My hand made leather case for watercolors

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My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit

Well the story is short but the making is so long. I made this hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit because my wife wanted something to hold with elegance.
You know, she’s not posh but she likes a lot to have good things. If we add that I promised her also a hand made leather bag since years, it’s easy to spot the target.

So I hand made this leather case for watercolors and sketching kit. I made it flatter. In my travels and in my daily commutes I feel better when I store my art things in a flatter way. Moreover, it’s made by durable leather, it’s also finished with my leather balm recipe and it’s made with whole lotta love (ciao Led Zeppelin!).

My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit 01

This is the real set, with a Winsor & Newton Watercolor Sketcher Box, a Moleskine Watercolor, two of my favorite Kuretake Water brushes (a large and a detailer), and a Staedtler Pigmented Pen or a Faber Castell Pitt Pen. I think that inside this hand made leather case for watercolors and the sketching kit are well saved.
I like in this way. Definitively.

My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit 08

I love modularity and as far as I can all my projects, I make them to be  used in many ways.
For instance I’m willing to make another one for me and to fill the case like that in the picture below. Full of fountain pens, pens, brushes, water brushes, held vertically. Whatever. Vertically is better no questions.

My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit 02

I love my personal travel concept that means also basically “go for the easiest way, done sturdy, easy replaceable and no metals”. Further looking on my travel concept are here. For this reason I am keeping using elastic bands for closure: easy to find anywhere in the world, and if you don’t find them you can use even a dental floss. It works.

But jokes apart, this is also a very effective choice. So if you overfill, no buttons and easy to pen and close in a snap (or two) always.

Large pen pencil holder sketch kit 05

My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit 05

Some details of the hand stitching, the saddle stitching.

Well, I think this My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit is also beautiful on itself. What do you think about?

My hand made leather case for watercolors and sketching kit 06

Cheers!

Duck Fight

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Duck Fight

There is a nice story behind this duck fight sketching.

I had some problems with my scooter. So I went to the mechanic to have some repairs and maintenance. It was not that far from the park we usually go on Sunday. Having some minutes spare while my wife was driving to pick me up. So I reached the park and at the  entering of the park there is a channel. In this usually you can find many birds eating, drinking, going around.

But this time there was a scene that kept my attention: 3 ducks quacking and spinning around. Two of them were males, the most colored ones, and the all brown is the female. And there was a duck fight in progress, where these two males were teasing each other. This duck fight was really funny because the way the ducks sometimes walk or run and because the pretenders were stalking the duck beauty. Quack Quack!

The duck fight never became cruel but it was somewhat determined. Powerful blows from the smaller pretender to the chest of the bigger (older?) pretender. And the opposite the bigger duck was first defending and then attacking with other beak blows.
Funny. It’s always the same story from duck to humans, because we need to take our genes forward.

So I was looking very focused at this scene for almost all time.I was trying to memorize all colors of this duck fight. The color of the muddy water and the fantastic metallic recollections of the male ducks. Altough hey are absolutely not reproducible with watercolors at least I gave a try.

I suddenly I remembered that better than looking there is also sketching. And time was coming over. So I really grabbed my first pen and I took my Zebra Z-Mulsion Hybrid rollerball and my favorite Stillman&Birn Beta. I started sketching very loosing, without almost any care.

duck fight 01

That is no easy but it was a really good lesson to draw for the lines and the poses instead going for details.

duck fight 02

After finished the outlines and barely the time for the lettering I received my wife’s call. It’s time to go.

I forgot even to take a picture, can you imagine how I was happy to see this show. And on saturday afternoon I gave all the colors and the washes to the sketching. The duck fight colors relayed on my sole memory. I used my Winsor&Newton Watercolors and my brushes taking my (short) time.

duck fight 03

But again it was a really nice lesson.
And I discovered how good it’s this Zebra Hybrid for sketching since it’s really waterproof and really black. Well, now I should test all the other hybrid gel pens arrived from the last order from Cultpens.com. And everything sounds fantastic!

Bamboo Pens

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Bamboo Pens

I received some days ago some bamboo pens from this fantastic seller Kate Moby. Take a look also at her site here, she’s also a photographer, a designer and an illustrator.

I was willing to have some bamboo pens because I have to admit I have seen many times Danny Gregory using it.

I love the way these pens are leaving fat and expressive lines. The power of these bamboo pens is released when using india inks like one my favorite: Sennelier India Ink. India inks are waterproof for nature since they contains shellac and, depending of the thickness of the ink, these bamboo pens can leave also a “tactile” thick line.

As far I received it I though that there is another good subject to sketch during my lunch break – too much time I’m sketching at the lunch breaks… does it means that I’m stressed?

I started to outline them very slowly with my TWSBI VAC 700 filled with Noodlers Lexington Gray. This pen leaves fine lines and sometimes I feel almost like having a liquid soft pencil, but waterproof. And very enjoyable because I’m sketching using a fine fountain pen.

Bamboo pens 01

This is only an outline, and sometimes I can make good outlines. I think that this time I made a barely good outlining on the sketchbook. I took this picture with my Ipad Mini, I think it renders the idea.

Starting to fill here and there with my faithful Winsor&Newton Artists’ Watercolors, and this is the result about several washings and layers. But the Stillman&Birn Beta sketchbook is supporting quite well my water brushes and washes. Sketching and making everything over it is simply a pleasure. Even lettering and calligraphy lyes like a silk on the rough paper as previous post.

