pens, and assorted weights of Sharpie
- but be warned, the ink supply on those is pathetic. I’ve just ordered a 48-pen box set of
some new sexy beasts by Faber Castell - they should arrive Tuesday, and I am so excited
I can hardly breathe when I think about them.
Where do the pens live when not ‘getting a proper caning’?
Do you have to store them any particular way?
Only in as much as the nibs have to dry each night, so I have a patented storage facility for
those (a toilet roll on end, stuffed with more toilet roll - the pens rest softly nib-down where
they can drain off in peace and dry quietly overnight). The nibs are sorted into drawers. The
other pens each have their own pigeonhole, so there’s no fighting. Imagine that: the Ninja
moves of the Japanese pens taking on the meat-headed WWFness of the fat Sharpies - I’d
love to see what pictures that bloody little fracas would create.
Turned on by strokes? Get sweaty over a scribble? Try these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_pen_trade
http://www.penroom.co.uk/
http://www.cultpens.com/ |
