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28 Online Classes That Actually Worth Taking | The Strategist | New York Magazine

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28 Online Classes That Actually Worth Taking | The Strategist | New York Magazine

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Over the last decade, the world of online classes has grown steadily: Platforms like and MasterClass launched with courses on everything from coding to political campaigning 101, amassing tens of millions of users. But after the pandemic forced most of the world into lockdown, the category ballooned. In a matter of days, instructors locked the doors to their studios, kitchens, and offices and moved their businesses online - to Instagram, Zoom, and beyond. (Meanwhile, it was reported in early May that MasterClass was valued at about $800 million - double its 2018 valuation.) The result is that the internet is flooded with classes. But which meditation lessons and saxophone classes are actually worth your attention? Here, 29 options recommended by dozens of enthusiastic class-takers.
➽ A principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, Tiler Peck has been teaching classes daily on Instagram. PR director Peggymarie Merck noticed Peck (whom she already followed) going live and joined on a whim. Two months in, she's been taking the class weekly and says she feels "longer and leaner." Fashion marketer Hannah Davis takes it too and says she especially likes that Peck "teaches the choreography from ballets like Swan Lake or Giselle."
The Great Courses: The Architecture of Power, $20 a month after free trial
➽ Former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss teaches a MasterClass that two people we spoke to were persuaded to take by a YouTube ad. Entrepreneur Umesh Kumar told us that he assumed the class would be all about business but that it's really about "how to enhance everyday communication."

➽ Two years ago, a New York Magazine cover story investigated Yale's Psychology and the Good Life with Professor Laurie Santos. Santos has since adapted the class for Coursera, which is where marketer Erin Thibeau stumbled upon it. The curriculum draws on positive psychology and behavioral science to "debunk myths about what makes us happy and share what actually works." One of the first assignments is to measure your baseline level of happiness so you'll have a point of comparison for the end of the course after you've practiced happiness-boosting habits. Students are asked to practice strategies, such as exercising, for at least 30 minutes a day.

➽ In "Gangster Gardener" Ron Finley's class, students learn how to create planters from household items, grow their own food, and keep everything alive. Photographer (and "notorious plant killer") Paige Gribb says the course is helpful whether you're working "with a windowsill or lots of land."

➽ Video-game writer Jessica Price took this course about how palaces in the ancient world were built to meet the political needs and desires of the ruling class. The course, she says, delves deep into how structures - including Nero's Golden House, Caligula's Floating Palaces, and the White House - were designed.

➽ Choreographer Ryan Heffington's near-daily Instagram classes occasionally include guests like Pink and Emma Stone, who dance with him to an audience of thousands. Branding consultant Rebecca Zhou tells us her favorite part is one with moves inspired by chores like "hanging art" and "sweeping." Says photography director Meg Reinhardt, "I've gotten sad thinking about where he'll go when COVID is over."

➽ "The ideal angsty bedroom dance party" is how writer-director Aiden Arata describes Pony Sweat Aerobics' classes. She found them while looking for a dance class with zero empowerment-speak, and says that the instructors regularly encourage participants to let themselves go and "f- the moves." Those moves, according to Arata, are "a mash-up of '80s aerobics and riot-grrrl thrashing, set to tracks from bands like Boy Harsher and the Cure."
The Great Courses: The Old Testament, $20 a month after free trial
➽ Catapult markets itself as "by writers, for writers" and hosts a range of classes on everything from finishing a novel to marketing your book to agents. Lane Florsheim, digital staff writer at WSJ. Magazine, was looking for a class that she could fit into her schedule and found it with Mila Jaroniec's Online Fiction Intensive, which promises you'll write 40,000 words in 40 days - it, crucially, began at 9:30 p.m. What's particularly valuable, Florsheim says, is you can go back and look over all the different lessons from your class once it's finished.

➽ Equinox trainer Patrick McGrath has taken his talents to Instagram in lockdown, where he uploads full-length strength and conditioning workouts throughout the week for no cost. Nicolás Lazaro, a community specialist at Grailed, told us he was looking for a "routine that didn't feel like a routine" and found it with McGrath's workouts. He adds that McGrath is "really chill and personable, so you don't feel like you're being yelled at." Plus, he has a "cute little French bulldog named Murphy whose snores often interrupt the videos."
Talking Politics: History of Ideas Podcast, free on Apple or Spotify Podcasts
➽ L.A.'s the Studio gym holds classes that mix Pilates, cardio, and weights. "They work your abs hard and are worth every penny," spa owner Gretchen Tiernan says. She adds that you can spot celebrities among the Zoom attendees, including Ayesha Curry.
Sky Ting TV, $20 a month at skyting.com/tv after free trial Santa Monica Language Academy, from $50
➽ Communications executive Drew Kerr would go to in-person classes at Home Cooking often before the pandemic hit and has been taking them online since. "We've made risotto and gnocchi, and you can ask the chefs questions like: 'Is my butter too brown?' or 'Should I chop or mince this onion?' "

➽ Price used to download the Great Courses' offerings from Napster back when they cost hundreds of dollars each. But after noticing they've become more affordable, she took its Old Testament class. "It helps you understand literature that references the Bible better," she says. The teacher, Amy-Jill Levine, is "a great analyst: funny and irreverent."
Ten Percent Happier Mindfulness, free at Apple Podcasts
➽ Rome-based journalist Erica Firpo also loves classes by Ghetto Gastro, a collective of four friends. The quartet FaceTime into the kitchens of their celebrity guests, who cook a recipe live. "Naomi Campbell made banana pudding recently. I watch it live, then rewatch it when I actually want to cook what they made."

➽ Firpo was not looking to take a class in lockdown but noticed Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi advertising a "daily Bake Club" on Instagram. "She has so much energy," Firpo says, adding that Tosi lets attendees know all the ingredients they'll need ahead of time to bake pie and nougat alongside her.

➽ Cambridge University's famously difficult History of Political Thought class (which began in the 1950s) has recently been distilled to podcast form by one of its professors. Leo Sands, a BBC producer who took the class itself, recommends starting with the lesson on Hobbes, and he says the professor and host, David Runciman, is "a master."
Babbel Language Classes, from $6.95 a month at
➽ Gwyneth Paltrow's skin-care guru has been hosting seminars on Zoom. Davis, who stumbled on one while shopping for a serum, tells us everyone from high-schoolers to Hailey Bieber has taken the class and that Sturm gets scientific: "You learn about different skin layers, what produces acne, and more."

➽ Fans of yoga studio Sky Ting, including musician Phoebe Bridgers, told us it's mastered the art of fostering connection online. "It feels intimate, even with 2,000 people tuned in live," says Annie Auchincloss, a home buyer at MoMA. Plus, "it's fun to see the instructors' airy apartments, from New York to Portugal."

➽ In 1911, Italy kept quiet about a cholera epidemic. The fact was discovered by Yale's Frank Snowden, who teaches a course about how he figured it out. Comedian Jay Welch says, "It doesn't take your mind off current events, but it's full of insights that apply to now." Lecture No. 9, he adds, "which has the very dull title 'Asiatic Cholera (I),' " is where things start to heat up.
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➽ Author Maile Meloy was learning sign on the set of a TV show she was writing for and has continued in lockdown with this SMLA class led by "great" teacher Lan Ngo. For a cheaper option, author Mary Laura Philpott likes the free courses on signlanguage101.com.

➽ The nonprofit Brooklyn Institute for Social Research was created to offer university-style seminars taught by scholar-pedagogues to working adults. The classes, according to Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson, are "as intensive as grad school." Wilkinson liked her class on Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism so much that she enrolled in a second Arendt course, based on her book The Human Condition, which scrutinizes Arendt's opinions on technology.

➽ While tech strategist James Matthews enjoyed learning how to prepare a 12-hour brisket, he says Franklin himself is the highlight: "He's like the Seth MacFarlane of cooking."

➽ Last winter, meditation helped Kathleen Sorbara, the owner of Chickee's Vintage, overcome a "really tough, dark time." But she worried about travel, knowing she couldn't attend in-person classes. When a friend introduced her to Ten Percent Happier, it was "a turning point." Unlike Headspace, it has more than one instructor and offers courses alongside single classes on stress, happiness, focus, and sleep.

➽ Writer R. Eric Thomas says his hope, after quarantine, is to be able to "dazzle" his friends with some magic. To do so, he took this class, which was advertised on Instagram. "Their instructions are clear - I quickly mastered a simple trick where you make a rubber band jump between your fingers. Even though I knew how it was done, I still shrieked and applauded when I first saw it!"

➽ While Peloton is known for its high-tech stationary bikes that allow instructors to coach you through a screen, you don't need one to take advantage of the company's workouts. Brand strategist Zoe Tesar told us she loves the Peloton app's quick workouts, which can be as short as five minutes and require none of the brand's gear. "I love the ten-minute arm-strength, arm-toning, and ab classes, and the ten-minute HIIT class is actually really difficult," she says.

➽ SoulCycle instructor Sydney Millar recently started her own online class, a mix of Pilates and HIIT that marketing manager Laura Naparstek told us she's been taking (Strategist staff writer Hilary Reid has also attended). Just like in her SoulClasses, the instructor calls out participants who aren't giving their all. But unlike her SoulCycle classes, which end with everyone hitting the showers, Millar's online classes conclude with a happy hour, which Naparstek says offers a rare feeling of community in isolation.

➽ While people may be more familiar with Duolingo's language-learning app, three folks we talked to say it can be a little glitchy, and that the company's website isn't great. Those three found a far superior service in Babbel, which offers lessons in 14 languages including Norwegian, Portuguese, and Russian. The lessons can be learned on your computer as well as on your phone. Stylist Mohammad Diallo, who needed to learn French to communicate with clients in Paris, says his skills have "hugely improved" since enrolling, and that "I have far better memory retention than with other apps I've tried."

➽ Another novel language service we learned about is iTalki, which pairs you with a native speaker in a country that speaks the language you're trying to learn. Once paired, you pay them to practice over Skype. Writer Anna Fitzpatrick, who is using the service to maintain her Italian, tells us: "I get along really well with my Italian woman, we're friends on social media now." Plus, there's also a therapeutic element. "You talk about your life and stuff because you're trying to come up with things to talk about," she adds.

*A version of this article appears in the May 25, 2020, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

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The Online Classes Actually Worth Taking

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Over the last decade, the world of online classes has grown: Platforms like Coursera and MasterClass launched with courses on everything from coding to political campaigning 101. Here, 29 options recommended by dozens of enthusiastic class-takers.

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Stagger trousers that you wear less often on this 4 bar anti-slip hanger and you'll have twice as much space to hang other trousers on our 1 bar anti-slip hangers! Associating utility and organisation, this hanger will be your best dressing friend.

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Sugar, Porcelain and Power: Deconstructing Jessica Stoller’s Ceramic Sculptures : MOLD :: Designing the Future of Food

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Sugar, Porcelain and Power: Deconstructing Jessica Stoller’s Ceramic Sculptures : MOLD :: Designing the Future of Food

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Ooey gooey desserts drenched in chocolate syrup pour over busts of women and other porcelain effigies in a collection of pieces by artist Jessica Stoller. The ceramicist has been working in ceramics for over a decade, and the result is a sharp contrast from the standard dainty, chantilly lace-clad figurines par for the course in the medium. Stoller is intentional in her use of sweets, women and porcelain, drawing connections between the three and highlighting historical, biological and societal intersections.
Untitled (stack), 2013, porcelain, glaze, china paint, 12"x 7.5"x 9" Untitled (epergne), 2014, porcelain, glaze, china paint, 9.5″x 7.5″ x 7.5″ Untitled (still life), 2014, porcelain, glaze, china paint, lustre, enamel, wire, wood, 63″x 60″x 26.5″Untitled (tar), 2014, porcelain, glaze, china paint, 9.5″x 8.5″x 6″
"On a basic level women's bodies provide food and have been depicted in clay as powerful fertility figures for millennia," Stoller says. "Porcelain has a long history of being coveted and exoticized in Imperial Europe, prized for its beauty and used to signify class and taste. As patriarchy derailed women's primordial power, women's bodies have also been highly fetishised and simplified for mass consumption. Not to mention being physically compared to porcelain, an unrealistic standard of perfection, homogeneity and whiteness."

The artist employs a myriad of techniques in her work-sculpting, draping, carving, weaving and piping-to create a wide range of effects from wrinkled flesh to plump frosting. "Food plays an important role in my work and, surprisingly, working with wet clay is very food like," Stoller says. "I use frosting bags, icing tips, immersion blenders, and kitchen implements when working on my sculptures, hence making the work look like food is not too challenging."

"In terms of content, food is very charged and specifically ties to ideas I am interested in regarding femininity and consumption," Stoller says. "Specifically, I have been interested in the feminization of sugar and have moved farther back to examine colonialisms ties to sugar, porcelain and power."

Also on the topic of food, Stoller also recently took part in The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook: A Collection of Stories with Recipes by Natalie Eve Garrett, and will be exhibiting at Zuckerman Museum of Art Galleries in Georgia early next year.

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Sugar, Porcelain and Power: Deconstructing Jessica Stoller's Ceramic Sculptures

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Ooey gooey desserts drenched in chocolate syrup pour over busts of women and other porcelain effigies in a collection of pieces by artist Jessica Stoller. The ceramicist has been working in ceramics for over a decade, and the result is a sharp contrast from the standard dainty, chantilly lace-clad figurines par for the course in...

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Currently an Assistant Professor of Art, Ceramics, at Clemson University, Clemson, SC, Valerie Zimany received her BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. After completing her MFA studies at Kanazawa College of Art as a Fulbright Fellow and Japanese Government Scholar, Valerie spent three years on a city-sponsored residency at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa, Japan. She was recently awarded a second Fulbright grant by the U.S. Department of Education for her proposal Porcelain Fever: Contemporary Kutani Practitioners and Processes, and returned to Kanazawa as a guest researcher at the Institute of Art and Design, Kanazawa College of Art in Summer and Fall 2011.

Valerie's work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in venues such as the 9th International Ceramic Competition Mino, the 5th World Ceramic Biennale Korea, the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA, the Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA, the 701cca Center for Contemporary Art, Columbia, SC, and more.

Her works are in multiple public and private collections. Valerie was named an American Craft Council Searchlight Artist for 2007, a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist for 2008, and a Finalist for the Niche Award in 2011 and the Society for Contemporary Craft's Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder's Prize in 2013. Besides exhibiting, Valerie's work can be seen in the Lark Books 500 Ceramic Sculptures and 500 Prints on Clay, and is the subject of "Valerie Zimany: Recasting The Japanese Tradition," a full feature article in the November 2008 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Also acting as an independent curator, Valerie has organized concurrent exhibitions for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts including: Method: Multiple and Episodic, Clustered, and Migrating (NCECA 2011), To Wander Out of Place: Artists and Asia (NCECA 2012), and Valerie Zimany: Porcelain Fever (NCECA 2013). Internationally, she directed the exhibition Porcelain Fever: Contemporary Artists and Kutani Now in cooperation with the non-profit art space ArtGummi, Kanazawa City Hall, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan. The exhibition was accompanied by a critical catalogue and subsequently featured as a lecture in the programming for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art's 2014 conference in Milwaukee, WI.

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Currently an Assistant Professor of Art, Ceramics, at Clemson University, Clemson, SC, Valerie Zimany received her BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. After completing her MFA studies at Kanazawa College of Art as a Fulbright Fellow and Japanese Government Scholar, Valerie spent three years on a city-sponsored residency at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa, Japan.

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Currently an Assistant Professor of Art, Ceramics, at Clemson University, Clemson, SC, Valerie Zimany received her BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. After completing her MFA studies at Kanazawa College of Art as a Fulbright Fellow and Japanese Government Scholar, Valerie spent three years on a city-sponsored residency at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa, Japan. She was recently awarded a second Fulbright grant by the U.S. Department of Education for her proposal Porcelain Fever: Contemporary Kutani Practitioners and Processes, and returned to Kanazawa as a guest researcher at the Institute of Art and Design, Kanazawa College of Art in Summer and Fall 2011.

Valerie's work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions in venues such as the 9th International Ceramic Competition Mino, the 5th World Ceramic Biennale Korea, the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA, the Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA, the 701cca Center for Contemporary Art, Columbia, SC, and more.

Her works are in multiple public and private collections. Valerie was named an American Craft Council Searchlight Artist for 2007, a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist for 2008, and a Finalist for the Niche Award in 2011 and the Society for Contemporary Craft's Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder's Prize in 2013. Besides exhibiting, Valerie's work can be seen in the Lark Books 500 Ceramic Sculptures and 500 Prints on Clay, and is the subject of "Valerie Zimany: Recasting The Japanese Tradition," a full feature article in the November 2008 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Also acting as an independent curator, Valerie has organized concurrent exhibitions for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts including: Method: Multiple and Episodic, Clustered, and Migrating (NCECA 2011), To Wander Out of Place: Artists and Asia (NCECA 2012), and Valerie Zimany: Porcelain Fever (NCECA 2013). Internationally, she directed the exhibition Porcelain Fever: Contemporary Artists and Kutani Now in cooperation with the non-profit art space ArtGummi, Kanazawa City Hall, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan. The exhibition was accompanied by a critical catalogue and subsequently featured as a lecture in the programming for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art's 2014 conference in Milwaukee, WI.

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Currently an Assistant Professor of Art, Ceramics, at Clemson University, Clemson, SC, Valerie Zimany received her BFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. After completing her MFA studies at Kanazawa College of Art as a Fulbright Fellow and Japanese Government Scholar, Valerie spent three years on a city-sponsored residency at the Utatsuyama Craft Workshop in Kanazawa, Japan.

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The Glory of Disrepair by Mathias Mahling - Fine Art Photography of Abandoned Places

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Lee Krasner Has Long Been Eclipsed by Her Much More Famous Artist Husband. Now a Book Is Writing Art History on Her Terms

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Lee Krasner Has Long Been Eclipsed by Her Much More Famous Artist Husband. Now a Book Is Writing Art History on Her Terms

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In this excerpt from the book More than a Muse, which highlights creative women who have been overshadowed by their more famous spouses, see how the artist Lee Krasner worked her way up to the apex of New York's art scene, only to often find herself reduced to the role of Jackson Pollock's wife.

Coming up as an artist during the Great Depression was a crippling financial struggle for Krasner, as she came from a working class background, there was no family money to fall back on. Even if she could get a gallery show, people could barely afford to buy bread, let alone an oil painting. Her hours as a nightclub waitress and model didn't provide enough to get by, so she took a job with the Federal Art Project, part of the United States Government's New Deal. When Roosevelt put people's jobs on the line by slashing funding, Krasner would be out protesting with her fellow artists and models, calling for justice. "I was practically in every jail in New York City," she said. "Each time we were fired, or threatened with being fired, we'd go out and picket. On many occasions we'd be taken off in a Black Maria [police van] and locked in a cell."

Nobody could afford to buy paintings, but the New York avant-garde was coming into its own. At this time, Krasner was pinballing from one style to another. Initially she took her lead from the European modernists, and crowded her canvases with colorful Miró-esque shapes. After a visit to MoMA's Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism show in 1936, she experimented with a desolate Kay-Sage-like landscape that feels so far removed from her later abstract works. Artistically, she simply didn't like to stay in one place. She loved the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, and scrawled his words on the wall of her Greenwich Village studio: "Finally I came to consider my mind's disorder as sacred."

