Goulet Pens March 2011 Ink Drop - Part 3

The top vote getter for the March Ink Drop selection was Noodler's Baystate Blue. I was curious about it myself, but I already have a boatload of blue ink. Well maybe not a boatload, but the greater part of a shoe box that's for sure. So I was excited to get to try this controversial ink without having to buy a whole bottle. Controversial? Don't ask! If you need to know, google it. It is bogus.

I used the J. Herbin Rouge Hermatite as the base color for this test maze with the Noodler's Baystate Blue. The Rouge showed its fragility again when after more than a day of drying it still was smudged by my hand. The Baystate Blue was amazing though. It really stunned me a bit when I first saw it on the Cairefontaine paper. It is a bright slightly purplish blue. I was expecting it to be difficult to work with, but there was no problem at all. It dries very quickly and stayed where I put it. Very nice!

Here is the scanned and edited version of the test maze. It is impossible for me to capture the vividness of the blue for the screen.

Here is the maze in real life. Beside it is a page from my fifth maze. Fourteen pages are done so far, all completed mainly with February and March Ink Drop inks.

We are running out of month before I run out of ink. I have one more ink to test. This is the Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng. I'll post that maze when I finish it.

Jonathan

A Maze - Page 42

Today I bring you the 42^nd page of my first maze. It is much the same as all of the previous pages. Some people might consider this 'sameness' tedious. And say it like it is a bad thing. But that is the whole point of this long multiple page maze. Nowadays each page on my newer  mazes has a structure which results in a design. Each one is entirely different than all others, but when you combine them into a 90 page maze, they too seem to blur together. Critics might, will, and have complained about this, but they don't seem to realize that tedium is the point. I'm immune to suggestions like “you should make a maze that looks like something, like a dragon, unicorn, cat … etc”. They mean well, and I've seen those sort of mazes. Frankly that would ruin the purity of my mazes. They are just that, Mazes, nothing else. Nothing cutesy. But oh so deliciously tedious!

So here is the scanned and edited version of page 42.

Page 42

Here the same page in the wild. Beside the maze is a box containing my latest acquisition. It is hard to believe that they can pack an entire motorcycle in that little box, isn't it? Well, you are in for a surprise!

 

Until next time.

Jonathan

Goulet Pens March 2011 Ink Drop - Part Two

The second ink of the March Ink Drop to put through its paces was the J. Herbin Rouge Hematite. This is the Anniversary ink which J. Herbin put out last year. It was to be a limited time offering, but for various reasons has been continued for the time being. As it happens I ordered a bottle when Goulet Pens was able to have a steady supply of it. I waited until the rush was over, sort of like I do when boarding a bus. The bus arrives, a crush of people push their way to the door swinging open. An old lady is trampled in the melee of people climbing over her, and I wait calmly a few feet away. Then when the driver has helped the lady to her feet and she is shuffling down the center aisle, it is time for me to board. The advantage of this approach is that if there is more than one seat remaining I get to pick who I get to sit by instead of the other way around. It makes life much easier. Of course it has been years since I have boarded a bus. A car of my own made life even easier.

But I digress.
This second maze uses the Noodler's Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia as the base to compare to the J. Herbin Rouge Hematite. The J. Herbin offering is a very nice red very slightly towards the orange side. It seems to be a delicate ink. Maybe it is because the other ink on the page was so solid, the red had a fragile quality. It was easy to work with, dried quickly and did not smear as such. You do have to be careful with it though. If your hand rests on part of your drawing it can pick up some of the color and put it wherever else you rest your hand. This would not be a problem with letter writing by a right handed person. It wasn't really a problem for the drawing either. you just have to be careful.

It is definitely not bullet proof. It is not even waterproof, or any sort of moisture proof. This you can see in the real life picture of the maze. Just a bit of moisture and ARRRGGGH!!!!! Let's just say, editing was necessary for this maze.

The J. Herbin Rouge Hematite is a good red ink. There are some reds out there that are better as far as survivability and price are concerned. The bottle is very cool and probably will not be available forever so if you are flush with cash it is a worthwhile ink to get.

Here is the scanned and edited version.

So far in addition to these two one page mazes, I have done five pages of my fifth maze with these March Ink Drop colors. I finally was able to run out the Sepia so I could load up one pen with the Noodler's Baystate Blue. All I can say is WOW! I'll have a test maze using that ink soon.

