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