Krasner was a respected figure in the New York art world, not just for her position in the Federal Art Project, but for the reputation she'd developed for her 'strict eye' for art. By the late 1930s, she was already friendly with Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky; at one point, she and her ex-boyfriend Igor Pantuhoff had shared a flat with Harold Rosenberg, a powerful American art critic. Krasner became a part of the American Abstract Artists group (AAA). At their group exhibition in 1941, she began talking with Piet Mondrian. The two hit it off so well, they met up again to spend the night dancing to jazz at Café Uptown. It's probably not much of a surprise that, Mondrian, the man who painted Broadway Boogie-Woogie, could cut some serious rug, "I loved jazz and he loved jazz, so I saw him several times and we went dancing like crazy," said Krasner. Mondrian was a hero figure to her. In her experiments with abstraction in the 1930s she would sometimes limit herself to his signature palette of just primary colors plus black and white in a kind of Mondrian homage, so she was understandably anxious as he approached her painting at the AAA exhibition that night. He told her she had a "very strong inner rhythm; stay with it."

It's clear that by the 1940s, Krasner was an established part of the city's Abstract art scene. If they were in secondary school, she'd be sitting at the back of the bus sharing Lucky Strikes with de Kooning. And Pollock? He'd be carving his initials into a table in the common room, taking slugs from the whisky flask tucked under his school jumper. Soon after their relationship began, there was a shift in her work. Krasner, convinced of Pollock's ability, began introducing him to friends in the art world in an effort to boost his career. And at the same time, Krasner entered a battle with her own painting, producing what she called "gray slabs." Much has been made of this 'dead' period in her work, as it fits neatly into the narrative of the all-consuming Pollock, with a painting style so original it could overwhelm a talent like Krasner's. The year after they'd married, she wrote to her friend, the artist Mercedes Matter, saying, "I showed [Sidney] Janis my last three paintings. He said they were too much Pollock-it's completely idiotic, but I have a feeling from now on that's going to be the story." What's rarely mentioned is that, around this time, Krasner lost her father and was in a state of grief, "in spite of his age, he was 81, it pretty well tears you to pieces and is like some terrific eruption with everything being torn up ... I must wait until spaces are closer and time changes feeling." When speaking about her process, Krasner reiterated again and again the importance of waiting, of taking a deep breath, and sitting through the "dead" periods. She would never force it, no matter how painful the experience might be. When an interviewer asked Krasner what her husband had been working on during those years, she clipped back, "I don't know, I had my own problems."

'A very destructive act'

In an attempt to break away from Manhattan, Krasner managed to convince art collector Peggy Guggenheim to lend her the down payment on a house in the isolated hamlet of Springs, Long Island. Out there, in nature, she and Pollock made their entire lives about the work, surviving on very little cash, eating whatever clams they could dig out of the sand. But structurally, the balance was off. While he took over the famous "barn"-a factory for drip painting where he had space to splash, pour and slash the canvas with paint, Krasner took on the bedroom as a studio, a smaller space, that resulted in smaller pieces, her 'Little Images'. They were her moments of controlled chaos, rectangles of white noise, sometimes featuring a pattern of swirling glyphs that Krasner called 'a kind of crazy writing of my own'. The critics weren't speaking her language. When she showed her 'Little Images' alongside Pollock's works at Artists: Man and Wife, an exhibition at Sidney Janis Gallery, they were dismissed as tight, tidy imitations of his. It's a theme that would follow her for a large part of her career. It's true that she was no Jackson Pollock, but only in the sense that he was no Lee Krasner.

Her work spoke for itself at a solo show in Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951, and was better received, but still the paintings didn't sell. Frustrated by her lukewarm reception and with Pollock's aggressive drinking, in 1953, she grabbed the drawings that hung from the walls and ceiling of her studio-and started ripping them to shreds. "Walked in one day, hated it all, took it down, tore everything and threw it on the floor, and when I went back ... it was seemingly a very destructive act. I don't know why I did it, except I certainly did it." After cannibalizing her creations, she started reassembling them into a series of collages made up of old drawings, rough shards of paintings and bits of old burlap sack. When these trophies of iconoclasm went on display at the Stable Gallery in 1955, the same reviewer who had bashed her "Little Images," Stuart Preston, said "The eye is fenced in by the myriad scraps of paper, burlap and canvas swobbed [sic] with color that she pastes up so energetically. She is a good noisy colorist." The destruction was the catalyst she needed to make her Frankensteinian pieces. Even Pollock's drawings got hoovered up in the frenzy for Bald Eagle, a piece that contains both of their DNA. When you look at it, you can hear the paper being ripped in two.

'Painting is not separate from life. It is one'

Lee Krasner had two jobs. A full-time artist and crisis manager. Living with a heavy-drinking, quick-tempered Pollock was not easy. When he began an affair with Ruth Kligman, and made no effort to hide the betrayal from her or their friends, Krasner had enough, deciding to take a break from the destruction to travel to Europe. Before she left, she made a start on the painting Prophecy, pink and menacing, like a liquid cadaver; even she admitted to being frightened by it.

Krasner was in Paris when she got the call from Clement Greenberg that Pollock had died in a car crash along with one of Ruth Kligman's friends. When she returned home, she had to face that painting: Prophecy. Within months, Krasner had taken over the barn as her studio, filling the negative space he had left behind. Her grief became a vehicle, and its scale can be seen in the enormous, rectangular paintings she produced after his death. Plagued by insomnia and a hatred of working in color without natural light, she began to use umber so she could cope with working at night. These are the paintings that move me most: stripped back to reveal Krasner's exhausted, emotionally charged gestures as she jumped to mark her canvas, paintings like The Eye is the First Circle, which, in my opinion, was unjustly ridiculed when it was presented without proper context in 2016.

When asked how she managed to face the canvas again, she said, "Painting is not separate from life. It is one. It is like asking-do I want to live? My answer is yes-and I paint." With Krasner, there is never a singular style, even if she wanted one, "My own image of my work is that I no sooner settle into something than a break occurs. These breaks are always painful and depressing but despite them I see that there's a consistency that holds out, but is hard to define."

By the 1960s, she was working in full color, monumental paintings with a flux of oranges and pinks and a dark arc peeking out from underneath. Sometimes her marks are bulbous and awkward; other times, diffused into concentrated splatters of paint. To see them together in one room is like experiencing an abstract expressionism group show.

In the 1970s, Krasner expressed regret that she had not yet been offered a retrospective in America, only in London. The opportunity to see a real period of work was something she considered important for a painter. When Pollock died, and she became the executor of his estate, she had a clear vision for how she wanted his art to be handled; she was generous with the work, lending it out to museum and gallery collections. If Krasner had only served her own interests, she could have taken advantage of certain connections to boost her own reputation, but she was a pugnacious character that had no interest in filling the pockets of art collectors, "I behaved with the paintings as I saw fit. I stepped on a lot of toes. And I think even today it's difficult for people to see me, or to speak to me, or observe my work, and not connect it with Pollock. They cannot free themselves."

For a long time, she was correct. Plenty of art critics could not be trusted to assess her work without bias. The Whitechapel show received dozens of reviews that painted her as the second fiddle widow, even in their veiled compliments. The Observer turned on the tap of that cold shower compliment issued by Hofmann in the 1930s: "I doubt whether anybody would guess from the paintings that they are by a woman. On the other hand, they are unmistakably American."

Things began to look brighter when, in 1984, MoMA honored Krasner with a retrospective of her work. Although the term "woman artist" never sat well with her, and she never really identified as a feminist, Krasner recognized the importance of the women's movement. Just over 10 years before she got the news of the MoMA show, she was on the steps of the same gallery, protesting the dearth of female artists in its collection. She passed away months before the MoMA retrospective was due to open.
Excerpted with permission from More Than a Muse by Katie McCabe, published by Quadrille April 2020, RRP $23.99 Hardcover.

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Lee Krasner Has Long Been Eclipsed by Her Much More Famous Artist Husband. Now a Book Is Writing Art History on Her Terms

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In this excerpt from the book More than a Muse, which highlights creative women who have been overshadowed by their more famous spouses, see how the artist Lee Krasner worked her way up to the apex of New York's art scene, only to often find herself reduced to the role of Jackson Pollock's wife.

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These Beautiful Images From The Great Depression Feel Timeless

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These Beautiful Images From The Great Depression Feel Timeless

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Dorothea Lange may be one of the most iconic photographers in the history of the world. Her most famous image, known as "Migrant Mother," was taken while Lange was in government service during the Great Depression and has been used widely in ads, book covers, and historical documents. Her empathetic, thoughtful eye documented Americans across states and classes and provides a window into an era that now more than ever feels akin to our own.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has built an exhibition of Lange's work including commentary from writers, artists, and scholars that feels incredibly relevant for the present time. Although the museum is closed, the exhibition can be seen online, along with an audio guide detailing some of the images included. BuzzFeed News spoke with Sarah Meister, the curator of the show, Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, about Lange's work and why it still resonates.

To start, this exhibition is called Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures. Can you tell us a bit about it?

I knew that she would be a wonderful subject for a retrospective, and we hadn't done one of her work since 1966 at the museum, so it had been a long time. As we started, her politics, her commitment to looking without sentiment but with deep empathy at human suffering and injustice, made me realize not only do I want to look at Lange, but structuring it around words and pictures seemed like something that curiously hadn't happened before.

It was an extraordinary exercise to think about what the impact of Dorothea Lange's photograph "Migrant Mother" looked like, to focus on an image as a singular work of art, even one that was basically circulated in more forms and contexts than any other form of art in the history of the world.

What also struck me was how resistant that photograph was to words. It had been associated with many, many different titles and captions over the course of its lifetime - poetic and polemic and aesthetic and news-oriented - and it was as if it didn't matter what anyone called it, or what words were associated with it. So that got me thinking about words, and that particular picture, and that extended to thinking about Lange and words and pictures in general. And there were two other pieces of this that led me to think of words and pictures as the kind of structuring framework for this exhibition.

One was Lange's oral history in the '60s. She said all photographs can be fortified by words. And I thought, huh, all photographs? I don't even agree with that statement, but more importantly, for a photographer, not a writer, to say that made me think that I wanted to reflect on words and pictures more with Lange.

She made an extraordinarily important photo book in 1939 with her husband, Paul Taylor, who was an agricultural economist, called An American Exodus. And in that book, it's an extraordinary weaving together of words and pictures, both contextual words that give you more information than you might see in the pictures and also words that represent the voices of the people pictured. That idea of an authentic representation of voice was almost as radical as the idea of attention to these people who were really suffering during the depths of the Great Depression.

So all of these things together - the migrant mother experience, her book American Exodus, and her own thinking about words and pictures - led me to believe that instead of just looking at Lange and doing a straightforward retrospective, which would have its own merit, the commitment to Lange was there, and I knew we had an extraordinary Lange collection.

How is this different from a traditional retrospective?
One of the things that we were really keen to do was to make sure that the exhibition wasn't anchored in the distant past. As important as a reconsideration of the Dust Bowl and the depression [is], we wanted to underscore the contemporary significance, and so to that end, we developed a list of contemporary writers, artists, thinkers, and we were hoping that some of them might be willing to think about Lange today with us and to add new words to her pictures. To my surprise and delight, of the 12 individuals that we asked, all 12 said yes. And that is as perfect an illustration as any of the way in which her work is speaking to so many people today.

And their contributions really bring new insights and new perspectives, not only in terms of what's written and included in the book, but also at least four are on the audio guide on the website. They are speaking not only to the photographs in the book but also to other ones.

The audio guide is pretty great too. The idea was that it should really feel like you're being pulled through a story in a different way, unlike walking through an exhibition or reading a book. There are 15 stops on the audio guide, and when you listen to them end to end, it really does give you a sense of how the spoken word inflects our approach to pictures. My hat's off to our education team who put this together.

There's also, on the exhibition page, an intro video that these two young filmmakers actually hired actors for, and we'd never done that before at the museum, to render the voices that Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor had captured in American Exodus. And their ear for dialect, and how it's rendered, then allowed these actors to read these words with such an extraordinary anchor in a remote time and place. It also includes Lange's voice.

How did you approach Lange's widespread legacy?
She is known as a photographer of people, and that's well deserved, but she also understood how people could leave the imprint of people in the landscape, and whether that's the landscape in the traditional sense or the remnants of people: signs and posters and billboards and announcements. She understood that to represent humanity, it wasn't only told through the human face - although that was a central aspect of her attention - but also that people's concerns and people's lives were also effectively conveyed through the things that they created and left around.

In the government work section in the beginning, she's showing the shelters that people built and how they bathe, where they go to the bathroom, how they protect themselves from the elements - and these are as revealing, or they can be as revealing, of desperate circumstances as people themselves.

If I'm being really honest, it wasn't difficult as a curator to find a balance because it's there in her work, and fortunately the museum's collection is so rich that we were able to find - whether it's the photo [of the] tractor out where the deep, furrowed, infertile land is plowed up to the door of the likely abandoned house, or in the signs by the side of the road where you see what might have been - the disconnect between [what] the advertisement agencies are marketing to and the realities of these people's lives. She did it so well, it made it really easy for me.
What do you hope that viewers of this exhibition take away?
Just as the time when Lange worked was one of extraordinary challenge and deprivation and injustice and suffering, we, every day, think about what her work brings to our current thinking of the world. I am humbled by the brilliant words all these people wrote about Lange's work, so I will quote them.

There is one photograph that she made called "Grayson, San Joaquin Valley, California" that is of a corpse in the doorway of a church, where the top half has been wrapped, but the feet rest almost as if they are crossed in relaxation. Kimberly Juanita Brown wrote, "Immersed in the banality of death and the gravity of life, images like this one surpass our requisite command of the visual, they haunt us like a book-length poem memorized over time."

Sally Mann wrote about an image from a series of photographs that Lange did on the public defender system in California. The picture is completely in focus except for the blur of his fingers. Sally took one look at that and said,

"This picture is roaring; we are dying.

We die of the piercing shaft of wall-panel joinery that plunges straight into the bowed head. The unsparing seat of the wooden chairs, with their jail-cell vertical elements. The poignancy of the pressed hand. We are dying of the grief we share with all too many defendants, the helplessness and desolation on the other side of silence."

I find myself thinking of all these people unfortunately suffering and dying, and how Lange's photographs, they bring us one step closer to being able to think about this and to help us understand how art helps us process suffering and grieving and even death. And for that, I feel so grateful to her, and to think about this.

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These Great Depression-Era Photos Feel Eerily Familiar

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Dorothea Lange may be one of the most iconic photographers in the history of the world. Her most famous image, known as "Migrant Mother," was taken while Lange was in government service during the Great Depression and has been used widely in ads, book covers, and historical documents.

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Lygia Clark Transformed Contemporary Art in Brazil and Beyond - Artsy

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Lygia Clark Transformed Contemporary Art in Brazil and Beyond - Artsy

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Clark made her breakthrough in 1954, when she became aware of what she termed the "organic line" ( linha orgânica) that separated the picture from its frame, claiming the latter, including its seams, as part of the pictorial surface. This set off the deconstruction of the flat vertical plane and the outward expansion that progressively unfolded into her modular and interactive series "Bichos" ("Critters," 1960-66). From 1963 on, the artist would push phenomenology further in propositions like the breakthrough Caminhando ("Walking," 1963), the series "Nostalgia do corpo" ("Nostalgia of the Body," 1966-69), and the therapeutic "Estruturação do self" ("Structuring of the Self," 1976-88), whose sensorial and relational objects induced alternate perceptions of space-time ( espaço-tempo), a concept that is at the core of Clark's oeuvre.

The artist's extended sojourns in Paris (1950-52, 1964, and 1968-76) helped bolster her international reputation, as did her 1965 solo show at Signals Gallery in London and her presentation at the 1968 Venice Biennale. At the latter, she was one of the artists representing Brazil, exhibiting a whopping 82 works, including 30 "Bichos" plus the large installation A Casa é o Corpo: penetração, ovulação, germinação e expulsão ("The House is the Body: Penetration, Ovulation, Germination, Expulsion," 1968).

Clark's global profile also received a boost from referential exhibitions that aligned her work with

,

, Constructivism, and other canonical modernist traditions. They began in 1960 with 's "Concrete Art: Fifty Years of Development," held at the Helmhaus Zürich, where Clark was featured alongside 113 artists including

,

,

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,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

, and others-only nine of whom were women and, of those, four of whom were Brazilian. Such shows ultimately positioned Clark as the legitimate heir and advancer to Mondrian, Van Doesburg, and Bill's Concrete tradition-the vital link between intellectual, contained, and organic, affective geometry.

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How Lygia Clark Transformed Contemporary Art in Brazil and Beyond

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Clark made her breakthrough in 1954, when she became aware of what she termed the "organic line" ( linha orgânica) that separated the picture from its frame, claiming the latter, including its seams, as part of the pictorial surface.

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How Can You Make Art for ‘Trying Times’? For the Artist Couple Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe, It's All About Teamwork

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How Can You Make Art for ‘Trying Times’? For the Artist Couple Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe, It's All About Teamwork

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Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe, partners in life and-occasionally-art, met in 1995 at the Skowhegan residency in Maine. Now, a quarter of a century later, the two have returned to the northeastern state for their first institutional collaboration.

Occupying the middle gallery at the Portland Museum of Art (PMA), their show, " Tabernacles for Trying Times ," is loosely conceived as a kind of sanctuary where visitors can come together and worship at the altar of contemporary art.

The exhibition centered on a pair of works the two artists co-created for the occasion, including a sprawling, ceiling-mounted installation and a series of spiritually inclined drawings.

The installation looks like what you might expect from the pair: a network of woven fibers is connected by drooping pieces of fabric that have been painted by Moyer. It feels like the work of a spider viewed through the lens of an acid trip.

The other collaboration-a symmetrical set of illustrations depicting ornate eaves and cornices that together form a kind altar-is less obvious, but not less interesting. It's what happens when two well-established artists meet in the middle and see what happens.

Shortly after the PMA exhibition opened, Moyer and Pepe sat down with Artnet News to discuss their collaborative process.
How did the show come about? What was the idea behind it?
Carrie Moyer: The genesis of the PMA show was that the curator, Jaime D. Simone, read Sharon Louden's book The Artist as Culture Producer , in which I wrote about meeting Sheila at Skowhegan. [Simone] was tasked with programming artists who had some relationship with Maine. We've both been to Skowhegan a lot-I'm a governor there-and Sheila's been to the Haystack School of Crafts many times too . So we have a great love of Maine and associate it with good things. I mentioned in that essay that Sheila and I had worked on some small collaborations together while doing residencies at Yaddo and at the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

Shiela Pepe: Most recently we collaborated at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, which is in Umbria. That was more focused because we already knew we would have the PMA show. We got the residency and then we got the show and it was like, "Oh, this is perfect."
Did you apply to those residencies together?
SP: We apply as collaborators. The first time, when we went to Yaddo around 2011, it was like, "Oh, this'll be fun. We'll do a little collaboration and see how it goes." We made our own work and then we did a few things together.

CM: It was very modest to begin with because we weren't sure if it would work. We'd basically pass the object back and forth between the studios. Then we went to the Joan Mitchell Foundation in New Orleans and again, we pitched it as a collaboration. We were there for a month together in this huge studio, which was insane. And we were more ambitious.
You collaborated on two new artworks for the PMA exhibition as well, including the central piece, Parlor for the People. What was the process of making that like?
SP: This was the first time where it was like, "Carrie, can I paint? Give me a brush!" Then I would paint and she would say, "Okay, let me fix it." [Laughs.]

CM: Yeah, I was the cleanup woman. [Laughs.] We have very different aesthetics. The works we made are funky and precise in certain ways. They feel like they're made by a third artist, you know? I think if you pull any of that collaborative work into a space that was devoted to either one of us, it would look like it was a sibling.

