Paint Boxes

I love paint boxes... ever since I was old enough to have my first Crayola paint set (and then a Crayola "Caddy" once a year for several years, thereafter), I have never ceased to take delight in opening a paint box and seeing those little jewels of colour laid out within.

Earlier this year, when I took up watercolour painting again, I dug out my various paint boxes and set about preparing a field / sketch / plein air kit. Most of the artist's quality paint manufacturers make a vast array of travel and field paint boxes or paint sets, suitable for every occasion. I own several, of which Winsor & Netwon are likely the best-known brand.

I like metal paint boxes, and so I have recently been looking at buying an empty box with the idea of filling it with full or half-pans myself, but nothing had caught my eye - until I found some wonderful metal paint boxes on the Natural Pigments website!

Natural Pigments formulate artist's watercolour and oil paint using rare, traditional pigments, which make for a more subdued, classical palette (you won't find Quinacridone Magenta here). The Natural Pigments paint brand is Rublev, and I was excited to see Rublev Watercolors pre-packaged in heavy duty enamel paint boxes - here was a perfect opportunity to get the metal paint boxes I wanted, and also experiment with a different type of watercolour paint in a classical palette.

I went a little overboard and ordered three paint boxes, two are shown below:

• J.R. Cozens Travel Palette
  A muted and warm palette comprised of 8 half-pans (box can accommodate 12 half-pans), in a black enamel Bijou-style paint box with an built-in water bottle (35ml), integrated water dish and two mixing wells inside the lid. (I was ecstatic to find this paint box, as I have admired the W&N version for some time.)
  
• 18th Century Palette
  A beautiful and natural palette comprised of 12 full-pans, this large paint box has a flip-out mixing area as well as four mixing wells in the lid.
  
• Introductory Palette
  An expanded natural palette comprised of 16-half pans, this paint box also has a flip-out mixing area, and three mixing wells in the lid. (Not pictured.)

All of the Rublev boxes have a thumb-loop and v-clips to secure the pans - they are very well-made and sturdy.

As I already have my W&N Bijou Box for an 8 half-pan palette, I decided to modify the Cozens palette slightly:

I replaced an earth red, plus the blue ochre and black for paints with broader mixing capabilities, as well as adding a couple of essentials.

(PS: That travel paint box really *is* as adorable as it looks!)

Sailor KAN LE

Soon I'll add the beautiful Sailor "KAN" LE to my collection - I have lusted after this full-size Pro Gear for awhile, and when a friend in Japan offered to help ship one over to me, I just couldn't refuse.

The KAN:

Rhodia Webnotebooks

Yesterday I received a rather nice gift from a very kind FPN'er - a Rhodia Webnotebook! (I don't know why they are called "Webnotebooks" - but they are.)

I received one in Orange, A6 size. The design and styling is pretty darn cool, and the little logo on each corner of the page doesn't bother me in the slightest. Tragically, the paper isn't the usual Rhodia standard! (Why Rhodia, why???)

Here's my Webnotebook, along with my sexy little Montegrappa Micra, freshly inked with Noodler's Golden Brown:


All things considered, these are nifty little notebooks - let's hope that Exaclair prevail and manage to have Rhodia revisit their paper decision.

Sailor Sapporo Arrivals!

It's late (10PM), which is never a good time to be shooting photos of anything, let alone nicely detailed photos of my beloved Sapporo pens. However, this blog has been a bit neglected of late, and I guess a couple of bad photos are better than no photos at all. So without further ado, I present my three latest Sailor Sapporo (Pro Gear Slim) acquisitions:


From the bottom: Dark Metallic Green, 14K F; Spring Orange, 14K F; Spring White (Ivory), 14K F; Snow White LE Mini.