Jonathan

A Maze - Page 41

It is raining again. For the last week we have had storm after storm. At least there will be water for the summer. The snow pack in the Sierras is very good this year.

Today you get the 41st page of my first maze. Here is the scanned and edited version.

Page 41

Here it is in the wild. If you look close you can see the new green buds on the tree. Oh yeah! I guess it is Spring now.

Tomorrow I will post another Ink Drop maze.

Jonathan



Goulet Pens March 2011 Ink Drop - Part One

The March Ink Drop from Goulet Pens was a chance for the members of the club to vote for the inks that they wished to sample. I was eager to see if the other members of this exclusive club had the same tastes as I do. I have to admit that I didn't vote myself. I follow Tolstoy's practice nowadays when it comes to voting. As it turns out I was very happy with the selections of ink. The only problem was a leak from one of the sample bottles which spoiled the labels on the bottles. Brian Goulet would replace the sample which leaked, but to tell you the truth, if he did it would only make more work for both of us. For Brian to send it and for me to test it. Did I ever mention that I'm very lazy?

The inks of the March 2011 Ink Drop are:

Noddler's Baystate Blue - This ink got 23% of the vote.
J.Herbin Rouge Hermatite - This ink got 11% of the vote. It is the 1670 Anniversary ink.
Diamine Red Dragon - This ink got 10% of the vote. This was the one that leaked.
Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng - This is one was chosen by Brian and Rachel.
Noodler's Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman' Sepia - This is another one chosen by Brian and Rachel.

The first ink I tested was the Noodler's Manjiro Hakahama Whaleman's Sepia. I love the name, even though I worried that I would run the pen out of ink before I finished writing the name out. I used the Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue to pair it with. The Noodler's Sepia was a good ink. It went on the page very wet, but dried quickly. It was fairly easy to avoid smearing. It was not as brown as I expected. It seemed to be more of a bluish gray at least when paired up with the Supershow Blue. According to the note sent with the Ink Drop it is bulletproof, and it might be. I wouldn't count on it being so if I was standing in front of a firing squad though. And it did run a little on a paper that got wet at work. Not badly, but enough to notice.

Here is the scanned and lightly edited version of my simple test maze.

Along with the five sample bottles, the Ink Drop comes with a sheet which describes the inks. For the Noodler's Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia the sheet mentions that it is based on the whaler's logbook ink of the 1840s. Pretty cool! I'm a sucker for anything along this line.

There was also a bookmark, a business card and two nice stickers. Once the rain stops I will put the Ink Drop Club sticker on my motorcycle. Here is the maze in real life.

There you have one of the inks. I will have more for you later.

Jon

A Maze - Page 40

Here we are at the start of another busy week. I don't have much to say today. When I say 'busy', I don't mean that literally. At least not for me. I need to get around to planning my picks for our fantasy baseball draft that is coming up this weekend. Other than that it will be pretty much the same as the previous few weeks, but I do have a couple of Ink Drop mazes to post which were drawn using some of the March inks. I will attempt to get those posted this week.

For today, here is the next page of my first maze. First the scanned and edited version.

Page 40

Here is the same page in the wild. This is back on the summit of Patterson Pass in Livermore. This is a good place for those who enjoy tilting at windmills.

I picked up by new pen down in Carmel on Friday, but I haven't even inked it up yet. I'm saving that for when I prepare a post about it. What ink should I load it up with first I wonder.

Jon

A Maze - Page 39

I forgot to post the Monday page of this first maze. There don't seem to be any complaints though. There seem to be enough things happening in the real world to keep us busy nowadays. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Nuclear disaster, high gas prices, March Madness. Will it ever end? Now I read that the highway down to the monastery is closed because of a landslide. It is just a little north of where I rolled out my Line the last time. Last year the Highway was cut by a landslide to the south of it. This year it is cut off to the north. I suppose it could get totally cut off sometime.


Now for today's page. First the scanned and edited version.

Page 39

Here is the same page in the wild. This is the entrance to the chapel at the New Camaldoli Heritage. It is a very peaceful place, so maybe I shouldn't say that the maze is in the wild in this case.

We are going down to Monterey and Carmel tomorrow so that I can pick up a new pen. More on that subject later.


Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Jon

A Maze - Page 38

We just got back from a trip down to Santa Cruz. It is sad days down there since the Border's store downtown is closing. It was always fun to look at the books and magazines, but I guess we didn't buy enough of them to keep them in business.