SP: If we had a kid and that person made art, that's probably what it would look like.

CM: The other collaboration we did for this show is this installation of 26 drawings made when we were at this residency in Italy and traveling around and looking at churches. One of the interests that Sheila and I share is in how compositional devices in religious art operate, like a mandala or an altarpiece-these things that sort of fix your gaze in a space that's meant for meditation. So that was something that we played with in this work on paper, which is called Opera Buffa . You'll notice they're paired drawings-we each would make a pair and then as we got towards the center, we worked together on some, passing the drawing back and forth, exquisite corpse-style.
If I were to come across Opera Buffa What about the title of the show, "Tabernacle for Trying Times"? The word tabernacle has varied meanings across different cultures and religions. What does it signify to you? in a gallery, I wouldn't think it was done by Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe. It doesn't necessarily look like your other work.
The thing that our collaborations rely on is setting up a system before we do it. So each time we work together, we have a different formula. It took us two weeks to sit on all this new information we'd been getting in Europe, all the things we'd been looking at. Finally, Sheila came up with the thought of creating our own altarpiece because we're both interested in symmetry and Sheila has a native relationship to religion-she grew up Catholic. I am interested in a more ambient kind of spirituality. I'm always referring to mid-century nature painting in my work-people like Marsden Hartley and Arthur Dove. Those are people I think of as being my ancestors.

SP: Also, because we both grew up in modernism, there's this understanding for us that art can be a secular place of spirituality. I don't think I understood transcendence as a kid, but art always felt expansive; it felt like church to me.
When you see all these works from different periods in the same space, what effect does that have?
CM: I think we've both been pondering that, wondering, "Really, that's what we did? How did that end up being the result?" For me, part of it was the fact that we were in this place where all of this stuff was so real and vivid. I don't think I had a chance to process it and turn it into a kind of abstraction.

CM: When we were brainstorming about how we would collaborate using the gallery after we'd done the site visit, we talked about how there's a natural gathering space in the room we were offered. So Sheila and I just started brainstorming, asking, "What are the values we want to communicate?" The phrase "big tent" came up-the idea of creating a space for all kinds of people. We were also thinking about tent revivals in the 19th century.

SP: There' s also the Jewish Tabernacles that were created when Rome destroyed the temple. They were portable tents that people would worship and use as a kind of protective space. We had a hunch that everybody could buy into this word.

CM: I grew up in a very nonreligious family, so the word tabernacle gave me the creeps for a while. [Laughs.]

CM: I'm someone who always thinks every painting looks really different from the last painting, even though they totally don't. So when I was looking at all that work, the feeling I had was, "Oh, I really do know what I'm doing. I really have a group of ideas that I've had for quite a while." This back-and-forth play between the kinds of space that can exist in a painting-that's really the thing that gets me very excited. The way a painting can have one pocket where you're convinced of its spatial reality-you feel like you can stick your hand in it-and then you move your eyes and it's like suddenly flat. The idea that this thing could be destabilizing-I'm really interested in that. From painting to painting in that show, it's happening in different ways.

SP: I'm asking the question too. I loved seeing those little paintings that you made 15 years ago next to something that you made last year or the year before. They looked amazing together. And they had a related palette. Even though you can put out a body of work where, in one room, every painting looks different than the other, there are these categories that keep piling up. That's something that I love about my own work, but it's just much more scattered, you know? My interests are more scattered. And Carrie's a better craftsperson in painting than I am in fiber-on purpose. She's very interested in the craft of painting. I am too, but as a visitor.

CM: Sheila doesn't like this idea of having any kind of expertise. Though recently, she has a renewed interest in making quote-unquote "real sculpture" that stands on its own. She's made furniture off and on for maybe the last 10 years in different shows, some of it out of crocheting. But the sculpture in this show is different-this is a very formidable object that doesn't feel like it's gonna disappear when you pull a string.
Editor's Note: the Portland Museum of Art will be closed through April 13. Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times " is currently scheduled to be on view at the Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland, Maine, February 7-June 7, 2020.
SP: It felt amazing to make something that was not possibly temporary or overtly ephemeral! I think it's a couple of things. One is Carrie's influence. I just realized this the other day actually. I always see Carrie's paintings as these amazing objects because I just can't see painting as anything else first. I feel like I'm joining you and working towards this new threshold problem, which is making things pretty much alone in the studio without an army of 40 people making your work. To just make something on your own with your own hands feels so luxurious. It's less about the cult of the individual and more about the mom and pop business-scale of making good stuff.

As we move from the art world to the art industry, this is the line in the sand that I now want to draw. I also realized a couple of years ago that destroying your own work is just generally not a good idea.

CM: It defeats the feminist core of the work.

SP: Yeah, erasing yourself is not a good idea. On the other hand, it does express a value that I really believe in-that is, that art can have all of the hardcore formal attributes that we want it to, but it doesn't need to be there forever. It can disintegrate and go back to the earth.

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How Can You Make Art for 'Trying Times'? For the Artist Couple Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe, It's All About Teamwork

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe, partners in life and-occasionally-art, met in 1995 at the Skowhegan residency in Maine. Now, a quarter of a century later, the two have returned to the northeastern state for their first institutional collaboration.

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Lettering for Beginners: Free Hand Lettering Practice Sheets — Marvy Uchida

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Lettering for Beginners: Free Hand Lettering Practice Sheets — Marvy Uchida

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Lettering for Beginners: Free Hand Lettering Practice Sheets

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Have you ever heard the phrase "Practice makes progress?" Well, learn to love it because that's the motto for getting great at hand lettering! It doesn't matter if you've been working on your hand lettering alphabet for weeks or months, the simple truth is that the only way to get better fast is to practice, practice, practice.

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Tawapa offers the largest variety of beautiful, organic handmade body jewelry for both stretched and non-stretched ears.

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Solid 14k Rose Gold Seamless Continuous Ring Small Diameter

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Solid 14k Rose Gold Seamless Continuous Ring Small Diameter

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The Exacto Knife: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (but were afraid to ask) - Smallhouse Models

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The Exacto Knife: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (but were afraid to ask) - Smallhouse Models

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It's just a simple hobby exacto knife, right? There can't be much to it. Well, that's sorta true. It is a simple enough knife so that even beginners can use it with success. If you take a bit of time to learn all about these knives and the proper way to cut and care for them and their accessories, you will graduate from amateur to professional.

Let's start at the beginning. What is an Exacto knife? X-ACTO is the brand, and it is a type of hobby or craft knife. Over time, the brand has devolved into the term Exacto, like what happened with 'Kleenex' and 'facial tissues'. There are many other brands that offer a similar knife. The exacto knife might also be called a type of utility knife. That term generally refers to a larger type of knife with a retractable blade, commonly also called a 'box cutter'. A Polish immigrant, Sundel Doniger's medical tool company, originally invented X-ActoThe Exacto knife in the 1930s. An in-house designer needed a sharp edge to retouch a print advertisement, he created a hobby knife similar to scalpels.

Exacto Knife Blades

One of the biggest assets to the exacto knife is its replaceable and interchangeable blades. When a blade gets dull, or the tip breaks off, or you are simply switching projects and need a different type of cut, the blade can be swapped out for a new one.

There are many different blades. The typical ones you will likely use are either the #2 or the slightly smaller and finer #11. The most common one for us miniaturists will be the #11. Both are available in bulk, and it's not a bad idea to stock up on them. I find they are rather interchangeable, but you might develop a preference for your particular projects.

The #11 has an extremely sharp point for fine angle cutting and stripping. The #2 is just a larger version of #11 blade. Its sharp angle is best for precision cutting of medium to heavy-weight materials. The #11-M is a modified #11 with a broader top for a stronger, more flexible point. If you find you break your tips often, the #11-M might be worth giving a try. For doing extremely fine work, a #16 might come in handy. The blade is offset forward a little. This let's you easily see what you are cutting.

As for the rest of these, unless you do carving or whittling, you probably won't need them. If you are interested in reading about each of these blades' specific uses, visit the art supply company Dick Blick.

Exacto Knife Components

In addition to the blade, the exacto knife has a few other pieces to it. These are called the handle, which is the part you hold. The collar is the part that you twist to tighten or remove the blade. Lastly the collet is the part that holds the blade in place.

There are plenty of different handles available. The typical craft #2 knife seen after our second paragraph is most common. But also available is the slightly fancier design as seen in our main image. Heavy duty carving handles (#5) are available. There are even some newer ones that provide cushions or finger grips. Any of these knife handles will work well for crafts. Unless you are wood carving, I'd leave the red #5 handle on the store shelf, because you won't need it.

The position of the collar can either be right up near the collet and the blade at the tip, or it can be all the way at the back. Personally, I prefer the slightly cushy handle with the collar at the back. I find I'd rather not put all the pressure into the knurled metal. I like my fingerprints as they are, not with an additional cross-hatch pattern. It also helps when cutting curves. That way I'm not accidentally loosening my blade when I twist the knife to go around a curve.

The way the exacto knife holds the blade tightly in place is by a screw tightening system. The collar winds up against the collet, which has the blade shoved down into its slit. As the collar gets higher on the collet, the slit closes up around the blade, pinching it in place. Before using an exacto knife, it is always a good idea to check if the collar can be tightened. You do not want to have the blade come loose while you are cutting!

Tightening and Changing the Blade

To tighten the collar on a typical #1 or #2 exacto knife, ensure that the blade is pushed all the way into the collet. Hold the collar with your non-dominant hand, and twist the handle clockwise until you can no longer easily twist it. For knife styles with the collar on the end of the handle, check that the blade is well inside the collet. Hold the flat of the blade between your index and thumb on your non-dominant hand, and with your other hand, twist the collar tight. Do not use a tool to twist past what you are capable of doing on your own. This will apply too much pressure and will make it nearly impossible to change the blade later. It also could potentially damage your knife.

To change the blade, you repeat the same process in reverse and loosen the collar. You do not need to take the exacto knife entirely apart to swap out the blade. Just loosen it enough that you can pull it from the collet and insert a new one. Do not force the blade out, if it doesn't come out easily, loosen the collar more.

Sometimes, if the collar has been over-tightened, the blade will remain stuck in the collet even after you've entirely disassembled the knife. This is more common in old or dirty knives and ones with plastic or rubbery collets. At this point, you should very carefully press the knife blade into a stiff material. Then gently rock the collet up and down carefully until the blade is freed. It may be tempting to try to simply yank the blade from the collet using only your hands. Do not do this. When the blade does get free, it is quite likely that you will cut yourself in the process. There are no good outcomes to doing it this way, so please *please* don't do it!

Disposing of the blade

Once the blade is out, it needs to be properly disposed of. Either put it in a sharps container (a sealed plastic box) or wrap it in duct or masking tape. The official refill container comes with new blades and a slot for the old blades to disappear forever into. It's quite handy. Do NOT simply throw the blade into the trash.

If the blade is not yet spent, find a safe way to store it for reuse. Some people sharpen their blades instead of throwing them out when they get dull. There are a bunch of YouTube videos on how to do that if you are interested. If the tip is broken or there are nicks in the blade, it can't be saved. With the previous blade properly taken care of, you can get a new blade. Insert it, back end in, into the collet. Then tighten the collar as instructed above per your handle style.

If you find yourself often having to retighten a collar that repeatedly loosens on its own, stop. The collet and collar threads are worn out and it is time to get a new exacto knife. Remove the blade, say a few words over your lost faithful friend and toss it out. Many of these knives are made of either stainless steel or aluminum, so you might be able to recycle it.

Get a Cutting Mat

To use your exacto knife properly, you will also need a surface to cut on and a straight edge or ruler. The best cutting surface is a self-healing cutting mat. They are available at any craft store, and come in various sizes or colors. A popular brand is Alvin. The standard color is green, but they also come in black or a transparent blue. Other brands make similar sizes and colors as the Alvin mat. I've seen mats as small as 4 inches by 6 inches and also ones big enough to cover entire tables. I personally have a 12″ by 18″. It has always been small enough to be convenient, yet large enough for almost all of my projects. Before that I owned an 18″ by 24″ and it worked well enough in architecture school. Through poor care, I ruined it and had to buy my second mat.

Self-healing mats HATE heat. I warped my mat simply by having my laptop sit on it. Do not ever set anything hot on your mat, such as a hot drink or a bowl of hot food. Do not iron on top of it. Don't leave it in your car. Don't store it in the attic. Do not leave it in your cat's favorite sunny window napping spot. Heat will warp these mats, and most of the time, they can not be straightened. There have been a few cases where people are able to reheat their warped mats. They manage to flattened their mats before they cool. Doing so can just as easily warp them further. Do not chance it.

Additionally, these mats do not like extreme cold either. Don't leave it in the basement, or in the garage in the winter, or anywhere else that gets colder than 65°F or so. A cold mat will get brittle and can crack. Also, a dried out mat can become brittle and crack. These mats are made of vinyl and are mostly non-porous but not entirely. Dried out mats dull your blades faster than new or reconditioned mats. This is because they don't self-heal as well as they used to.

An old mat will benefit from a room temperature soak in a water bath for 15-20 minutes. Make sure that the water is NOT hot, err on the side of too cold. Use 1/4 cup of white vinegar for every gallon of water in the bath. Make sure that the tub you are soaking your mat in is large enough that your mat can lay perfectly flat. If you have any gunk on your mat, maybe fibers from cloth or glue or paint, use a squirt of mild dishwashing liquid (like Ivory) and gently scrub the mat with a soft sponge or cloth. Do not use the green side of a yellow sponge, and definitely no brillo pads. Let it dry flat, and never store it hanging, standing on edge, or rolled.

Always Use A Straightedge

The other tool you'll usually need is some sort of straight edged metal ruler. It doesn't have to have ruler markings on it, but it does need to be metal. You use it to make sure your cutting edge is perfectly straight. A plastic ruler is not stiff enough to hold up to a blade skipping. You don't want that exacto headed anywhere near your fingers! It's also quite possible to shave tiny bits off a plastic ruler over time, resulting in lines that aren't even close to being straight. Bottom line, just get metal.

The traditional metal straightedge is a metal ruler with a cork backing. I have an old 12″ one, and I picked up two cute 6″ ones during school and somehow acquired and then lost an 18″ one. Choose a size that works well with your project and what you feel comfortable using. The length of the ruler ought to be at least 4″-6″ inches longer than the cut you are making. A ruler that is too short for the project can easily slide around. For this reason, I always use my tiny 6″ rulers cork side down for extra grip, even though it costs me in precision.

A cork backed ruler can be used right side up or upside down. The cork backing provides extra grip to your material, and it is extremely important that your ruler not move while you are cutting, so it's often good to use the cork side. If you are making insanely precise cuts, however, flipping the ruler over has its benefits. Because the cork raises the ruler up off the cutting material, it's possible that your cut won't be exactly where you intended it.

You will need to ensure that you are holding the exacto knife entirely perpendicular to the material so you don't accidentally cut under your ruler. Another issue with using the ruler cork side down is the shadow line. Because the ruler is raised up, a shadow can be cast on your material where you intended to cut, making it hard to see where you planned on cutting. This can usually be avoided by ensuring that your lighting source is in front of you and to your dominant side, but we can't always control that, so be aware of this drawback.

A lesser known option you have for straightedges is a t-section or safe-t cutting guide. It is basically a metal cutting ruler with a perpendicular guard coming out of the center. This is to make it impossible for your fingers and the blade to come in contact with each other. My dad got me two of these, a 11″ and an 22″, early on in my architecture classes, and all my classmates were jealous. Seven years of design school all-nighters, and I've never had an accident with an exacto knife. These straightedges can come with ruler markings on them, but mine do not. Some have fancy curve shapes to keep your fingers safe, but I find that the symmetrical sides make it more convenient to use: my straightedge is never facing the wrong way to protect my fingers.

Holding the Exacto Knife

Hold the exacto knife the same way you would hold a pencil or pen, not as a sketch artist does, but regularly as you would to write. Hold the knife securely but not in a death grip. You will be cutting toward yourself. Some experienced professionals are able to cut side to side accurately, but cutting toward you is best as it gives you the most control and the best vantage point.

Most lines can be cut from either direction by simply rotating your material, so you need to choose which way is best for your cut. One way to decide is to put the side that has more material left after the cut under your straightedge. This will give your ruler more to hold on to so it won't slip. Another good way to decide which way to cut is to use the ruler to protect the part you want to keep. A cut mark can easily go astray away from the ruler, but it's quite difficult to cut under the ruler.

After you've positioned your cutting material, you need to place the ruler. If you are right-handed, place the ruler to the left of the line you want to cut, and vice versa for left-handers. Align the straight edge with your cutting line, and only offset it away from the line half a blade-width, so your cut will be perfectly on the line. When you are holding your straightedge in place for a cut, apply as much pressure as you can into holding that straightedge still. It is imperative that your ruler not be able to move or slip. This is when accidents occur. If your knuckles aren't turning white from the force, you probably aren't pressing hard enough.

Cutting with an Exacto Knife

Now you are ready to start your cut. Place the tip of your blade at the beginning of your cut. Do not angle the knife left or right, hold it perfectly parallel to the ruler. Angling it either direction won't put the blade on your cutting line, and also will give you an angled edge cut (not generally what is needed, but keep that in mind for special cases).

Lower the handle until there is only a small amount of space left between the rest of your blade and the cutting material. It should be a bit shallower of an angle than what you typically use to write with. Having it angled too high increases the likelihood of your tip breaking. Your first cut should be very light. You just want to make a cutting score for your blade to follow on the second cut. Your first cut is the most important, so put more focus on making it straight than trying to make sure it cuts all the way through. You shouldn't go fast, but going too slow makes it easier to have wobbles in your line. Go about the speed you would go if you were using a highlighter on a line of text.

For your second pass, apply medium pressure, and it should cut all the way through, though some thick cardstock materials might require a third pass. If you can't make it in two or three cuts, either your blade is dull, or you are trying to cut something that might be better cut with a different tool. Do not just apply more pressure. A knife under that much force is bound to skip or make an incorrect cut. Don't risk your fingers, either change your blade or find a different tool for the job. Do not just keep making more passes over it either, this will dull your blade and make your cut fuzzy. A clean cut is what we are after, and you can't make those by repeatedly chewing at the material with multiple passes.

If you are making a long cut, you will need to reposition your ruler holding hand during the cut. Hold the top half of the straightedge first, and cut halfway down your material. Then, without lifting your ruler hand off the ruler, or moving your knife at all, walk your hand down the cut. To do this, keep your thumb tightly pressed against the ruler and lift up on your index/middle/ring fingers, then bring them down to where your thumb is. Have them take the place of your thumb, then move your thumb to be lower on the ruler. Once your hand is repositioned, and your ruler has not moved, you can continue the cut. Repeat as necessary for the length of your cut.

Some cuts you can't make with a straightedge, like a rounded corner, or a circle, or a weird squiggle. Sometimes you can find objects to use to help you, like soup cans or coins, but other times you are just going to have to rely on your own skill. To help you get better at freehanding, I've found an exacto knife cutting practice worksheet that you can download, print, and practice with. Practice makes perfect!

Once you are done with cutting, you need to safely store the knife. Many knives come with covers similar to a pen cap, and they work quite well. If your knife does not have a cover, you can remove the blade and place it in the exacto knife backwards, so the cutting edge is inside the collet, and nothing too sharp is exposed. Do not leave your exacto knife somewhere it can roll away or off a table. A drawer or tray is best, as long as the blade is covered.

That's all there is to it!

