Editing The Pen Addict 658/transcript (section)

== Exploring Creative Uses for Inks Beyond Writing ==

* And there's only so many fountain pens I can fill and use writing. So what other ways can we use our inks in our daily life or our creative experiments?
* Yeah. So usually what I do when I get a new bottle of ink, which is, you know, all the time. Daily. Yeah, daily. Daily bottles of ink.
* So what I usually do is I open up that bottle of ink and I take just a few, well, I would say I take a pipette and take a little bit of that ink and transfer it to a small vial. And I do this with all of my inks that I'm really, like, I want to explore because, you know, they're not like the typical black or, you know, blues. But if they're like an interesting shade, I'll put them into an ink vial, number them, and write down on a list of what the ink is so I don't forget. Okay. And these ink vials will sit on my desk. And what I'll do is every day I use a Hobonichi five-year diary, which is just dedicated to drawing and writing down. It's kind of like my gratitude practice. So writing down a little moment of joy every day. And I started this in 2022. So I've done it for a few years now. Yeah. And so I write down, you know, a joy of the day, something that made me smile could be something small. And then on the left-hand side where there's just, like, blank grid space, I take a glass to pen. I dip it into the vial. And I use a little bit of that ink to just sketch a quick flower doodle. Mm-hmm.
* And so I do that. But then on top of that, you kind of mentioned, like, painting on my stream. Mm-hmm. Once I have, like, a few inks that I kind of want to explore, what I do is I take those vials. You can use watercolor paper. Or a lot of us have, you know, TRP planners or Midori paper or just paper that lends well to fountain pen inks. And I take a couple of paintbrushes and I dip them into these ink vials. So I don't dip, when I do painting, I don't dip directly into the ink bottles because I don't want to get bristles in there or dust, things like that. So that's kind of the process of transferring ink to little vials that you can play with, right? Exactly. So, yeah. So if you contaminate that, it's fine. You know, you just have a little bit of ink in those vials.
* And so I use that to play with. So I paint.
* I use it with glassed pens or even, like, a Kakamori steel nib, you know, just to dip it in there and to do a little bit of writing and painting on paper.
* And it's just another way of, like, swatching your inks. So I don't know if you swatch all your inks that you get, Brad. I do not. Okay. So here's a way of swatching is when you get some of that ink and you have it in an ink vial, you can also use it to just, like, if you're going to paint with it, if you're going to write with it, it's your way of swatching with it, right? Because you are sort of documenting what that ink is and showing off the properties.
* And that's what we can kind of refer to later is, you know, what did that look like when, you know, I painted with it or wrote with it? Yeah, I'm making myself a note over here. It's like, yeah, maybe I should document my inks more. And it's really not even, it's not even that. It's just the broader concept of this ink exploration, like you're talking about with, like, the brush and the ink vials. What number ink vial are you on?
* I, I'm in this. That was an aggressive coming at me moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, as soon as you said I number the vials, I was like, I know what one of my questions is about to be.
* I'm, I'm in the 60s. Okay. So, so don't look, don't look at my, so my total number of ink bottles are like 100 plus. Okay. Sure. So, so here's my little confession, right? Yeah.
* But the thing is too, after, you know, a month or so of playing with that ink and really like using it and enjoying it, I think we kind of, it's kind of how, why we change up our currently inked fountain pens by re-inking them with different inks is that you do kind of get to a moment where you're like, okay, like I've had enough with this ink. I can put it away for a little while, right? And so if you use up the ink that's in the vial, you can then, you know, wash it out and then reuse it for your next ink bottle that you get. Yeah. And so you kind of cycle through your inks a little bit that way too. Testing the inks out like this and like, so like in your vial and brush type of, of, you know, sampling or, you know, like I've done the water brush with the ink palette type of, you know, drawing, did hashtag ink ponies. Yeah. Yeah. On, on stream, it actually makes me want to use my fountain pens more because I'm actually getting to see like the full characteristics of the ink, which doesn't always come out in, you know, with, with my type of writing, like small block print writing and a fine nib, right? You don't get, you don't always get like the full ink experience. And then I can use a particular color and manipulate it somehow, even if it's just like with water and you see the character that these inks have, even what you thought was a normal basic ink. It actually makes me enjoy my just standard fountain pens even more and using like interesting inks in them because it's like, oh yeah, remember that time I made this color look like this? This is that same ink and I'm just going to keep going. It's, I don't know. It's just one of those weird things that I, I think about sometimes. Yeah, no, that's a hundred percent it because you've seen all its properties and, you know, you really enjoyed it. And so you're connecting that to the ink that you're using regardless of, you know, what your nib size is, you know, extra fine. And maybe you won't see all of those properties unless you're doing like a long form sort of written piece. But you're remembering, you know, the ink properties that you saw before. And I have to say, I've seen the painting streams that you've done, Brad, and the joy that you get out of painting is so good to see. Yeah. Because like, right, like when you're doing the ink pony paintings and you're combining, you know, four different inks, which you don't do with a fountain pen. Like, you know, you pick up a fountain pen, you write, you move on. But when you're painting, you're kind of, you're bringing those inks together and you're seeing combinations of inks that you might not have noticed before that go so well together, right? And so when you're painting with it at the end and you're, you know, you're, you're finished your ink pony and you kind of look back and you're like, whoa, this, this turned out really cool. Like, look at these inks, right? Yeah. Yeah. I get so much enjoyment out of it. I literally crack myself up doing it. It's, I don't know why, but it just allows a certain part of me to happen. And it's good to put yourself in those situations. Like, we don't know what's about to happen, but like, you know, what's going to be good and like, I'm going to enjoy this. And, you know, this, it's such an outlier thing for me, but it's, it's turned out to be a very important part of like, just like my mindfulness during the week and like taking care of myself, you know, during the week and, and things like that. Like it, it's, I, I'm, I'm not overselling like the mental health aspects of these things, you know, just for like helping us have like, you know, positivity and freedom and of thought and, and things like that. It's, it's something I think about a lot. And just to let myself go in a public fashion like that is so not me. So it's, it ends up just being a giggle fest and like, I just have the stupidest fun time doing it. It's hilarious. I love it. Yeah. But I think in you letting yourself be free in that sort of public forum where, you know, usually you're, you're talking about pens and, you know, you're not, you're not really like in the moment of creating something. But when you do that joy is like, it emanates out, right? Like everyone who's there in chat starts to see that and starts to feel that joy. It's, it's addictive. It's like watching someone be really happy. It's like makes you happy. Right. So, you know, for your mental health, um, enjoying something and bringing out, you know, something fun, um, someone else who's watching who may not be in that moment where they can create or do something fun. They're watching it, but they're feeling that joy. And I think that uplifts everyone else too. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's fun to do and it's, it's fun to explore and it's fun to put yourself out there like that. And I'm glad to have that opportunity and you're, you're doing that as well. And we'll have a link to your Twitch, uh, so people can, can go follow along at your, your awesome stuff. All right. I want to hit up one more. I'm going to completely do a one 80 and talk about one final topic this week. And, uh, I'm going to make you go on record here, which is better the plotter or the traveler's notebook.