I wish I had brought my camera down with me because we saw something different. There is a beach down by the lighthouse on West Cliff which is a dog beach. It is taken over by dogs in the evenings. So it wasn't unusual to see a dog down there from the path above. What was unusual was to see one in a fit of artistic creation. I'm not kidding. This dog was digging in the sand with its forepaws creating a pattern. There were two guys watching, taking pictures or video while apparently encouraging this artistic dog. The pattern it was drawing looked like Micky Mouse, well sort of. Every minute or so it would stop and give a couple of barks. We watched the dog for five minutes or so, then continued our walk. On our return about fifteen minutes later the dog was still at it and it was now in the twilight. Maybe it works all night. It could be, I don't know what artistic dogs do. Don't be surprised if you see this dog on YouTube soon.

Anyway, here is today's page of my first maze. First the scanned and edited version.

Page 38

Here is the same page in the wild. This picture was taken outside the door of the chapel up at the New Camadoli Hermitage in Big Sur. I have several pictures of the maze in that area.

That's it.

Jonathan

A Maze - Page 37

Here is the next page of my first maze. First the scanned and edited version.

Page 37

Here is the same page in the wild. This is looking through one of the windows of the ruined winery in Livermore. In answer to a question, yes I was trespassing when I was taking the pictures at Ravenswood. For some reason I can't believe 'No Trespassing' signs apply to me. They are for the other guy.

I'm working on the first of my Ink Drop Mazes for March today. The wind is really howling outside so there is not a chance in the world of rolling out my Line.

Jonathan

Drawing The Line - Part 18

It seems like months ago when I laid out the most recent Segment of my Line Around The World. This section was done as I drove home from my week long trip to the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur. It was another bright clear day at the end of January, but this day the wind was stronger. The area I picked to roll out the Line was about three miles south of Bixby Bridge. This section of road is one of the few section where a person can make a pass on a slow moving RV. So even though the shoulders are wide, the cars go pass so fast that it seems a bit unsafe.

Here is the start of roll 59 looking South.

Now a shot of the start of roll 59 looking to the West. That is the Big Sur Lighthouse station out there. Notice the attempt to secure the Line with extra tape. The wind was really blowing.

It turned out that the wind was too strong for the tensile strength of cash register tape. I could only get one roll set out at a time.  Here is the view from the end of roll 59.

You can see that roll 60 has already been attached. Before rolling it out I had to gather up the roll 59. This is another stretch of the definition of the Line. This Segment will be rolled out in four segments. Now the view of roll 60.

The roll got away from me and the wind rolled the tape down the road on its own. After gathering this segment up, I prepared roll 61. Here it is looking west again.

As you can see, I found a rock to help secure the Line. I sure could have used some of the rocks from the previous area where the rock fall was. This segment rolled pass the entrance to the Lighthouse Station. In this North looking view from the end of roll 61 you can see the driveway.

After attaching roll 62, I went back to gather roll 61 up. I took a closer look of the sign on the gate to the Lighthouse. Here it is.

I wonder what the crime rate is out here in the middle of nowhere. Judging by the number of locks on the gate it must be about as high as New York City.

Here is the start of roll 62 after roll 61 was recovered.

The roll of tape is getting blown away here. Here is a view of from the middle of the roll showing the effect of the wind.

Here we are looking North from the end of roll 62. The white pickup up back there at the gate is a ranger's truck. I figured that it would take him about half and hour to unlock all those lock and drive through the gate. It didn't.

Here is view from the end of roll 62 looking to the South West.

That brings you up to date on the work done on my Line Around The World Project. I hope that you enjoyed these segments from far flung sections of the Line. Now it is time to get back to work on the Northern end of the Line.

Jonathan

A Maze - Page 36

February is over with only three Ink Drop mazes completed. I just received the March Ink Drop in the mail today, so it is time to start the March mazes. I will not spoil the surprise for anyone still waiting to receive their package, but I will say that all 5 inks are ones I have not used before. I have purchased one already, but haven't been able to try it out yet. Expect to see the test mazes as I complete them.

For today I give you the next page of my first maze. First the scanned and edited version.

Page 36

Here is the same page in the wild. This is the view from the summit of Patterson Pass east of Livermore, California. It is the home of a large wind farm. Due to the high kill rate of raptors, the wind mills are not used much.

That's it for today. Maybe I'll have the energy to post the last Line segment from Big Sur tomorrow.

Jonathan