Now that you know all about how to use and care for your exacto knife, mat, and straightedge, you'll be a pro in no time!

If you liked any of the tools I was using and think they might be helpful in your own miniatures adventure, I have Amazon Affiliate links to them for you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Should you choose to purchase any of these, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission. Know that I only recommend products, tools, services and learning resources I've personally used and believe are genuinely helpful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to purchase them. Most of all, I would never advocate for buying something that you can't afford, don't feel comfortable with, or that you're not yet ready to use.

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The Exacto Knife: Everything You Always Wanted to Know (but were afraid to ask) - Smallhouse Models

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It's just a simple hobby exacto knife, right? There can't be much to it. Well, that's sorta true. It is a simple enough knife so that even beginners can use it with success. If you take a bit of time to learn all about these knives and the proper way to cut and care for them and their accessories, you will graduate from amateur to professional.

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The Art of Intricate Paper Cutting | X-ACTO

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The Art of Intricate Paper Cutting | X-ACTO

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Cutting thin lines in a paper is one of the most challenging aspects of an intricate papercutting design. The following tips will help you if you are just learning to master paper cutting:

Paper: Begin with thicker paper. It will hold the shape better and withstand a cut design more easily.

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Support: While you are cutting out your design, you may want to try and support your paper by using your other hand to hold in place. This will add stability while you cut.

Plan: Finally, make sure to plan for extra support structures in your paper cut design. Support structure pieces will allow for more intricate cuts and will help will more fragile areas. They can also help keep loose parts in place before mounting. It is a good rule of thumb to cut these out first so that you don't forget to leave them intact. Also, keep in mind, you can always cut away support structures once your final piece is mounted.

With a little planning, lots of practice and patience, you will be well on your way to achieving more and more intricate paper cut designs.

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The Art of Intricate Paper Cutting | X-ACTO

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Cutting thin lines in a paper is one of the most challenging aspects of an intricate papercutting design. The following tips will help you if you are just learning to master paper cutting: Paper: Begin with thicker paper. It will hold the shape better and withstand a cut design more easily.

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Artist Graphite Drawing Pencils - What Pencils Do You Need

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Artist Graphite Drawing Pencils - What Pencils Do You Need

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Graphite is the dark gray material usually found encased within a wooden pencil. It comes in many different forms, but most commonly we find it within a pencil. We've all used them to write and draw and most of us feel very comfortable with a graphite pencil in hand.

Although most of us have heard someone refer to the material within a graphite pencil as "lead", you may be surprised to learn that there isn't any lead there at all. Instead, graphite is a form of carbon and is completely safe for drawing.

In this lesson, we'll take a look at the different grades of graphite, why they are designated as they are, and which pencils you may need (and the ones you don't) to find success with graphite drawing.

Graphite Grades

Graphite is produced in various grades or degrees according to the softness or hardness of the material. Different grades produce different types of marks. The grade of the pencil is usually designated on the side or the end of the pencil. For drawing pencils, this designation is an alphanumeric value.

Writing pencils differ in how they are categorized and usually only feature a number. For example, a #2 pencil is a standard writing pencil - which happens to be of the same softness as an "HB" drawing pencil.

Grades of drawing pencils are organized in a scale based on softness or hardness. An "HB" pencil is found directly in the center of the scale.

"H" pencils feature harder graphite. (The "H" stands for "hard".) "B" pencils feature softer graphite. (The "B" stands for "black".)

The number found in front of the letter reveals just how soft or hard the pencil is. In other words, a "4H" pencil is harder than a "2H" pencil while a "4B" pencil is softer than a "2B" pencil.

Harder pencils produce lighter marks since less of the material is released as pressure is applied. Softer pencils make darker marks since more of the material is released. Therefore, a "4H" pencil will produce lighter marks than an "2H" pencil while a "4B" pencil will make darker marks than a "2B" pencil.

What is an F Pencil?

The "F" pencil is similar in mark to an "HB" pencil, only slightly lighter. Like an "HB" pencil, it is capable of producing darker and lighter marks, but without any extremes. The graphite material found in an "F" pencil is slightly harder than an "HB" pencil meaning that it can stay sharp for a longer period of use. For this reason, this pencil is designated as "fine" which is why this pencil is labeled with an "F".

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Different Grades

A clear advantage of the "H" pencils is that they can stay sharp for a longer period of use. In contrast, "B" pencils tend to dull quickly due to their softness.

"H" pencils are better suited for filling the tooth or texture of the paper, resulting in smoother transitions of tone and value. "B" pencils fill the tooth to a lesser degree, making the texture of the paper more noticeable. By combining "H" and "B" pencils in a drawing, smooth transitions of tone can be developed without compromising a full range of value.

"H" pencils are clearly capable of producing light marks, but are limited in the range of tone. Putting more pressure on a "4H" pencil will not result in a very dark mark. "B" pencils, however allow for a much broader range of possibilities. A "4B" pencil for example can produce lighter marks by reducing pressure, but is also capable of producing darker marks with additional pressure.

You may be tempted to use a hard pencil such as a "4H" for a preliminary sketch since the mark is light. If your pressure is light, then this is an acceptable practice. But if too much pressure is applied to the pencil, then grooves can be created in the surface of the paper. These grooves become difficult to fill in or cover with softer graphite applications. This can lead to noticeable inconsistencies in the drawing.

Another factor to consider is "graphite shine". Graphite is naturally shiny. However, this shine can be reduced if the graphite is applied using a layered approach. Lighter pencils may be used earlier in the process followed by darker pencils. Even and consistent pressure should be applied with each layer so that the tooth of the paper is not destroyed. (Flattening the tooth often increases the shine.)

"B" pencils tend to produce more shine compared to "H" pencils so it's recommended to gradually increase the contrast in a drawing using a layered approach.

Which Drawing Pencils Should You Use?

The pencils that are best for you to use will vary depending on several factors. These factors include:

The amount of pressure that you naturally place on the pencil.

The texture of the paper.

The approach that you take for developing the drawing.

Some folks place a heavy amount of pressure on the pencil naturally. For these artists, a "4B" pencil may be the darkest pencil that is required. For those that naturally produce lighter marks, a much darker "6B" or "8B" may be required.

The surface of the paper also plays a role in the pencils that you choose. Papers with a lighter tooth (smoother surface) may be more receptive to harder pencils and show less of the texture when softer pencils are applied. Papers with heavier textures may be more receptive to softer pencils but reveal more of the surface texture as they are applied.

For quick sketchy drawings, usually only one drawing pencil is required to produce an adequate range of value. If this approach is taken, then a softer "2B" pencil may be all that is needed. For more refined drawings that require a layered approach, several hard and soft pencils may be required.

No matter what the circumstance, every single graphite grade is not required. Most artists will only need a few pencils to be successful. Because softer pencils have a bit more range, most of the pencils that an artist will use fall on the "B" side of the scale. I suggest the following grades - "2H, H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B".

Pencil Alternatives

Pencils produced by different manufacturers vary in quality and behavior. Inevitably, each artist will discover their favorites. I have found that Derwent Graphic, Prismacolor Turquoise, and Staedtler Mars Lumograph are among the best choices. But even with these great pencil choices available, there are other options.

My favorite alternative drawing pencil is the General's Layout pencil. This pencil is capable of producing rich dark tones but without dulling quickly. Because this pencil is harder than most equivalent "B" pencils, it does a better job filling in the tooth of the surface. As far as darkness goes, this pencil is most similar to a "4B" pencil. Because this pencil has such a broad range, it can sometimes be used alone or with just one lighter pencil.

Summing it Up

In any drawing, creating a full range of value should be one of the priorities of the artist. By using a variety of degrees of graphite, we are better prepared to develop a full range of tone. However, we must understand that every grade is not required to produce the necessary contrast and that there are advantages and disadvantages each grade of graphite.

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One of the most beautiful qualities of a pencil is its forgiveness. A mistake made in graphite can be neatly swept away with one of pencil's BFFs - the humble eraser.

Let's dive into the soft, squishy world of erasers and talk types, purposes and favorites, and determine some guidelines for picking out an eraser to clean up you work.

A Little Background (which you can read more about in The Pencil Perfect!)

The original, original eraser was actually crusty bread - early graphite users would scratch their mistakes off with stale chunks. In 1770, Joseph Priestly discovered that the elastic gum that came from the bark of the Hevea brasiliensis tree was more effective than yesterday's sandwich for rubbing out mistakes (thus why erasers are still called "rubbers" in many parts of the world). The trend caught on, and eventually Italian pumice was added make erasers more effective due to the abrasive qualities of the pumice combined with the stickiness of the rubber. Pumice is also where the iconic eraser pink color comes from - the substance was a pinkish red, which of course tinged the rubber it was mixed into. Hello, Pink Pearl.

In 1858 Hyman Lipman patented the first pencil with an attached eraser (or rather, inserted eraser - the eraser was glued inside one end of the pencil, rather than attached with a ferrule), which is considered to be the birthday of the traditional pencil with eraser we have come to know and love - and why we celebrate March 30th as National Pencil Day!

Erasers have come a long way since the days of hard bread. Most are made out of synthetic or plasticized materials, but there are still a few natural rubber erasers to be had in the world.

Natural rubber: These erasers are slightly abrasive, and leave quite a bit of dust behind. Abrasion plus the friction of rubbing act as sort of a broom to pick off particles ground into paper. They are nicely effective for graphite, but do have a tendency to dry out after a while and may not be the gentlest on some papers. But they do have that nostalgic rubber smell!

Synthetic rubber: These are made to mimic the feel of natural rubber, but are made with synthetic compounds and plasticizers, making them cheaper and more widely available than natural rubber. Synthetic erasers tend work similarly to natural rubber, but can be a little less effective. On the bright side, these won't dry out and they tend to make a teeny bit less dust.

Art Gum: Gum erasers are either made with synthetic rubbers or vulcanized corn oil. These are made to be especially gentle on paper and are great for erasing large areas. They are, however, very very messy as they tend to crumble to pieces when you are erasing, but at least the larger crumbles can be reused.

Plastic: This is where it can get a little complicated and confusing, as there are so many different types of materials and processes to make plastic erasers. They are commonly made with vinyl, polymer or PVC, though there are also non-PVC types that act like plastic but are made with synthetic rubbers. Plastic erasers do not dry out and tend to be fairly gentle on paper and clear graphite and colored pencil away very cleanly. On certain papers (and if the erasers are of cheap quality), plastic erasers can smear graphite around, so you'd need thin edges if you wanted to be very precise. Plastic erasers leave the least amount of dust behind - they actually sort of act as a vacuum and roll the particles into a little ball.

Sand/Ink Erasers: Often made out of rubber mixed with sand or silica, these erasers are the toughest out there - they really are rough enough to scour ink off of paper. That being said, the grittiness of these erasers tears through paper with ease, so they are definitely not all-purpose. These are great, however, for stubborn colored pencil marks.

Kneaded: Commonly found in artists' toolkits, kneaded erasers are made out of very pliable materials and can be shaped to form precise points to erase very small marks. They sort of absorb graphite, making them a good tool for blending, rather than removing.

A Couple Things to Consider:

Pressure - Application of pressure is really important with erasers, which I think is a consideration that is often overlooked. Erasers work with friction; the rubbery materials in an eraser get super heated when you apply pressure, which makes them sticky enough to attract and remove graphite particles. My advice: test the eraser out on scratch paper to determine how much pressure is needed for the type of paper and eraser you're working with - you don't want to just smear the graphite around, but you also don't want to push so hard you tear a hole in your masterpiece.

Application - I just want to get this out of the way: colored pencil can be extremely difficult to erase. Colored pencil pigment can stain the paper, while the wax in the core can sort of bind the color to the sheet. That being said, colored pencil can be a thing to consider when picking out an eraser. Gritty erasers or really high quality plastic erasers work best with colored pencil. If you're working with very soft graphite, I tend to recommend a firm eraser so it doesn't smear too much, but again, a high quality plastic eraser works great here too. For regular, plain old #2 graphite, honestly, just about anything works.

Precision - Eraser edges can be important too if you're looking to only erase tiny areas. For letter writing and illustration, I prefer a mechanical eraser that contains a very very thin eraser meant for precise erasing, so nothing surrounding the area I'm erasing gets messed up. Big block erasers are really great if you're erasing large areas at once.

Mess - Dust! So much dust. If you are really, truly looking to avoid sweeping away bits of eraser dust, then you definitely need a high-quality plastic eraser like the Technik that kneads the eraser bits into one large chunk. Sand erasers and gum erasers are the messiest culprits, but as we discussed above they can be incredibly useful! I recommend a little brush to sweep away the bits.

Pictured below is a complete swatch test of all the handheld erasers in our store (next time, I'll do one dedicated to just tipped pencils!), sampled on a Mnemosyne notebook with a Semi-Hex #2, a KM-KKS 6B, and the red side of The Editor (AKA a red Supracolor). I was seriously surprised by the Laufer L-125 - the firmness of this eraser gives you excellent precision, and you're able to apply a lot of pressure with these without smearing graphite around. The latest eraser added to our collection, the Sakura Sumo, is also a new favorite - the plastic is just really, really high quality and removed graphite and colored pencil very well.

Here are my favorites after testing out all these erasers:

For colored pencil: Mono Sand (though it did lightly begin tearing my paper); runner up: Caran d'Ache Technik or Sumo

For soft graphite: Sakura Sumo; runner up: Laufer L-125

For #2 graphite: Milan Nata; runner up: L&C rubber erasers

For general purpose: Mono plastic erasers; runner up Laufer Plasti-combi

For precision: Mono Zero; runner up: Laufer-125

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One of the most beautiful qualities of a pencil is its forgiveness. A mistake made in graphite can be neatly swept away with one of pencil's BFFs - the humble eraser.

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Faber Castell : Round Eraser, Platinum-Plated | Jackson's Art Supplies

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Faber Castell : Round Eraser, Platinum-Plated | Jackson's Art Supplies

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Faber Castell : Round Eraser, Platinum-plated

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Faber-Castell's platinum-plated eraser is a stylish and luxurious tool. It is engraved with the Graf von Faber-Castell logo and comes in a presentation box.The two halves of the platinum-plated disk unscrew, allowing you to replace the erase

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Faber Castell : Erasing And Sharpening Knife | Jackson's Art Supplies

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Faber Castell : Erasing And Sharpening Knife | Jackson's Art Supplies

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Faber Castell : Erasing and Sharpening Knife

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This Faber Castell Sharpening Knife is best used with graphite sticks and hard pastels, but can also be used with pencils. You might need to sharpen it slightly if you are using it with pencils which have a thick wooden casing.

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One of the most beautiful qualities of a pencil is its forgiveness. A mistake made in graphite can be neatly swept away with one of pencil's BFFs - the humble eraser.

Let's dive into the soft, squishy world of erasers and talk types, purposes and favorites, and determine some guidelines for picking out an eraser to clean up you work.

A Little Background (which you can read more about in The Pencil Perfect!)

The original, original eraser was actually crusty bread - early graphite users would scratch their mistakes off with stale chunks. In 1770, Joseph Priestly discovered that the elastic gum that came from the bark of the Hevea brasiliensis tree was more effective than yesterday's sandwich for rubbing out mistakes (thus why erasers are still called "rubbers" in many parts of the world). The trend caught on, and eventually Italian pumice was added make erasers more effective due to the abrasive qualities of the pumice combined with the stickiness of the rubber. Pumice is also where the iconic eraser pink color comes from - the substance was a pinkish red, which of course tinged the rubber it was mixed into. Hello, Pink Pearl.

In 1858 Hyman Lipman patented the first pencil with an attached eraser (or rather, inserted eraser - the eraser was glued inside one end of the pencil, rather than attached with a ferrule), which is considered to be the birthday of the traditional pencil with eraser we have come to know and love - and why we celebrate March 30th as National Pencil Day!

Erasers have come a long way since the days of hard bread. Most are made out of synthetic or plasticized materials, but there are still a few natural rubber erasers to be had in the world.

Natural rubber: These erasers are slightly abrasive, and leave quite a bit of dust behind. Abrasion plus the friction of rubbing act as sort of a broom to pick off particles ground into paper. They are nicely effective for graphite, but do have a tendency to dry out after a while and may not be the gentlest on some papers. But they do have that nostalgic rubber smell!

Synthetic rubber: These are made to mimic the feel of natural rubber, but are made with synthetic compounds and plasticizers, making them cheaper and more widely available than natural rubber. Synthetic erasers tend work similarly to natural rubber, but can be a little less effective. On the bright side, these won't dry out and they tend to make a teeny bit less dust.

Art Gum: Gum erasers are either made with synthetic rubbers or vulcanized corn oil. These are made to be especially gentle on paper and are great for erasing large areas. They are, however, very very messy as they tend to crumble to pieces when you are erasing, but at least the larger crumbles can be reused.

Plastic: This is where it can get a little complicated and confusing, as there are so many different types of materials and processes to make plastic erasers. They are commonly made with vinyl, polymer or PVC, though there are also non-PVC types that act like plastic but are made with synthetic rubbers. Plastic erasers do not dry out and tend to be fairly gentle on paper and clear graphite and colored pencil away very cleanly. On certain papers (and if the erasers are of cheap quality), plastic erasers can smear graphite around, so you'd need thin edges if you wanted to be very precise. Plastic erasers leave the least amount of dust behind - they actually sort of act as a vacuum and roll the particles into a little ball.

Sand/Ink Erasers: Often made out of rubber mixed with sand or silica, these erasers are the toughest out there - they really are rough enough to scour ink off of paper. That being said, the grittiness of these erasers tears through paper with ease, so they are definitely not all-purpose. These are great, however, for stubborn colored pencil marks.

Kneaded: Commonly found in artists' toolkits, kneaded erasers are made out of very pliable materials and can be shaped to form precise points to erase very small marks. They sort of absorb graphite, making them a good tool for blending, rather than removing.

A Couple Things to Consider:

Pressure - Application of pressure is really important with erasers, which I think is a consideration that is often overlooked. Erasers work with friction; the rubbery materials in an eraser get super heated when you apply pressure, which makes them sticky enough to attract and remove graphite particles. My advice: test the eraser out on scratch paper to determine how much pressure is needed for the type of paper and eraser you're working with - you don't want to just smear the graphite around, but you also don't want to push so hard you tear a hole in your masterpiece.

Application - I just want to get this out of the way: colored pencil can be extremely difficult to erase. Colored pencil pigment can stain the paper, while the wax in the core can sort of bind the color to the sheet. That being said, colored pencil can be a thing to consider when picking out an eraser. Gritty erasers or really high quality plastic erasers work best with colored pencil. If you're working with very soft graphite, I tend to recommend a firm eraser so it doesn't smear too much, but again, a high quality plastic eraser works great here too. For regular, plain old #2 graphite, honestly, just about anything works.

Precision - Eraser edges can be important too if you're looking to only erase tiny areas. For letter writing and illustration, I prefer a mechanical eraser that contains a very very thin eraser meant for precise erasing, so nothing surrounding the area I'm erasing gets messed up. Big block erasers are really great if you're erasing large areas at once.

Mess - Dust! So much dust. If you are really, truly looking to avoid sweeping away bits of eraser dust, then you definitely need a high-quality plastic eraser like the Technik that kneads the eraser bits into one large chunk. Sand erasers and gum erasers are the messiest culprits, but as we discussed above they can be incredibly useful! I recommend a little brush to sweep away the bits.