This is the ( not ) impressive result of my sketching.

Bamboo pens 02

To be honest I over worked a bit on this sketching of my bamboo pens. Final wording made as I love. I used just the indigo remaining on the lid :).

If interested bamboo pens are available also here in the Jackson’s Art Store as set or as single pen, that is very handy.

Cheers!

Waxed Canvas Lunch Bag

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Waxed Canvas Lunch Bag

Some days ago arrived this waxed canvas lunch bag. Since then it became my favorite bag and I’m even so proud to show it at my colleagues. Waxed Canvas and vegetable leather are packing inside a great design my lunch. And the more I’m using it the more it’s coming beautiful. Just like leather.That’s fantastic.

I ordered it on Etsy and it’s made by Overlap Studio. They work with waxed canvas and this is only one of their fantastic products that I strongly suggest.
I have so much awaited this lunch bag that once arrived  I was happy like a baby at the Boxing Day.

Stopping here singing the overall qualities of this waxed canvas lunch bag, I obviously started sketching it during yesterday lunch break. I placed in front of me, and inside there is also a plastic box that makes it fatter.

I’m really worried about what I’m writing here. I’m loving so much my TWSBI VAC 700 with F nib that I don’t use my workhorse Lamy Safari with EF nib since some time. Also I’m loving the Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink that is perfectly waterproof.

And that’s what is the result on my Stillman&Birn Beta sketchbook.

waxed canvas lunch bag 01

Just adding some quick strokes with my Platinum Fude pen to raise some blacks and I’m feeling to not touch more this sketch.
I’d loved also to use again the Rotring At Pen for the lettering filled with Diamine Indigo. Here I badly pictured this sketch under the bad light of my office in a rainy day, but the hue is fantastic blue black.

If you are asking your self if I carry with me all this equipment everyday in my luggage I say yes. And I have even more that I carry in my hand made leather pen pouch.

Cheers!

A great swap this february

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A great swap is here!

I was missing a swap since a long time. It’s not that I don’t want to make a swap with friends, it’s simply that I didn’t find the time to make it. Also choosing the right things to swap is hard. I usually go to swap something that I love and not something that I don’t need. That’s to me a big difference.

Well this the time for a great swap.

February swap 01

Everything is brand new. Everything has a good reputation and quality.

I’m swapping this Noodler’s Konrad Tahitian Tortoise fountain pen, still untouched. Just to go out of the box. February great swap 02

one of my pocket Leather cover (the #5 made) and the glorious Moleskine Cahiers.

February great swap 03

Although Moleskines are not the best with fountain pens, the before mentioned fountain pen can be tweaked. That means that you can almost run dry with ink (and in this case will be excellent for ‘skines) or you can have a gusher. Anyway, it’s here!   What to do to take part to this great swap? Simple! Just comment on bottom of this post  what you would like to swap. Be creative! Everything is art related is fine: books, materials, brushes, paper, great hand carved mugs, another pen, another notebook… I don’t know!

Whatever. Just be creative.

My new leather pen case

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My new leather pen case

My new leather pen case is something that I’m very proud.Well I need it. I made it. My way. I’m often travelling (now a bit less honestly) but even on the daily commute it’s good to protect my fountain pens and some more. And as a sketching aficionado but also pen addict is good to have some case like this one.

As most of my leather projects so I have the travel in mind. That means to me no use of metals, keep it simple but reliable and easy maintained with a minimum care. And I love the vegetable tanned leather that takes patina and to hand-made everything so… :)

I also make my personal leather balm for this kind of finish, that is so good that if I change only one ingredient of the recipe I can use it also for my skin. I care.

I always keep it (over)stuffed, probably too much stuffed. Even the Rotring Art Pens. Too much. But that’s the way it works! You think to keep you minimalist  and light and on the bare minimum. So  I made this leather pen case small, and I started start like that.

leather pen case 04

 

No way, at least for it works only for at least one month. Then later I will again my daily bag fill with lots of stuff, lots of pen and all odds. I just miss my mechanical pencil here because I lost it.

leather pen case 01

I also added my personalization touch, an anchor and my initials. I use elastic cords as much as i can in my leather project so to feed my “travel” concept. They are also reliable, easy found all over the world so easily replaceable. And you can replace easily also with some more. Just as example in Africa I replaced my broken elastic cord of my travel leather covers with some raw cord. It worked.

leather pen case 02

Just a side view of hand stitching or the “saddle stitching”. It’s still the strongest stitching for leather, and I use mostly waxed linen thread. I do it at the old-fashioned way, and this leather pen case takes strength with it. I kept the side gussets not that deep. Still wanting something not too thick. And I care about the borders and all details.

leather pen case 05
As many friends know I have also a small shop on Etsy. Feel free to take a look at it, even to leave a feedback or to say hello Stefano! And mention my site. That’s better. :)

 

Woo hoo

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Arrived today the first delivery of Stillman&Birn Beta notebooks.
I’m so happy, finally a good news on this heavy and rainy day.

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Next coming more sketchbooks, Gamma and more Beta. Still not having luck to find some Alpha.
Here in Europe they go sold out very easily, and I can understand why. They are good quality notebook, fairly priced.

So I think I should start to sketch even more. Yes but when?

During nighttime? I cannot go out for a sketch and I should rely on what I shoot with my camera or noted with my phone. Indoor. In house!

Let’s see!

Cheers

Ps: yes I should make (my not professional) a review of these notebooks.