There is a considerable difference between the Ivory and pure white Snow White LE - the Ivory could be better called Beige Putty, but I suppose Ivory sounds more appealing. ;)

Even though you cannot see one hint of green in the above photo, hopefully the next photo shows the colour of my Dark Metallic Green Sapporo a bit better (please excuse the appalling flash):


I have chosen to ink my beauties as follows:

• Spring Orange - Noodler's Apache Sunset
• Spring White - Penman Ruby
  
• Dark Green - 1:1 Noodler's Zhivago and Noodler's Pushkin.

These pens only have Fine nibs (Extra Fine was not available), so I chose inks which are slightly dry-writing - when you have handwriting as small as I do, every bit helps! ;)

May Update

A brief update for today, but hopefully some photos will follow tomorrow. A few interesting pens have joined the collection these last few weeks... some fine sterling silver Sailor pens, a silver Pilot Elite and two less commonly seen inexpensive Japanese pens from the 70s featuring pretty gold sparkles... ooh.

A nice metallic Dark Green Sapporo arrived last week, followed by my Spring White Sapporo a few days later. Both have great 14K Fine nibs. The Spring Orange Sapporo should arrive this week. :)

The Spring White and Spring Orange pens were purchased from MelPens. Mel's service was excellent and the entire transaction has been a pleasure. Highly recommended!

More later. :)

Dillon Ang Cursive Italic - Excellent!

What a nice week it was for my mailbox - lots of exciting pens, plus my first nib from Dillon Ang ('Dillo' on FPN).

The other week Dillon offered a 14K Pelikan M400 nib unit for sale, which I promptly pounced on. I took the opportunity to have the nib ground to a special point - a 0.3mm / XXXF Cursive Italic.

I can honestly say I am delighted with this nib. It is every bit as good as my nibs from other nibmeisters - and it is very smooth. Dare I say, too smooth? (I'm actually not even sure, because as a Needlepoint user smoothness can be a foreign concept for me!)

Dillon's service was prompt, well-priced and very professional. I am proud to add his 0.3mm Cursive Italic nib to my collection - and more from him will follow it! :)

Sailor Excess

This is only my eleventh post for 2008 (slack of me, I know), but it is my fifth post for the year about Sailor fountain pens... I can assure you that this bias is unintentional. :P

Anyway, I am expecting the following Sailor pens to join my collection soon...

• Mitsukoshi Dandelion (Tanpopo) LE
  
  This is a Limited Edition of 50 pens, Professional Gear size. Each Dandelion comes with a matching bottle of specially blended Sailor Jentle ink to match the spring yellow body colour of this demonstrator.
  

  Metallic Green SE
  

  I already have one of these special editions in the Professional Gear size, but the Metallic Green is a rhodium Pro Gear Slim (Sapporo) model with 14K F nib. I love the colour green, so I'm looking forward to this one.
  

  Spring White SE
  

  One of the 2008 Spring range... Pro Gear Slim (Sapporo) size. This is a creamy white colour as opposed to the pure white of my Snow White LE. The Spring White also has gold trim, which I love. I managed to arrange an F nib too!
  

  Spring Orange SE
  

  Another one from the 2008 Spring range... Orange with gold trim - yay! Looks delicious. The Pink and Sky Blue from the Spring range don't appeal to me though... I already have enough Pro Gears with rhodium trim!

Sailor "Snow White" - Part II

My Snow White arrived today! It is soooooooo pretty. :)

You can read more about it here.


This is the second pen my lovely friend Jim has acquired for me - I'm so lucky. :)

Sailor "Snow White"

Isn't it gorgeous?

Sailor "Morita Original"

I was browsing the Ujuku Shop yesterday, noting the updated inventory, when I saw that the Morita Original was available for purchase! This is a 2007 Sailor Special Edition which was commissioned for the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.

The pen is a pale turquoise colour, just like that of the domed roof of the Salzburg Cathedral (Dom St. Rupert), where Mozart was baptised and would later serve as organist.


The Morita Original is a variant of the Sailor Professional Gear series, and is available in three sizes: Professional Gear, Professional Gear Slim (aka Sapporo) and Professional Gear Slim Mini (aka Sapporo Mini).

I have ordered my Morita Original in the Slim Mini size.