Pictured below is a complete swatch test of all the handheld erasers in our store (next time, I'll do one dedicated to just tipped pencils!), sampled on a Mnemosyne notebook with a Semi-Hex #2, a KM-KKS 6B, and the red side of The Editor (AKA a red Supracolor). I was seriously surprised by the Laufer L-125 - the firmness of this eraser gives you excellent precision, and you're able to apply a lot of pressure with these without smearing graphite around. The latest eraser added to our collection, the Sakura Sumo, is also a new favorite - the plastic is just really, really high quality and removed graphite and colored pencil very well.

Here are my favorites after testing out all these erasers:

For colored pencil: Mono Sand (though it did lightly begin tearing my paper); runner up: Caran d'Ache Technik or Sumo

For soft graphite: Sakura Sumo; runner up: Laufer L-125

For #2 graphite: Milan Nata; runner up: L&C rubber erasers

For general purpose: Mono plastic erasers; runner up Laufer Plasti-combi

For precision: Mono Zero; runner up: Laufer-125

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One of the most beautiful qualities of a pencil is its forgiveness. A mistake made in graphite can be neatly swept away with one of pencil's BFFs - the humble eraser.

# data[].attributes.headline
Choosing a Rubber: Comparing Erasers - Jackson's Art Blog

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Choosing a Rubber: Comparing Erasers - Jackson's Art Blog

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Most people assume they know all there is to know about erasers. But there are different types for different jobs and you are more likely to get the result you want if you use the right tool. After testing different types of erasers, different brands and different methods I have discovered a few things that might help you get the most from this small but important drawing implement.

After thinking about the following questions I set out to see if testing would help me sort out the differences between erasers: What rubber removes coloured pencil? Do all rubbers work equally well when 'drawing' into charcoal with a rubber? What's the best rubber to remove the graphite sketch from a finished watercolour painting? Why do some rubbers smear and make a mess? Why do some rubbers damage paper? Is there a rubber that will remove a graphite line in a drawing without lightening the ink line on top?

How will you be using your eraser?

An eraser removes dry medium from a surface (usually paper) but how you will be using it determines which type you will need. There are a number of things to consider when choosing an eraser.
Will you be using your eraser for:

creating highlights in subtractive drawing techniques, often with charcoal

removing mistakes as you start seeing your subject more clearly and your proportions start being more correct

removing your pencil sketch from underneath your finished watercolour or ink drawing

tidying up small areas and edges

removing some layers of colour to fade an area or so you can apply more on top

cleaning up a whole sheet of dirty paper

Also - what kind of paper and media will you be erasing?

Kinds of Erasers

All erasers work by being sticky. All types leave some sort of residue of the material it is made from- powder from the genuine rubber, vinyl from the plastic or oil from the putty. The residue usually isn't a problem but occasionally you might find that it interferes with a drawing or painting process, so just be aware of it.
The two basic types:

1. Putty Rubbers

Kneadable putty erasers work by absorbing colour, they do not wear away. They can be very soft or quite stiff, but are not abrasive.

This type of rubber is the best choice for erasing highlights in charcoal or pastel because plastic and rubber erasers leave pieces that can smear the drawing when you rub them away, but a putty rubber collects the charcoal or pastel inside itself without leaving any crumbs to brush away.

As the graphite, charcoal or colour lifts off the paper and sticks to your eraser, you'll need to fold the eraser in on itself (the 'kneading' part of kneaded eraser) to move the dirty bits away from the surface of your rubber so the eraser won't add marks to your drawing. You may need to tear it apart and put it back together to clean it if it is a stiff one.

The usual method for using a putty rubber is to press and lift. The colour sticks to the putty and is removed without rubbing. They can be moulded to any size and shape you need for removing large areas or small details.

The makes of putty rubber vary a lot in softness- from very soft and melty to super stiff almost like a hard rubber eraser.

One source said a kneaded eraser is made from carbonated rubber and vegetable oil. So that might mean that the ones that feel particularly oily or soft might just have more oil. If you knead them thoroughly the oil seems to become distributed better throughout the rubber and they work much better. A bit of oil is left on the paper when you use these rubbers. You can see this if you brush charcoal over an area that you have pressed with a putty rubber, the charcoal will stick in that area (see the eraser shield photo of dark dots). I also tried rubbing the putty rubber on an area and painting a watercolour wash over the top. The stiffer putty rubbers left marks that accepted more watercolour, so there was a dark patch in the centre of the wash. I expected the opposite, that if it is oil it would leave a greasy mark that would repel water, so that was a surprise. And the ones that were softer (seemed oilier) didn't do this with the watercolour, another surprise.

Some makes come in little boxes to keep them clean and to prevent their oil from transferring to other things.

Kneaded erasers are not very good for completely erasing an area. If you need to completely erase an area - first use a kneaded eraser to lift as much graphite as possible to prevent inadvertently pushing dark graphite farther into the paper, then use a firmer eraser to finish erasing completely.

2. Erasers That Make Crumbs

This group includes rubber erasers, gum erasers and vinyl/plastic erasers that all remove colour from the paper by picking up the colour and shedding parts of themselves. Each has a different hardness.

a. Rubber erasers (they used to be made of natural rubber and now some are synthetic rubber)- middle in the scale of firmness. A few contain abrasives like pumice - but those are usually just the rhomboid-shaped school erasers. The abrasives are designed to erase biro ink. Rubber erasers feel a bit powdery to the touch and this bothers some people a great deal. It's not always easy to tell some synthetic rubber erasers from plastic erasers if they don't say anywhere, in that case I go by the powdery feel.
b. Gum erasers (also called art gum erasers) - Designed to crumble very easily as they collect up the graphite so they do less damage to the paper. But since they crumble away they don't last as long. Very soft.
c. Plastic/vinyl erasers - the firmest eraser. The most popular eraser, these modern erasers usually give the most complete removal of graphite. If you are like me the word 'plastic' might make you think they wouldn't work well, I mean you can't erase with any of the other plastic items on your table, right. But you need to remember two things: plastics come in a huge variety of formulas and also 'plastic' can means 'pliable' as in 'the plastic arts' meaning sculpture. Many plastic erasers come with paper sleeves that you can use to hold the rubber. 'Dustless' means that the eraser residue particles clump together for more complete removal, leaving fewer tiny particles that are actually still on the paper but you don't see... until you take a close-up photo. They can be heat-moulded into many shapes, both for finger grips and for sharp edges that allow the erasure of fine lines.

In addition to the 'block' shape of most erasers there are specialty shapes as well as a few special tools:

Pencil and pen erasers for fine points (also called click erasers, detail erasers, barrel erasers) this style allows you to precisely pinpoint even the tiniest mark and remove it completely. They usually contain plastic erasers.

Electric erasers- These battery-powered tools spin the eraser on your paper and crumble away fairly quickly so the refills come in multiples. The advantage is that that you can erase precisely where you want and it is very gentle on the paper. They usually contain plastic erasers.

Specialty - fibreglass pen, cleaning cushion with eraser dust for cleaning up a whole sheet of dirty paper, erasing knife or razorblade and more

Phthalates

Why do so many erasers state they are 'phthalate-free'?
Phthalates are a chemical additive that makes plastic pliable (like a squeeze bottle) instead of hard (like the keys on your keyboard). There is more and more evidence that this chemical group affects the human body in negative ways as phthalates interrupt the hormonal system. Many brands of erasers have stopped using them. These plasticisers are in many plastics we use every day, I think they are of particular concern in rubbers because rubbers crumble and this must help expose more of the chemical to the air and skin.
Brands that do not contain phthalates:
Factis (all styles)
Faber-Castell (most styles)
A few others, we have tried to make a note of it on all the product descriptions on the website. Some don't say.

Tips

Most erasers have more tack, are more pliable and less likely to tear the paper if they are a bit warm, so it can help to hold your eraser in your hand for a few minutes before using it.

For clean, smudge-free results, resist the urge to brush the eraser crumbs off with your hand as this can cause unwanted smudging and blowing the crumbs off can add dampness to the paper. Instead a good habit to get into is to lift the paper and shake the crumbs off. A drawing broom/drafting brush can be really useful.

With all erasers remain aware of how hard you are pressing. Accidentally rubbing too vigorously can cause your paper to buckle and crease.

Erasers aren't only for removing mistakes they can be used as tools for creating art. For one of the most common subtractive drawing techniques you cover a piece of drawing paper completely using a graphite pencil or block; charcoal or charcoal powder; or graphite powder. Then with an eraser you create the highlights of the image. You can always re-fill any areas where you've over-erased.

Using a craft knife you can cut a rubber into the size or shape you require for your drawing. Some artists prefer a sharp edge to their eraser.

Erasing Hard or Soft Pastels - Most erasers work to remove pastels (hard and soft) but many people have had mixed results. If your surface is very textured you may have trouble and if your paper is very soft you will need to be careful. Many people find that a putty rubber works best, again using a press and lift action.

If you intend to erase small exact areas you might wish to try an eraser shield. A great little device, that is a good value in the drawing companion set.

You can carve into firm erasers to create a printing stamp similar to lino cutting but with the carved eraser you can print just by pressing down, like a rubber stamp.

Putty rubbers need to be kneaded before the first use to expose the porous inner surface which is able to pick the graphite up rather than just smear and to distribute the oil evenly, don't skip this step if you wish it to work properly.

Interesting fact no. 1: the original eraser was a squashed up piece of soft bread. You can still use bread if you don't have a rubber, just pinch out the centre of a slice.
Interesting fact no. 2: the rubber plant is named after the eraser, not the other way round. Joseph Priestley, in England in 1770, noticed that a piece of the latex material harvested from a tree worked extremely well for rubbing off pencil marks on paper, hence the name "rubber" was given to the material, the plant and in the UK to erasers.

Subtractive Drawing with a Rubber

Some beautiful drawings have been done using the subtractive method. For this you coat your paper with a layer of charcoal or graphite by rubbing a stick of charcoal or graphite all over or by brushing on charcoal or graphite powder. Then you create your drawing by removing the grey to expose the white of the paper.
In my tests with both rubbed-on charcoal stick and brushed-on charcoal powder the putty rubbers and rubber erasers performed equally well - the putty rubbers could be moulded into shapes to press on and the rubber erasers had sharp corners for fine control. A plastic eraser performed poorly, however. The charcoal acted as a lubricant, the plastic eraser slipped all over the surface and could not crumble away so after a stroke or two was slick with black and could not remove any more.

Erasing Coloured pencils

Many people find coloured pencils hard to erase and usually impossible to erase completely. They think the best you can do is lighten an area enough that you can colour over it. Most of the time plastic or rubber erasers smear it so it enlarges the problem.
But I found that if you use a two-step method you can erase coloured pencil quite thoroughly. I used Faber-Castell Polychromos Crimson thinking it would be a tough one to erase because it is oil and wax as well as red which is often a staining colour.
First- using a putty rubber, press and lift to remove as much colour as you can. All nine brands that I tested work well at this. Secondly- use a plastic eraser to finish erasing the coloured pencil. This includes the electric erasers, their tips are plastic erasers. All brands worked equally well. This two-part method worked well for light and medium applications of coloured pencil; very dark applications didn't erase completely, though were better than expected.

Find out which eraser is right for you

Because erasers are inexpensive you can try a few to find out what is best for you, or have a selection of erasers in your tool box for different purposes.
I made test sheets that included hard (6H), medium (HB) and soft (6B) graphite pencils in two degrees of pressing down - light and heavy. I also included HB graphite with Faber Castell Ecco pigment liner .8 pen line to see if I could erase the graphite without damaging the ink. I also included light and heavy lines of Faber-Castell Polychromos Crimson coloured pencil. And finally some lightly applied HB lines with a blue watercolour wash over the top to see if the graphite could be erased without the watercolour being disturbed.

Kneaded Putty Rubbers

Putty rubbers need to be kneaded thoroughly before the first use.
My testing showed that the softer ones - Jakar and Faber-Castell - are easier on the hands and perform best by pressing and lifting, but overall they fail at some tasks such as removing graphite lines from underneath a watercolour wash. The stiffer ones hurt the fingers if you do a lot of kneading (every press or every few strokes you need to squish the colour that you've picked up to the inside of the rubber) and they perform best in a combination of press/lift and rubbing. A few performed better than others at press/lift to lighten coloured pencil (which can then be more easily erased with a plastic eraser or drawn over). All performed equally well at subtractive drawing in charcoal. The stiffer they got the better they performed on graphite lines though about half of the putty rubbers could not remove graphite under watercolour at all. Because they contain oil I also checked if they left greasy marks on watercolour paper that would act as a resist and cause watercolour to bead up on top. None of them did, they did the opposite - the stiffest ones felt like they abraded the paper and when washed over with watercolour the area that had been rubbed was a bit darker with watercolour.

Faber Castell Putty Rubber
Great reviews: not crumbly, not oily, comes in plastic box to stay clean.
First kneading: very smoothly, was easy to start, easy to knead, held together well, got fuzzy at the edges. Soft. Second kneading of small piece next day: fine.
How it performed: Fine on light graphite lines and same as the others on coloured pencil. Fine on removing the graphite under pigment liner pens and didn't lighten the ink. It didn't damage the watercolour paint but didn't erase the graphite at all so was pointless at that task. This was one of the easiest to use and performed well at subtractive drawing with charcoal and at the two-step coloured pencil erasing as well as some graphite erasing - if you are just doing those things then this might be a good choice.

Plastic Erasers

Three 'dustless' erasers
'Dust-free' means that crumbs clump together which can be good if you are having trouble removing all the eraser dust from your drawing, the teeny tiny particles can be hard to get rid of. But I found the trade-off not great - the rubber is very wobbly and the build-up of the clinging piece acts like a lump of rubber wobbling under the rubber that I had to 'thump' over.

Rubber (natural and synthetic) Erasers

These are the ones that feel dusty to the touch. Some people find this annoys them very much and they will not use rubber erasers. It doesn't bother me at all and I have found over the years my go-to erasers are rubber ones. My favourite after this test is the Jackson's because it erased well, is easy to grip and has a good edge.
The tests showed that the dust from a rubber eraser is finer than from a plastic eraser, so it really helps to have a dusting brush to carefully remove it if you are worried about smudging your drawing.

Gum Eraser

Click Erasers and Eraser Pencils

Pencils with erasers inside that you sharpen
I like these but found the brushes on the ends weren't very good, for a small area a soft paintbrush works better and for a large one a dusting brush is better.
Staedtler Mars Rasor Eraser Pencil (phthalate and latex free)

Faber Castell Perfection Pencils
Great reviews, pinpoint detail. Available in single or two-pack, double ended with hard and soft rubber or with a brush on one end.

Faber Castell Perfection Pencil, Single Ended Eraser (soft for graphite, coloured pencils and charcoal)

Faber Castell Perfection Eraser Pencil, Single Ended Eraser, Set of 2 (soft for graphite, coloured pencils and charcoal) Great reviews, pinpoint detail.
Faber Castell Perfection Pencil Eraser with Brush
Faber Castell Perfection Pencil, Double Ended Eraser, two hardnesses of rubber

Precision click erasers
These Tombow erasers have great reviews and give you pinpoint detail.

Tombow Mono Zero Eraser Pen : Round Tip, White Barrel (plastic eraser)

Tombow Mono Zero Eraser Pen, Round Tip, Black Barrel (plastic eraser)

Tombow Mono Zero Eraser Pen, Square Tip, White Barrel (plastic eraser)

Tombow Mono Zero Eraser Pen, Square Tip : Black Barrel (plastic eraser)
Tombow Mono Zero Eraser Pen REFILL, Square Tip Tombow Mono Zero Eraser Pen REFILL, Round Tip
Eraser holders

Derwent Eraser Pen (PVC & Latex free)
Derwent Eraser Pen Refills

Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser Holder

Koh-I-Noor Plastic Eraser In Holder
Koh-I-Noor Refill for Plastic Eraser Holder
Koh-I-Noor Refill for Plastic Eraser Holder 9736 : Pack of 5

Electric Erasers (battery operated)

Both of these require 2 x AAA batteries and both have great reviews.
These are great tools. The provide gentle yet complete erasing. It might seem silly, like how lazy can you be to need an electric eraser, but it is a better tool. It actually erases more precisely and with less chance of damaging the paper, you can hold it just barely touching the paper. The brands are quite similar in their results. Both of these use plastic eraser tips of a similar diameter. Both need to be refilled often during use as the soft plastic wears away fairly quickly. The Derwent has longer eraser refills but you need to stop and remove the carrier and pull the eraser forward to extend it, so it's about the same amount of effort as replacing the jakar refill.

Jakar Mini Electric Eraser Pen
Jakar Mini Electric Eraser Pen 30 Refills

Derwent Battery Operated Eraser
Derwent Battery Operated Eraser 30 Refills

Specialty Erasing Tools and accessories

Faber Castell Glass Fibre Eraser Pen. Eraser ink from transparencies and rust from metal.
Faber Castell Glass Fibre Eraser Pen Refill

2019 Update:

We are constantly updating our ranges to meet the needs and requirements of the artists who shop with us. We have a selection of new erasers which are all suitable for different styles; some are great for precision erasing and adding highlights to pencil drawings, while some are great for erasing large sections of graphite.

As the name suggests, this is the 'giant' of the Milan family - the largest eraser of the collection. The eraser is made of soft synthetic rubber and it is suitable for removing strokes from graphite pencils on all kinds of surfaces. Because of its size (6.8 x 5.1 x 2.8 cm) we don't recommend it for precision erasing.

This eraser has a strong absorption capacity for charcoal and graphite. It erases easily with no need to press hard on the paper, forming smooth eraser dust. It can also be used to erase or smudge marks made in charcoal drawings, adding a useful dimension to your artwork. Made from synthetic rubber.

This pen-shaped eraser holder fits comfortably in your hand and feels sturdy. A simple click mechanism brings out more of the eraser, which is replaceable. The plastic eraser is suitable for erasing all graphite pencils. It measures 7 mm in diameter and 120 mm in length.

This Eraser Pen from Jakar is perfect if you require precision erasing. With a retractable eraser which measures 0.4mm across, the pen also features a handy pocket clip and has a comfortable grip. The eraser is PVC/Phthalathe free. Simply push down the end of the pen to push the eraser up and to retract, push down the end of the pen while pushing down the tip of the eraser.

This innovative Milan Sharpener and Eraser stick will save space and is simple and convenient. It features a slide-out stick shape eraser made from soft synthetic rubber which is suitable for a wide range of graphite pencils. It has a concealed sharpener at the other end, complete with a safety blade which prevents the blade from separating from the sharpener. The carbon steel blade is sharp and perfect for standard size graphite and colour pencils.

This innovative and portable Jakar sharpener combines a reservoir sharpener with an eraser, which has a plastic cap to keep it clean. It is suitable for use with standard diameter pencils.

The sharpener revolves: it can be turned inwards so that it does not leak graphite dust through the blade aperture. To empty the pencil shavings from the (very small) reservoir, simply swing the sharpener outwards and pull it off the main unit.

This simple Milan Capsule eraser and sharpener is a useful, clutter-free solution. Hidden under the cap at the one end is a soft synthetic rubber eraser, suitable for erasing a wide range of graphite marks. Flip one end to reveal the sharpener with a carbon steel blade, ideal for standard size graphite pencils and colour pencil. It also has a safety blade system which prevents the blade from becoming detached from the body of the pencil sharpener.

Conclusions
I expected a few things:

On rough or soft paper the graphite will tend to sink into the surface and be harder to lift.

Softer pencils will deposit more graphite or colour, which means more to erase.- In fact I found the opposite to be true; if the mark is more likely to smudge - a softer (darker) pencil - then it is easier to erase.

Harder pencils can make grooves in the paper which cannot be erased.- It turns out that the hardness makes it hard to erase even when lightly applied.

I learned a few things about erasers overall:

The more easily a graphite mark will smudge - the more easily it will erase. So no matter how lightly you draw with a hard pencil (6H) it will be harder to erase than a soft pencil (HB or 2B). From now on I will use a lightly applied softer pencil for any sketching that I wish to erase after watercolour or ink have been added.

Dark graphite and coloured pencil can best be removed by using two steps: press/lift with a putty rubber until no more will come off and then finish with a plastic or rubber eraser.

In general plastic erasers are similar. Except the dustless ones that I find difficult to use because of the lump of crumbs that builds up underneath the eraser.

Plastic erasers seem cleaner than rubber erasers because their crumbs are not as fine, the rubber eraser crumbs are so fine it is a bit harder to get rid of them all.

An electric eraser is a great tool for gentle erasing but you go through tips really fast.

I like the Mono Zero pin-point click erasers best of all the plastic erasers.

It is hard to erase graphite under a watercolour without damaging it. The best advice is to draw very faint lines you can barely see and when painted over they won't show. Or let the graphite lines show a bit as part of the painting.

The firmest, but still usable (not hard as rubber so that you couldn't 'knead' it) putty rubber was the Koh-i-noor. The softest but still usable (not gooey, so it won't hold a shape) was the Faber-Castell. For most purposes of a putty rubber I would use one of these two. The Jackson's and Derwent were also good putty rubbers.

My other conclusions are within each section of the article.
Click on the underlined link to go to the Erasers section of the Drawing Department on the Jackson's Art Supplies website. Postage on orders shipped standard to mainland UK addresses is free for orders of £39.

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Choosing a Rubber: Comparing Erasers - Jackson's Art Blog

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Most people assume they know all there is to know about erasers. But there are different types for different jobs and you are more likely to get the result you want if you use the right tool.

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Natural Household and Personal Care Products | Grove Collaborative

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Natural Household and Personal Care Products | Grove Collaborative

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Shop the best natural products at great prices, delivered right to your door. Organic, eco friendly, sustainable items from top brands like Seventh Generation, Dr. Bronner's, method, Zarbees, Acure, Mrs. Meyer's.

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End of the Line at a Glance

Rambunctious kick-your-neighbor fun

Analytical game play packs tons of strategy in the box

Super-cute meeples!

The World of End of the Line

Welcome to End of the Line (EotL), the game that proves that the torments of the DMV and your local bank won't end with civilization. You have 5 family members, 5 resource lines, and 1 mission: you must escape obliteration while navigating the bureaucracy of the post-apocalyptic world. Place members of your nuclear family in lines to collect food, water, fuel, and ammo. First in line gets a bonus while last in line gets nothing! As dad, mom, boy, girl, and dog are in the various lines, they will suffer classic post apocalyptic nightmares meant to test your metal (and your friendships).

Lay low and pick your fights wisely if you're going to make it to the End of the Line.

Gameplay Basics

End of the Line is as much about resource and worker management as it is rambunctious kick-your-neighbor fun. Analytical EotL requires closely watching where you place family members and understanding what you AND your opponents are going to get out of it. Resources help your family survive hardships and allow you to draw more action cards.

Vital Stats

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Rambunctious kick-your-neighbor fun Analytical game play packs tons of strategy in the box Super-cute meeples! Welcome to End of the Line (EotL), the game that proves that the torments of the DMV and your local bank won't end with civilization.

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A fast pick-up game at a great price. Loveable critters in three variant cover images! A morbid theme that makes people ask what you're doing. Squirrel life is not all nuts and games. In Squirrel or Die, we explore the mental rigors of surviving the hide-or-go-starve-to-death dilemmas of the modern tree rodent.

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A tongue-in-cheek Cthulhu Mythos themed board game about cultists trying to take over the United States. Play options offer a variety of rules modifications and play times to suit your needs. Go strategic or let loose in a full out bloodbath! A blend of mechanics - dice rolling, resource management, combat simulations - keep everyone at the table engaged.

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Witches of the Revolution at a Glance

A cooperative deck-building game for one to four players.

Play secret cabals of witches working to free America from the tyranny of King George III.

Players race to complete objectives against two distinct timers: the Moon Track and the Liberty Track.

A Few Brave Covens: The World of Witches of the Revolution

History books tell only half the story. We know many heroes of the Revolution: George Washington, Paul Revere, Alexander Hamilton.

But they were not the only ones to stand up and demand freedom. Secret cabals of witches also answered the call, fighting for liberty and standing against tyranny.

Step into their shoes in Witches of the Revolution.

United We Stand: Gameplay Basics

Witches of the Revolution is a cooperative deck-building game. Recruit powerful witches to add to your coven - and your deck. Locate relics to use against your enemies. Seek blessings to turn the tide in your favor.

Work together to reach your objectives before the moon wanes or tyranny takes hold. Together, you will imbue the Liberty Bell with power, cure Paul Revere of lycanthropy, and more.

Face waves of Event cards and collectively defeat demons and witch-hunters to reach your goals. Plan and fight as a team to complete enough objectives to win the game and free the land from tyranny.

Awards

2018 Spiel of Approval.

Vital Stats

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A cooperative deck-building game for one to four players. Play secret cabals of witches working to free America from the tyranny of King George III. Players race to complete objectives against two distinct timers: the Moon Track and the Liberty Track. History books tell only half the story.

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Today, we're interviewing Jeff Tidball, the producer/developer for Dice Miner. He shares his behind-the-scenes insight on budgeting, specifying custom components, and one-sheets that catch a publisher's eye. Whether you're interested in Dice ...

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Today, we're interviewing Jeff Tidball, the producer/developer for Dice Miner. He shares his behind-the-scenes insight on budgeting, specifying custom components, and one-sheets that catch a publisher's eye. Whether you're interested in Dice ...

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Today, we're interviewing Jeff Tidball, the producer/developer for Dice Miner. He shares his behind-the-scenes insight on budgeting, specifying custom components, and one-sheets that catch a publisher's eye. Whether you're interested in Dice ...

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Today, we're interviewing Jeff Tidball, the producer/developer for Dice Miner. He shares his behind-the-scenes insight on budgeting, specifying custom components, and one-sheets that catch a publisher's eye. Whether you're interested in Dice ...

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A series of games where gloom is the goal and suffering scores points. Themes range from spooky (Mister Giggles the Creepy Clown) to campy (Pursued by Poodles). Transparent plastic cards give the games a unique look and make point calculations easier. Available games include Gloom second edition, multiple expansions, and themed Gloom games like Cthulhu Gloom and Munchkin Gloom.

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Valentina Olive Nutty Tort - All Eyewear | Karen Walker

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Valentina Olive Nutty Tort - All Eyewear | Karen Walker

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Valentina Olive Nutty Tort | Karen Walker

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Info Valentina Olive Nutty Tort Oversized and earnest, the blue light filtering Valentina glasses expand on intellectual proportions, featuring slender metal arms adorned by the iconic Karen Walker arrow. Exaggerated D-shape lenses are half-rimmed by cool Olive Tort metal. Look closely and note the iconic miniature arrow motif repeating across the frames, while adjustable nose pads provide a universal fit.

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Maya White: Cement Tile, Black and White Tile | Riad Tile

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Maya White: Cement Tile, Black and White Tile | Riad Tile

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Maya White: Cement Tile, Black and White Tile | Riad Tile

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This cement tile is a black and white with a geometric design. This concrete tile offers a modern feel for your space. Shop the Maya White tile today.

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Enrollment in the Institute's Master's-Level and Doctoral-Level programs requires applicants to submit a letter of intent, as well as the standard enrollment form, which can be found below.
Master's of Arts in Metaphysical Studies

*PS 507 Ghosts and Hauntings

*PS 508 Near-Death Experiences

*D 510 Introduction to Demonology

*MP 526 Human Devolution Studies

*PS 545 Beings From Beyond

*PS 548 Non-human Interdimensional Creatures

*US 500 The UFO Phenomena

*AM 504 Ancient Astronauts

*OS 60s Introduction to Occult Sciences

*VS 705 Vampire Legend and Lore

*AM 505 Archaeological Anomalies

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Enrollment in the Institute's Master's-Level and Doctoral-Level programs requires applicants to submit a letter of intent, as well as the standard enrollment form, which can be found below.

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Dailytonic - Your daily Inspiration in Architecture and Design

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Dailytonic - Your daily Inspiration in Architecture and Design

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The new polycarbonate shade of the Drip collection is designed to be used in commercial applications. Hotels, restaurants or public areas where friction or the possibility of breakage is a relevant risk.

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Dailytonic - Your daily Inspiration in Architecture and Design

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The new polycarbonate shade of the Drip collection is designed to be used in commercial applications. Hotels, restaurants or public areas where friction or the possibility of breakage is a relevant risk.

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Core77 / Industrial Design Magazine + Resource

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Core77 / Industrial Design Magazine + Resource

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Core77 / Industrial Design Magazine + Resource

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Magazine and resource offering calendar of events, firm listings, jobs section, forums, articles and competitions.

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My creative type is Artist, and we're known for our ability to bring ideas to life. To discover your Creative Type, take the quiz now.

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Unusual Product Design: Functional, Technology-Free Wearables for Fine Artists - Core77

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Unusual Product Design: Functional, Technology-Free Wearables for Fine Artists - Core77

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As a jaded and longtime design blogger, I rarely encounter a new-to-me product category that seems genuinely useful. But recently I found one such class of objects and, within them, an exemplary version that I'll show down below by a fellow named Frazier Price.

The category of product I'm talking about are body-worn palettes for painters. These are functional, technology-free wearables for artists working on-the-go, or even whilst in transit. Internet forums for painters are awash in DIY examples, like this simple one fashioned from a piece of wood or Masonite:

This design features a lid and a wristwatch-style band:

Pigments can even be stored in something as small as a ring:

While fabricating a ring is beyond the capability of your average tinkerer, the wristwatch form factor lends itself well to DIY. Dutch artist Koosje Koene is the co-founder of Sketchbook Skool, an online drawing/painting academy, and her handy father Frans Koene created this Watercolor Watch for her:

You can see a video of Frans demonstrating how he made it here.

For those who would like a similar object but don't want to make it themselves, Adventurous Art Supply sells a couple of variants on Etsy for around $25:

Even mass market retailers have offerings in this arena. Walmart sells this Van Gogh 12-Pan Pocket Box Watercolor Set:

Going back further in time, we find this intriguing example below, which has a story behind it. Watercolor painter John Haywood recently stumbled across, and purchased, this brass box stamped "Frazier Price Palette Box" that unfolds into a functional palette complete with rinsing wells.

"I came across this sketchers' palette quite accidentally and had never heard of the make before," Haywood writes. "The fact that it was brass, boasted enameled mixing surfaces, and like nothing else I'd seen before certainly got my attention."
I have recently read the group's comments on palette boxes and mention was made of the Frazer Price Palette Box - probably time that I enter the forum as I am Frazer Price. I designed and had the box manufactured, in Shropshire, and first came on sale in 1985 and continued to be marketed until the early '90s. The box came into being because of my frustration with what was available for the travelling watercolourist. I was a publisher and whilst I was travelling extensively for Newsweek I would find time to sketch in one country before spending endless hours on my way to the next port of call and decided my time could be usefully spent by painting on the plane. I had a Gabbi box which was Ok but with only a curtain ring as a holding device it was uncomfortable. Therefore, over time, I designed a lacquered brass bijou type box just over 4? long, under 3? wide and 2? deep. The inside pieces were made from washable plastic with room for 18 half pans or with slides for paint from tubes, a water bottle and a divided reservoir for clean and dirty water. Two fold out enamel mixing trays one with a thumb hole enabling the box to be held comfortably as as a palette. It was launched in the Leisure Painter in 1985 and the advertisements had an endorsement by Rowland Hilder-the only time the great man endorsed anything- the selling price was £28.95 and with a couple of price increases it was marketed until '93/4 selling over 5000 boxes worldwide. It was also branded and marketed by Talens and Daniel Smith in the States. A point of interest when the box was first produced- the prototype costing £1,400.- I offered it to Windsor and Newton who initially showed great interest but then pulled out as they considered the box too 'glamorous' but asked if I would mind if they produced a plastic box based loosely on the FP box. I had no desire to go into mass production - hence the Cotman box* arrived on the scene....All that's left now are a dozen boxes for the grandchildren and posterity. All my painting comes from the Frazer Price Palette Box and if you have the time click onto http://www.frazerprice.shutterfly.com and you'll see it at work!

Curious about the box's provenance, Haywood poked around on the internet until he came across a forum--and found exactly what he was looking for, a post from Frazier Price himself explaining how and why he designed it.

Subject: RE: watercolour palettes

*[Editor's note: The "Cotman box" Price refers to is, today, this commercially available design by Winsor & Newton.]

On his blog, Haywood mentioned a modern-day producer of portable brass-clad palettes, House of Hoffman. I looked them up and their products, designed and manufactured by a gent named L. Henry Fanelli, are pretty nifty.

Their prices are also quite dear--the Sketcher I shown above rings in at $1,225.

Lastly, when I was looking at this detail photo of Fanelli's fold-down, patent-pending " Thumb Hanger" for holding the box...

...it occurred to me that a body-worn palette would really be an ideal first-year industrial design school project. Here's why I say that:

- The object has clear utility for the end user, and very specific practical requirements

- It requires some human factors work for the interface (i.e. how do you securely hold it?)

- It's small enough that a student could manufacture a prototype in the school's shop

- The extant examples of this object span from $15 plastic Wal-Mart objects up to $1,000-plus luxury items, giving the students a wide range in how they want to execute

- At most design schools, there are nearby Painting majors who could be interviewed and used for testing different designs, providing important feedback

I'd love to see the range of designs that an entire class of ID students would come up with. If you're an ID professor who can pull this off, please do let us know!

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Unusual Product Design: Functional, Technology-Free Wearables for Fine Artists - Core77

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As a jaded and longtime design blogger, I rarely encounter a new-to-me product category that seems genuinely useful. But recently I found one such class of objects and, within them, an exemplary version that I'll show down below by a fellow named Frazier Price. The category of product I'm talking about are body-worn palettes for painters.

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#LawTwittter Troll Response Form | Above the Law

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#LawTwittter Troll Response Form | Above the Law

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As my social media presence grows, so too do the number of trolls that seek to engage with me.It doesn't matter what I tweet.It can be about cake.However, most of the time it's lawyers who tend to be the most vicious trollers.Within minutes, someone will jumps out from nowhere (most often someone who doesn't even follow me) to raise critical issues with my tweet.

As it happens so frequently, I thought I would save myself and #Lawtwitter time and draft a form letter to respond to trolls.

"Dear Prospective Social Media Monitor:

Thank you for your interest in my tweet.Sadly, I must reject your gracious offer to be my prospective social media monitor ("Troll").As you know, a quality Twitter account such as mine receives hundreds if not thousands of offers to be the exclusive trolling provider.Unfortunately, your reply does not meet my standards of quality for the following reasons (checking all that apply):

____ 1.While you are absolutely correct and I was out of line, you raised the issue in such a boorish and rude way, I am forced to both correct my tweet or delete it AND cease contact with you.No further interaction is required.Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience I caused you.If you follow me, you may wish to unfollow me to avoid any further misunderstandings.I should point out if you had used some tact, I would have thanked you, corrected my error, and not considered you a troll at all.

____ 2.You insulted me without raising any arguments.No further interaction is needed because I've been called names since junior high, most way more clever than the one you chose to call me.

____ 3.You appear to have misread my tweet.Please go back and review the tweet carefully for literary devices such as satire.No further interaction is required, because I have faith you will come to understanding and enlightenment.I'm optimistic that way.

____ 4.My tweet was a matter of opinion.That means if I tweet "," you cannot dispute it, unless you somehow think I'm lying about it.We will be unlikely to make headway."There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys, there's only you and me and we just disagree."No further action is needed, except to maybe get that song out of my head.

_____ 5.You made a moral judgment about something related to my family.Unfortunately, the position of moral judge of my life is the exclusive dominion of friends and family members.

_____ 6.You claim facts that are not true in this universe.Please return to the parallel universe from which you came so that you can live a happy and fulfilling life where you speak the truth.

_____7.You merely labeled me something. You did so without discussing the foundation of my argument, presumably so that you could dismiss it out of hand.No further interaction is needed, except between you and the refills of your label maker.

______ 8.You pivoted to a discussion beyond the scope of my original tweet.You should start your own thread about that topic.No further interaction is required.

______ 9. No further interaction is required.Please visit your local aquarium for support.

_______ 10.You demanded data knowing full well you were going to reject any data I sent to you.Thus, after my initial data submission, no further interaction is needed.

_______ 11.You appear to be really busy moving goalposts, so I hope you have a wonderful time in your career with the NFL.However, no further interaction is required, but I really care little or not at all for your goalposts.It is not my job to convince you of anything.I am not Sisyphus.

________12.I tried to follow you on the slippery slope you embarked us upon, but I injured my leg in the process.As I seek medical attention, I will not have time to interact with you.I couldn't keep up, as the slippery slope you are on is so steep and the coefficient of friction (logic) so little that you're down the mountain already.

________13.You ruined Wizard of Oz for me.I really liked the Tin Man.(As singer Tracy Chapman sang, "Remember the Tin Man, found what he had what he thought he lacked.")But you are a very big fan of the Strawman.No further interaction is needed.We can't get past this.You are too efficient at making a strawman.

________ 14.All right.You caught me.I admit it!My evil plot to destroy lives and take over the planet was foiled by your reply to my tweet.Were it not for you, the other meddling kids and that one dog (the one who isn't so Scrappy), I could have conquered the world.But I'll be back!Just wait and see.And maybe you'll be defending against people like me somewhere else on Twitter.Then my plans will come to fruition!Until then, no further interaction is required.

Thank you for your interest and obsession with my Twitter feed.I hope you continue to enjoy #Lawtwitter and realize that your colleagues and clients can see what you post.

Very truly yours,

Lawprofblawg

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As my social media presence grows, so too do the number of trolls that seek to engage with me.It doesn't matter what I tweet.It can be about cake.However, most of the time it's lawyers who tend to be the most vicious trollers.Within minutes, someone will jumps out from nowhere (most often someone who doesn't even follow me) to raise critical issues with my tweet.

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Download 569 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Open Culture

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Download 569 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Open Culture

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You could pay $118 on Amazon for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalog The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. Or you could pay $0 to download it at MetPublications, the site offering "five decades of Met Museum publications on art history available to read, download, and/or search for free."

If that strikes you as an obvious choice, prepare to spend some serious time browsing MetPublications' collection of free art books and catalogs.

You may remember that we featured the site a few years ago, back when it offered 397 whole books free for the reading, including American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915; Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomical Drawings from the Royal Library; andWisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But the Met has kept adding to their digital trove since then, and, as a result, you can now find there no fewer than 586 art catalogs and other books besides. Those sit alongside the 400,000 free art images the museum put online last year.

So have a look at MetPublications' current collection and you'll find you now have unlimited access to such lush as well as artistically, culturally, and historically varied volumes as African Ivories, Chess: East and West, Past and Present; Modern Design in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1890-1990; Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings; French Art Deco; or even a guide to the museum itself (vintage 1972).

Since I haven't yet turned to art collection - I suppose you need money for that - these books don't necessarily make me covet the vast sweep of artworks they depict and contextualize. But they do make me wish for something even less probable: a time machine so I could go back and see all these exhibits firsthand.

Note: This is an updated version of a post that originally appeared on our site in March 2015.
Related Content: 1.8 Million Free Works of Art from World-Class Museums: A Meta List of Great Art Available Online Download Over 250 Free Art Books From the Getty Museum 2,000+ Architecture & Art Books You Can Read Free at the Internet Archive The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 400,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use The Guggenheim Puts 109 Free Modern Art Books Online
800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Faceboo k.

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Download 586 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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You could pay $118 on Amazon for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalog The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. Or you could pay $0 to download it at MetPublications, the site offering "five decades of Met Museum publications on art history available to read, download, and/or search for free."

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Download 569 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Open Culture

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Download 569 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Open Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You could pay $118 on Amazon for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalog The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. Or you could pay $0 to download it at MetPublications, the site offering "five decades of Met Museum publications on art history available to read, download, and/or search for free."

If that strikes you as an obvious choice, prepare to spend some serious time browsing MetPublications' collection of free art books and catalogs.

You may remember that we featured the site a few years ago, back when it offered 397 whole books free for the reading, including American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915; Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomical Drawings from the Royal Library; andWisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

But the Met has kept adding to their digital trove since then, and, as a result, you can now find there no fewer than 586 art catalogs and other books besides. Those sit alongside the 400,000 free art images the museum put online last year.

So have a look at MetPublications' current collection and you'll find you now have unlimited access to such lush as well as artistically, culturally, and historically varied volumes as African Ivories, Chess: East and West, Past and Present; Modern Design in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1890-1990; Vincent Van Gogh: The Drawings; French Art Deco; or even a guide to the museum itself (vintage 1972).

Since I haven't yet turned to art collection - I suppose you need money for that - these books don't necessarily make me covet the vast sweep of artworks they depict and contextualize. But they do make me wish for something even less probable: a time machine so I could go back and see all these exhibits firsthand.

Note: This is an updated version of a post that originally appeared on our site in March 2015.
Related Content: 1.8 Million Free Works of Art from World-Class Museums: A Meta List of Great Art Available Online Download Over 250 Free Art Books From the Getty Museum 2,000+ Architecture & Art Books You Can Read Free at the Internet Archive The Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 400,000 High-Res Images Online & Makes Them Free to Use The Guggenheim Puts 109 Free Modern Art Books Online
800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices

Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Faceboo k.

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Download 586 Free Art Books from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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You could pay $118 on Amazon for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalog The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. Or you could pay $0 to download it at MetPublications, the site offering "five decades of Met Museum publications on art history available to read, download, and/or search for free."

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Its name can be squeezed onto a tea towel, a decorative plate, a magnet, a mug, and other touristic souvenirs, but has the northern Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoc been celebrated in song?

Indeed it has. The Great Big Story's Human Condition episode, above, has vinyl proof, though the tune's unlikely to give The White Cliffs of Dover, The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, or The Rocky Road To Dublin much of a run for the money.

Still, whichever outside-the-box Victorian thinker had the bright idea to attract tourists by expanding the village's original name - Pwllgwyngyll - by 46 letters was onto something.

Turns out you don't need natural wonders or world-renowned cultural attractions to stake a claim, when out-of-towners will make the trip just to take photos of the local signage.

Village Community Council Chairman Alun Mummery attributes the name-lengthening publicity stunt in 1869 to a local cobbler.

Or perhaps he was a tailor. That's what poet John Morris-Jones, author of 1913's A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative, maintained, while refusing to outright identify this clever civic booster.

Wikipedia throws doubt on these origin stories by citing an entry in an ecclesiastical directory published a few years prior to 1869, which gave the full parish name as "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerbwlltysiliogogo."

(Close enough!)

Someone in the tourist information office told travel writer Dave Fox that it translates to "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."

It's tempting to think this little Welsh town has the longest name in the world, but that honor actually goes to Bangkok.

Wait, what?

The name by which most foreigners know Thailand's capital city is actually an archaic reference to its pre-1782 location.

Thai people call their capital Krung Thep - short for Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit.

It means "City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest" and looks like this, when written in Thai script:

กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochians still get to brag that they have the longest town name in Europe.

Their football club, Clwb Pêl Droed Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Football Club - CPD Llanfairpwll FC for short - might well be the longest named football club in the world if it weren't for that damn Amon Rattanakosin Krung Thep Mahanakhon Mahinthara Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Ayuthaya Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit Bravo Association Football Club (aka Bangkok Bravo FC).

Some of the fun of living in a town with such a cumbersome name must be amazing tourists by how casually it rolls off local tongues.

Pub owner Kevin Bryant obliges visitors from The Great Big Story by downing a pint on camera before rapping it out.

Anything for the local economy!

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoc also got a boost from mentions on Groucho Marx's quiz show, You Bet Your Life, in a Bossa Nova-inflected Stephen Sondheim song, and in several films, including 1968's Barbarella.

As YouTuber Tom Scott points out below, long words are invariably shortened in everyday speech, and place names are no exception.

Postmaster Jim Evans advocates shortening the town name to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.

When not actively impressing tourists, local people say Llanfairpwll.

Which is still a pretty impressive consonant to vowel ratio.
Related Content The Medieval City Plan Generator: A Fun Way to Create Your Own Imaginary Medieval Cities The Atlas of True Names Restores Modern Cities to Their Middle Earth-ish Roots Fly Through 17th-Century London's Gritty Streets with Prize-Winning Animations

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It’s Okay Not to Like Modern Art - Eve Bigaj - Medium

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It’s Okay Not to Like Modern Art - Eve Bigaj - Medium

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I love art. Monet's Water Lilies make my heart beat faster, my insides somersault, and my mind swirl with words and colors. Few experiences compare.

I don't love the things that get exhibited in contemporary art galleries. If you prefer: I don't love contemporary art. It makes me feel empty and bored, sometimes a little annoyed, at best slightly amused.

I'm far from alone in my preferences; among amateurs, they're the rule rather than the exception. Like many people, I love color, beauty, representational illusion, emotional expression, painterly texture - and these are things contemporary art doesn't typically give its viewers. Modern artists are just interested in very different things than I am.

By itself, this state of affairs would hardly be worth mentioning. I have my preferences; the art world has its. I would be happy to leave it at that - if it weren't for two claims fans of the contemporary insist on repeating.

(1) A dislike of modern art is a symptom of insufficient education. Given enough art-historical and philosophical background, anyone should appreciate modern art. Furthermore, such background is worth acquiring.

(2) Modern art is preferable to representational painting in some objective sense: modern art is serious and cutting-edge; representational painting is shallow and outmoded. It's fine to create and appreciate art which is merely beautiful, but in this day and age we ought to aim for something more.

These are the claims I'd like to question in this post. The first section tackles modern art directly; the second discusses the features of representational painting which allegedly make it inferior to modern art. The final section compares the two varieties of art.

My aims are relatively modest. I'll argue that going to contemporary art galleries simply isn't worth my effort. Acquiring the historical and philosophical background necessary to begin to appreciate contemporary art is a huge time investment - and even after this investment, I value the appreciative experiences I end up with much less than I value the experiences I have of, say, Monet. Furthermore, the claim that art has somehow "progressed" beyond representation, or that contemporary art is more relevant to our times than, say, representational painting, doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

I'm not claiming that there's nothing valuable in contemporary art for you.In fact, I know that there are artworks in contemporary galleries that even I like. I'm just arguing for a statistical claim: for me, the worthwhile artworks are so few and far between that going to a MoMA or a MoCA typically just isn't worth my time.

The Target

Perhaps the most baffling variety of modern art is so-called conceptual art: art in which the artwork is, supposedly, an idea rather than a thing.¹ These days, this sort of art occupies a large chunk of museum space, and it will occupy a proportionally large chunk of this post. I won't attempt a definition, but here are some common features of conceptual art:

the use of found objects ("readymades")

only a minor (if any) use of traditional media like painting or sculpture

features which make the question "what/where is the artwork?" hard to answer: including the gallery space as part of the work, performative aspects, audience participation, invisible elements, etc.

reliance on a background aesthetic theory or references to art history/philosophy.

Many who reject conceptual art would also reject abstract expressionism, or even cubism; for the most part, I wouldn't.²

Difficulties with Difficulty

I can't shoot down a whole artistic practice without giving concrete examples; otherwise, you'll rightly suspect me of strawmanning. But here I encounter a problem: when I visit a modern gallery, I find most of the exhibits so incomprehensible that (a) I have nothing to say about them and (b) I immediately forget about them. Among my reactions to modern art, mute bewilderment is the norm.

To criticize a work is already to grant that there's something there to be talked about. The examples I'll discuss are therefore only the interpretable tip of the bewildering iceberg. Here's a piece of that iceberg; I can only point to it in frustration. The pointing is part of the argument; without it this post would paint a picture of modern art that is altogether too rosy.

With that in mind, here's an example. Martin Creed's Work № 227: The Lights Going On and Off is an empty gallery room in which the lights go on and off (every five seconds). It won the 2001 Turner Prize.

Martin Creed's Work № 227: The Lights Going On and Off.

Here's what the Tate's communications curator had to say about the work.

Creed is a kind of very pure extreme kind of artist. The fact that many people find his work so baffling indicates that he's working on the edge.

Bafflement is a sign of difficulty - right? And difficulty is a good thing - right?

Here's a case where difficulty really is an admirable thing. We admire Einstein because he not only understood the theory of relativity, but came up with it himself. The latter is more difficult; Einstein had to put in more effort into coming up with his theory than he would have had to put into understanding it, if someone else had come up with it earlier. Furthermore, Einstein's theory tells us how the physical world works. Learning it is not just difficulty for difficulty's sake.

The case of modern art is different - often, the hard work lies entirely on the side of the viewer. We have to contort our mind into strange shapes to get anywhere near a state we might recognize as appreciation. The work is difficult in the sense of being difficult to appreciate - but it isn't necessarily difficult to create. (It's also often not difficult to understand, in the sense that there isn't much there to be understood.) The artist gives us an instruction ("appreciate this!"), but he doesn't need to know how to follow it. Just listen to what Creed has to say about his own work - does this sound like the sort of deep appreciation we expect from viewers?

If I can make something without adding any objects I feel more comfortable. It's like, if I can't decide whether to have the lights on or off then I have them both on and off and I feel better about it.

The art world makes a virtue of things that have no independent value. Its proponents treat mere difficulty as if it were a virtue - as if steeper mountains were better, independently of the views. As if standing on one leg were better than standing on two, simply because it's harder. I suspect that modern art's difficulty, rather than being a reason to call this art "good," is caused by its badness. It's extremely hard to learn to like unlikeable things - but that's not to those things' credit.

Modern art is only difficult in the sense in which a rebellious teenager is difficult.

A Good Insult Isn't a Good Thing

I once heard an art historian say, in response to a student's complaint that he didn't like an artwork: "How do you know you're supposed to like it? What if the artist wasn't trying to please you? What if his aim was to annoy you?"

What if, indeed. The rhetorical question was posed as if it settled the matter - which it certainly doesn't. If the artist's aim was to annoy me, and he succeeds in that aim, I can rightly ask: "what'd you do that for?!" If I go to a massage therapist, and instead of giving me a massage, he kicks me, telling me that his intention was to hurt rather than massage me doesn't help his case. You don't get brownie points simply for achieving your aims.

Of course, annoying your audience - or just making it uncomfortable - is often done in the service of grander aims. We're shown uncomfortable truths, often moral or political ones. This is a fine aim, except (1) modern art, with its tiny, highbrow audience, and amenability to multiple, inconsistent interpretations, is a highly ineffective tool for changing the world, (2) the aim comes with an ascetic suspicion of pleasure that I think is deeply misguided. I get the sentiment behind "no poetry after Auschwitz," but was I really born too late for art that is beautiful... or simply kind to its audience? Is mourning till the end of time really the best response to tragedies? Of course we shouldn't get complacent, but making art that brings joy to people is, other things equal, still a finer thing than art which merely scandalizes them.

This Is a Bad Artwork

A hundred years ago, Marcel Duchamp submitted a store-bought urinal, under a pseudonym, to the Society of Independent Artists (of which he was a board member!) The Society had agreed to exhibit any artwork by a fee-paying artist, but refused to exhibit "Fountain." (It wasn't an artwork, so they were within their rights.) I refer the reader to Wikipedia for details on how the story evolved from there (including a discussion of the intriguing possibility that "Fountain" was in fact thought up not by Duchamp, but by a female artist).

What was Duchamp's intention in submitting "Fountain"? On one interpretation, he was criticizing the romantic idea of the artist as sovereign creator of transcendent value. The artist was just a chooser among things, and there was no difference in kind between a urinal and a painting. Art was bankrupt; we should all go home.

If this had been Duchamp's aim, he failed to achieve it - spectacularly. In "Fountain's" aftermath, the artist became a magician transforming everything he touched - even a urinal - into gold. Art galleries were given the power to - with the appropriate incantations about the death of art, in the appropriate jargon of the initiated - transmute bread into flesh and wine into blood.

To understand a little better how this could have happened, imagine a gallery room with a neon sign saying "THIS IS A BAD ARTWORK." What would you make of such a work? Well, it's just a freaking neon sign. It's pretty bad, right?

Aha! But that's precisely what the sign says. How witty! What a good artwork!

I hope this little neon sign illuminates the frustrating features of the works of Duchamp, Creed, and others like them. The artworks, among other things, draw attention to their unspectacular nature. They say something close to "this is bad art." But then if you use those very words to criticize them, you're just agreeing with them, adding fuel to their "greatness."

Self-critical works immediately transmute criticism into praise. But they don't stop there. "What a good work!" is an unstable conclusion too: if our neon sign is a good artwork, then its initial wittiness is undercut. Now we have a good artwork saying of itself that it's bad-which means that it's either lying, or mistaken.

The art world stops at "it's a good work," but this is an unstable conclusion which depends on the inferential cycle starting with "it's a bad artwork." Perhaps the difference between fans of the contemporary and me is that for them, oscillating between verdicts is itself a positive aesthetic experience - whereas for me, it's a cheap self-referential trick.

Unmasking Is Impossible

Last year, as a prank, two teenagers placed a pair of glasses on the floor of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Almost immediately, people began photographing the glasses. The teenagers gleefully tweeted about their unmasking of modern art. In response, the SFMOMA welcomed them into the art world, tweeting "Do we have a Marcel Duchamp in our midst?"

The rules of the game are such that unmasking is impossible. The teenagers wanted to take something that clearly wasn't art and show that museum-goers wouldn't know the difference between this and "modern art." But to succeed in this project means to turn a lowly item into something that makes a statement about the bankruptcy of art - which is to say, to change it from a lowly item into... modern art.

And this, of course, undermines the message. If the glasses are art, then gallery-goers weren't mistaken at all, and the art world can go on just as it has before, applauding the brilliant self-criticism of a pair of glasses.

Duchamp said "we should all go home." For a hundred years, the art world has been standing in the gallery, applauding this statement.

Concepts Don't Live in Galleries

I once went to the Warsaw contemporary art gallery, only to find, in one of its rooms, a puddle in a glass container. The label informed me that this had been an ice sculpture, left to the unpredictable summer temperatures as a meditation on impermanence. There had been a heatwave, and the sculpture barely lasted a few hours.

The work achieved its aim, I guess - but looking at a puddle wasn't worth the hour-long train ride into Warsaw. (To counter that since, after all these years, I still remember this annoying experience, the art must have been good, is to, once again, change the rules of the game so that badness becomes goodness.)

If the artwork really is the idea, then, reading gallery catalogs may be worthwhile, but going to the galleries themselves is not. Furthermore, when - as is often the case - the idea involves a commentary on art itself, it really isn't worth the time of someone who isn't a fan of the art world to begin with. If the idea embodied in Duchamp's "Fountain" is that art is dead, then the ideal viewer is one so convinced of the message that she doesn't bother coming to the gallery.

All Great Nonsense Was Misunderstood in Its Day

"Contemporary art is just too young to be fairly evaluated," apologists sometimes explain. "It's no wonder we don't appreciate the greatness of contemporary art; all great art was misunderstood in its day."

Everything about this argument is wrong.

The point that this is at most a reason to remain agnostic about the goodness of modern art, not a reason to call it great (since even if all great art is misunderstood, not all misunderstood art is great), is almost too obvious to be worth stating. But it's worse than this - all the presuppositions of this argument are simply false. Much great art wasn't misunderstood in its day - take Raphael or Rubens, for instance. And the great art that was misunderstood was misunderstood by institutions like the French Academy and by the rich people who bought art. Contemporary art isn't even misunderstood in this sense. The scribbles that fetch exorbitant prices on the art market aren't the work of starving geniuses. Modern art is over- rather than undervalued. Finally, contemporary art isn't young - Duchamp's "Fountain" is 100 years old, and we philistines still don't get it. How much longer are we supposed to wait?

Not really... (This is an artwork, by Maurizio Nannucci.)

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Let's return to The Lights Going On and Off. I confess that while writing this post, my judgment of this work has flickered between "worthless" and "cool." Here are some cool things the work does:

draws your attention to features of galleries which are usually in the perceptual background: the color of the walls, the shape of the room, the lighting

invites you to pay attention to similarly overlooked features of your everyday environment

refers to other works which have done something similar, like Cage's 4'33"

flickers in an out of being really simple and really complicated, being just a room with lights and an artwork with complex meaning

brings to mind antonym pairings - being and nothingness, good and bad (art), exuberance and depression, understanding and bewilderment, meaning and meaninglessness, simplicity and complexity - and abrupt shifts between one and the other

asks about itself: which side of these boundaries do I lie on?

That's a lot of cool features for a light switch in an empty room! But it's not enough to rehabilitate conceptual art for me.

First, none of these features are reasons to go and see the work in person. I might try paying more attention to the way my environment shapes my perceptions, but I don't have to travel to a gallery to do that. (And if I were seeing Creed's work for the first time, I would probably be too angry to do what it asks of me and focus on the aesthetic features of the environment.)

Second, the work is still just a room with lights going on and off. The above "features" are just my interpretations - the coolness lies in the story I tell. You can write a great poem about lights going on and off in a room. But that doesn't make the room great art-it makes you a poet.

As to self-reference, and reference to other works - they get tiresome. I wrote an undergraduate thesis on the liar paradox, so I really get the appeal - but there's only so many times you can go through a paradoxical loop in your head without wanting to look at some deliciously textured paint.

Let's turn off the lights and softly close the door.

Nothing Mere About Flowers

I overheard the following conversation at a nondescript Oxford reception.

"Why do you have to do all that modern art stuff? What's wrong with just painting flowers?" a student at the Ruskin School of Art was asked. She responded: "Maybe in Van Gogh's time, it was fine to just paint sunflowers, but today's art has to do something more, make itself relevant. What could a painting of mere sunflowers have to tell us about the pressing concerns of critical discourse, politics, philosophy, morality?"

I can still hear the tone of confident derision in which she said "sunflowers." How arrogant to be this certain - at twenty - that you know better than Van Gogh!

This student apparently believed that Van Gogh lived in an innocent age in which the simple pleasures of sunflower painting were still permitted-but we have learned better. But consider this bit of (oversimplified) art history. The French Academy, which existed between the 17th and 19th centuries, was an institution controlling which French artworks got to be exhibited (and what artistic training looked like, which artists got prestigious awards, etc.). One of the dogmas upheld by the Academy was the "hierarchy of the genres:" "heroic" depictions of historical and religious scenes were deemed superior to representations of humble still lifes. In fact, still life painting occupied the very bottom of the hierarchy. It wasn't until Impressionism's rebellion against the Academy that the hierarchy was overturned and still-life paintings were (briefly) treated as full-fledged, serious artworks.

The art favored by the French Academy was heroic, pompous, political, and needed to be decoded with the aid of textbooks. Sound familiar? At the same time, still lifes flourished on its outskirts, and found an enthusiastic market of non-experts wishing to decorate their homes. In my humble opinion, these outskirts are where French art's true masterpieces, like Chardin's The Ray, were created - and, perhaps, where our times' masterpieces reside too.

Van Gogh did live during a special time - the extremely short period of art history during which landscape and still-life painting were at the center of the art world's attention. (Or, perhaps, the extremely short period of art history during which there were two alternative art worlds.) But it was not a time during which there were somehow fewer philosophical, political, or moral concerns for artists to grapple with. More often than not, though, the artists who grappled with these things were forgotten; the still lifes have stayed with us.

What could be more universal than sunflowers? Van Gogh's mere sunflowers - made of color, texture, emotion, mortality - will stay relevant when all the world's most sophisticated art fades into obscurity.

Nothing Mere About Beauty

The admirable Youtube show "The Art Assignment" would have converted me to modern art if anything could have; it certainly reversed some of my judgments. In one episode, its host, Sarah Urist Green, answers a viewer's question. "Can something beautiful be considered art if it doesn't provoke thought or reflection?" She responds:

Art can make you marvel at its beauty, art can make you uncomfortable, art can make you think. Some art's function is to make you appreciate its beauty, [but] personally, I like art that does something more.

Urist Green is being slippery here. If beauty and provoking thought are both valuable, then, of course, beauty plus thought is better than just beauty. It's tautologously true that "something more" is more than "something less."

But if this is all Urist Green means by "something more," I can use her argument to make my own point: "Some art's function is to make you uncomfortable or make you think, but personally, I like art that does something more: art that is also beautiful." (In fact, this is one of the main points I'm making in this post.)

I think Urist Green would be unhappy to grant me my symmetric argument. There's more behind her "something more" than a tautology. She's insinuating a value judgment: it's not just that beauty plus thought is better than beauty, but thought by itself is better than beauty. Beauty without thought is mere beauty; thought without beauty is thought, period - or perhaps: bravely ascetic thought.

Modern art's distrust of beauty has many sources, which I can't hope to untangle here. Suffice it to say that, to me, none of these sources amount to a compelling reason for such distrust. (An art historian once told me that beauty is "irrelevant." She didn't care to specify - irrelevant to what?)

To me, there's nothing "mere" about beauty. Monet's "Water lilies" come as close as any paintings to aiming at being "merely" beautiful. There are subsidiary aims, of course: capturing a light effect, an instant, the interplay of flower and reflection; giving expression to something spiritual or transcendent; exploring color relationships and textures; teetering on the edge between surface and depth, between representation and abstraction. But none of these amount to "provoking thought and reflection" of the sort modern art prizes. Monet has nothing to tell us about politics or morality, and he's certainly not "problematizing" the concept of art.

I spent an exquisite half hour with the "Water lilies" at the New York MoMA. At first, I was disappointed - the paintings were too familiar, too similar to their reproductions. But I stayed with them, and they grew richer and richer. They coalesced when seen from the far corner of the gallery, engulfed me when I came closer, offered something new and just barely comprehensible - or barely incomprehensible, I couldn't really tell - with every glance. None of this was "thought;" all of it was supremely valuable.

While I gasped at Monet, other visitors came and went. Some said "Too much pastel; not sophisticated enough." Others: "Ooh, look at the pastel colors! I'd like this in my living room." They disagreed, but they were seeing - skating across - essentially the same surface. None of them plunged in.

When people call beauty "mere," they're seeing only the pastel surface. They think that pursuing "mere beauty" would lead artists to become Thomas Kinkade - rather than Claude Monet.

Modern art has simply never given me the depths that Monet has.

Thomas Kinkade: Mere beauty isn't even beauty.

For a long time, I was dissatisfied with my responses. If modern art grew out of my very favorite late nineteenth-century art, there had to be something to it, some family resemblance which I was missing between Duchamp's "Fountain" and Monet's "Water lilies."

In this section, I bring the discussions of conceptual and representational art together, and conclude my long and fruitless search for resemblance.

Hunger Artists

Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" is a short story about an artist who specializes in professional fasting. He achieves great renown by fasting for forty days straight - but his agent advises him that after forty days, his audience's attention would wane. This is a source of great discontent for the Hunger Artist, since it prevents him from achieving the heights of artistic perfection he dreams of. Eventually, professional fasting falls out of fashion, and to sustain himself, the artist joins a circus, where he is free to fast for as long as he likes. He has the artistic freedom he had craved - but he lacks fame and attention, and he withers.

In his brave and provocative article "Why Artists Starve," the philosopher Kevin Melchionne argues that Kafka's story explains why contemporary artists continue to create such (in Melchionne's own words) awful art. Briefly put, artists are attention seekers, and the artworld is a machine for creating status and attention.

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I love art. Monet's Water Lilies make my heart beat faster, my insides somersault, and my mind swirl with words and colors. Few experiences compare. I don't love the things that get exhibited in contemporary art galleries. If you prefer: I don't love contemporary art.

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The School of Life | Lead a More Fulfilled Life

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The School of Life | Lead a More Fulfilled Life

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The School of Life | Your Path to Mental Wellbeing

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The School of Life is a global organisation helping people to lead more fulfilled lives through useful resources and tools.

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A book of Eastern Bloc matchbox labels, 1950s to early 1980s, from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia & beyond. Over 400 labels covering animals, food, war, sport, industry, architecture, the arts, outdoors, transport, children, household & space. Paperback measuring 165x115mm.

Made in collaboration with Jane McDevitt of Maraid Design.

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A book of Eastern Bloc matchbox labels, 1950s to early 1980s, from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia & beyond. Over 400 labels covering animals, food, war, sport, industry, architecture, the arts, outdoors, transport, children, household & space. Paperback measuring 165x115mm. Made in collaboration with Jane McDev

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Last Rites Gallery is located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, and they've adopted their location for the title (and attitude) of their newest exhibition: "Hell's Kitchen: a surreal summer show." In it, a collection of established and emerging surrealist artists contribute pieces disturbing, haunting, and strangely beautiful; the show is up through the end of August, and we were lucky enough to get our hands on a few highlights.

"Hell's Kitchen: a surreal summer show" is on display through August 31 at Last Rites Gallery, located at 325 W 38th Street Store #1 in New York.

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Stunning, Inventive Surrealist Art from 'Hell's Kitchen'

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Last Rites Gallery is located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, and they've adopted their location for the title (and attitude) of their newest exhibition: "Hell's Kitchen: a surreal summer show ."

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Ten days after I called off my engagement I was supposed to go on a scientific expedition to study the whooping crane on the gulf coast of Texas. Surely, I will cancel this trip, I thought, as I shopped for nylon hiking pants that zipped off at the knee. Surely, a person who calls off a wedding is meant to be sitting sadly at home, reflecting on the enormity of what has transpired and not doing whatever it is I am about to be doing that requires a pair of plastic clogs with drainage holes. Surely, I thought, as I tried on a very large and floppy hat featuring a pull cord that fastened beneath my chin, it would be wrong to even be wearing a hat that looks like this when something in my life has gone so terribly wrong.

Ten days earlier I had cried and I had yelled and I had packed up my dog and driven away from the upstate New York house with two willow trees I had bought with my fiancé.

Ten days later and I didn't want to do anything I was supposed to do.

*

I went to Texas to study the whooping crane because I was researching a novel. In my novel there were biologists doing field research about birds and I had no idea what field research actually looked like and so the scientists in my novel draft did things like shuffle around great stacks of papers and frown. The good people of the Earthwatch organization assured me I was welcome on the trip and would get to participate in "real science" during my time on the gulf. But as I waited to be picked up by my team in Corpus Christi, I was nervous-I imagined everyone else would be a scientist or a birder and have daunting binoculars.

The biologist running the trip rolled up in in a large white van with a boat hitch and the words BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES stenciled across the side. Jeff was forty-ish, and wore sunglasses and a backward baseball cap. He had a winter beard and a neon-green cast on his left arm. He'd broken his arm playing hockey with his sons a week before. The first thing Jeff said was, "We'll head back to camp, but I hope you don't mind we run by the liquor store first." I felt more optimistic about my suitability for science.

*

Not long before I'd called off my engagement it was Christmas.

The woman who was supposed to be my mother-in-law was a wildly talented quilter and made stockings with Beatrix Potter characters on them for every family member. The previous Christmas she had asked me what character I wanted to be (my fiancé was Benjamin Bunny). I agonized over the decision. It felt important, like whichever character I chose would represent my role in this new family. I chose Squirrel Nutkin, a squirrel with a blazing red tail-an epic, adventuresome figure who ultimately loses his tail as the price for his daring and pride.

I arrived in Ohio that Christmas and looked to the banister to see where my squirrel had found his place. Instead, I found a mouse. A mouse in a pink dress and apron. A mouse holding a broom and dustpan, serious about sweeping. A mouse named Hunca Munca. The woman who was supposed to become my mother-in-law said, "I was going to do the squirrel but then I thought, that just isn't CJ. This is CJ."

What she was offering was so nice. She was so nice. I thanked her and felt ungrateful for having wanted a stocking, but not this stocking. Who was I to be choosy? To say that this nice thing she was offering wasn't a thing I wanted?

When I looked at that mouse with her broom, I wondered which one of us was wrong about who I was.

*

The whooping crane is one of the oldest living bird species on earth. Our expedition was housed at an old fish camp on the Gulf Coast next to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, where three hundred of the only six hundred whooping cranes left in the world spend their winters. Our trip was a data-collecting expedition to study behavior and gather data about the resources available to the cranes at Aransas.

The ladies bunkhouse was small and smelled woody and the rows of single beds were made up with quilts. Lindsay, the only other scientist, was a grad student in her early twenties from Wisconsin who loved birds so much that when she told you about them she made the shapes of their necks and beaks with her hands-a pantomime of bird life. Jan, another participant, was a retired geophysicist who had worked for oil companies and now taught high school chemistry. Jan was extremely fit and extremely tan and extremely competent. Jan was not a lifelong birder. She was a woman who had spent two years nursing her mother and her best friend through cancer. They had both recently died and she had lost herself in caring for them, she said. She wanted a week to be herself. Not a teacher or a mother or a wife. This trip was the thing she was giving herself after their passing.

At five o'clock there was a knock on the bunk door and a very old man walked in, followed by Jeff.

"Is it time for cocktail hour?" Warren asked.

Warren was an eighty-four-year-old bachelor from Minnesota. He could not do most of the physical activities required by the trip, but had been on ninety-five Earthwatch expeditions, including this one once before.Warren liked birds okay. What Warren really loved was cocktail hour.

When he came for cocktail hour that first night, his thin, silver hair was damp from the shower and he smelled of shampoo. He was wearing a fresh collared shirt and carrying a bottle of impossibly good scotch.

Jeff took in Warren and Jan and me. "This is a weird group," Jeff said.

"I like it," Lindsay said.

*

In the year leading up to calling off my wedding, I often cried or yelled or reasoned or pleaded with my fiancé to tell me that he loved me. To be nice to me. To notice things about how I was living.

One particular time, I had put on a favorite red dress for a wedding. I exploded from the bathroom to show him. He stared at his phone. I wanted him to tell me I looked nice, so I shimmied and squeezed his shoulders and said, "You look nice! Tell me I look nice!" He said, "I told you that you looked nice when you wore that dress last summer. It's reasonable to assume I still think you look nice in it now."

Another time he gave me a birthday card with a sticky note inside that said BIRTHDAY. After giving it to me, he explained that because he hadn't written in it, the card was still in good condition. He took off the sticky and put the unblemished card into our filing cabinet.

I need you to know: I hated that I needed more than this from him. There is nothing more humiliating to me than my own desires. Nothing that makes me hate myself more than being burdensome and less than self-sufficient. I did not want to feel like the kind of nagging woman who might exist in a sit-com.

These were small things, and I told myself it was stupid to feel disappointed by them. I had arrived in my thirties believing that to need things from others made you weak. I think this is true for lots of people but I think it is especially true for women. When men desire things they are "passionate." When they feel they have not received something they need they are "deprived," or even "emasculated," and given permission for all sorts of behavior. But when a woman needs she is needy. She is meant to contain within her own self everything necessary to be happy.

That I wanted someone to articulate that they loved me, that they saw me, was a personal failing and I tried to overcome it.

When I found out that he'd slept with our mutual friend a few weeks after we'd first started seeing each other, he told me we hadn't officially been dating yet so I shouldn't mind. I decided he was right. When I found out that he'd kissed another girl on New Year's Eve months after that, he said that we hadn't officially discussed monogamy yet, and so I shouldn't mind. I decided he was right.

I asked to discuss monogamy and, in an effort to be the sort of cool girl who does not have so many inconvenient needs, I said that I didn't need it. He said he thought we should be monogamous.

*

Here is what I learned once I began studying whooping cranes: only a small part of studying them has anything to do with the birds. Instead we counted berries. Counted crabs. Measured water salinity. Stood in the mud. Measured the speed of the wind.

It turns out, if you want to save a species, you don't spend your time staring at the bird you want to save. You look at the things it relies on to live instead. You ask if there is enough to eat and drink. You ask if there is a safe place to sleep. Is there enough here to survive?

Wading through the muck of the Aransas Reserve I understood that every chance for food matters. Every pool of drinkable water matters. Every wolfberry dangling from a twig, in Texas, in January, matters. The difference between sustaining life and not having enough was that small.

If there were a kind of rehab for people ashamed to have needs, maybe this was it. You will go to the gulf. You will count every wolfberry. You will measure the depth of each puddle.

*

More than once I'd said to my fiancé, How am I supposed to know you love me if you're never affectionate or say nice things or say that you love me.

He reminded me that he'd said "I love you" once or twice before. Why couldn't I just know that he did in perpetuity?

I told him this was like us going on a hiking trip and him telling me he had water in his backpack but not ever giving it to me and then wondering why I was still thirsty.

He told me water wasn't like love, and he was right.

There are worse things than not receiving love. There are sadder stories than this. There are species going extinct, and a planet warming. I told myself: who are you to complain, you with these frivolous extracurricular needs?

*

On the gulf, I lost myself in the work. I watched the cranes through binoculars and recorded their behavior patterns and I loved their long necks and splashes of red. The cranes looked elegant and ferocious as they contorted their bodies to preen themselves. From the outside, they did not look like a species fighting to survive.

In the mornings we made each other sandwiches and in the evenings we laughed and lent each other fresh socks. We gave each other space in the bathroom. Forgave each other for telling the same stories over and over again. We helped Warren when he had trouble walking. What I am saying is that we took care of each other. What I am saying is we took pleasure in doing so. It's hard to confess, but the week after I called off my wedding, the week I spent dirty and tired on the gulf, I was happy.

On our way out of the reserve, we often saw wild pigs, black and pink bristly mothers and their young, scurrying through the scrub and rolling in the dust among the cacti. In the van each night, we made bets on how many wild pigs we might see on our drive home.

One night, halfway through the trip, I bet reasonably. We usually saw four, I hoped for five, but I bet three because I figured it was the most that could be expected.

Warren bet wildly, optimistically, too high.

"Twenty pigs," Warren said. He rested his interlaced fingers on his soft chest.

We laughed and slapped the vinyl van seats at this boldness.

But the thing is, we saw twenty pigs on the drive home that night. And in the thick of our celebrations, I realized how sad it was that I'd bet so low. That I wouldn't even let myself imagine receiving as much as I'd hoped for.

*

What I learned to do, in my relationship with my fiancé, was to survive on less. At what should have been the breaking point but wasn't, I learned that he had cheated on me. The woman he'd been sleeping with was a friend of his I'd initially wanted to be friends with, too, but who did not seem to like me, and who he'd gaslit me into being jealous of, and then gaslit me into feeling crazy for being jealous of.

The full course of the gaslighting took a year, so by the time I truly found out what had happened, the infidelity was already a year in the past.

It was new news to me but old news to my fiancé.

Logically, he said, it doesn't matter anymore.

It had happened a year ago. Why was I getting worked up over ancient history?

I did the mental gymnastics required.

I convinced myself that I was a logical woman who could consider this information about having been cheated on, about his not wearing a condom, and I could separate it from the current reality of our life together.

Why did I need to know that we'd been monogamous? Why did I need to have and discuss inconvenient feelings about this ancient history?

I would not be a woman who needed these things, I decided.

I would need less. And less.

I got very good at this.

*

"The Crane Wife" is a story from Japanese folklore. I found a copy in the reserve's gift shop among the baseball caps and bumper stickers that said GIVE A WHOOP. In the story, there is a crane who tricks a man into thinking she is a woman so she can marry him. She loves him, but knows that he will not love her if she is a crane so she spends every night plucking out all of her feathers with her beak. She hopes that he will not see what she really is: a bird who must be cared for, a bird capable of flight, a creature, with creature needs. Every morning, the crane-wife is exhausted, but she is a woman again. To keep becoming a woman is so much self-erasing work. She never sleeps. She plucks out all her feathers, one by one.

*

One night on the gulf, we bought a sack of oysters off a passing fishing boat. We'd spent so long on the water that day I felt like I was still bobbing up and down in the current as I sat in my camp chair. We ate the oysters and drank. Jan took the shucking knife away from me because it kept slipping into my palm. Feral cats trolled the shucked shells and pleaded with us for scraps.

Jeff was playing with the sighting scope we used to watch the birds, and I asked, "What are you looking for in the middle of the night?" He gestured me over and when I looked through the sight the moon swam up close.

I think I was afraid that if I called off my wedding I was going to ruin myself. That doing it would disfigure the story of my life in some irredeemable way. I had experienced worse things than this, but none threatened my American understanding of a life as much as a called-off wedding did. What I understood on the other side of my decision, on the gulf, was that there was no such thing as ruining yourself. There are ways to be wounded and ways to survive those wounds, but no one can survive denying their own needs. To be a crane-wife is unsustainable.

I had never seen the moon so up-close before. What struck me most was how battered she looked. How textured and pocked by impacts. There was a whole story written on her face-her face, which from a distance looked perfect.

*

It's easy to say that I left my fiancé because he cheated on me. It's harder to explain the truth. The truth is that I didn't leave him when I found out. Not even for one night.

I found out about the cheating before we got engaged and I still said yes when he proposed in the park on a day we were meant to be celebrating a job I'd just gotten that morning. Said yes even though I'd told him I was politically opposed to the diamonds he'd convinced me were necessary. Said yes even though he turned our proposal into a joke by making a Bachelor reference and giving me a rose. I am ashamed of all of this.

He hadn't said one specific thing about me or us during the proposal, and on the long trail walk out of the park I felt robbed of the kind of special declaration I'd hoped a proposal would entail, and, in spite of hating myself for wanting this, hating myself more for fishing for it, I asked him, "Why do you love me? Why do you think we should get married? Really?"

He said he wanted to be with me because I wasn't annoying or needy. Because I liked beer. Because I was low-maintenance.

I didn't say anything. A little further down the road he added that he thought I'd make a good mother.

This wasn't what I hoped he would say. But it was what was being offered. And who was I to want more?

I didn't leave when he said that the woman he had cheated on me with had told him over the phone that she thought it was unfair that I didn't want them to be friends anymore, and could they still?

I didn't leave when he wanted to invite her to our wedding. Or when, after I said she could not come to our wedding, he got frustrated and asked what he was supposed to do when his mother and his friends asked why she wasn't there.

Reader, I almost married him.

*

Even now I hear the words as shameful: Thirsty. Needy. The worst things a woman can be. Some days I still tell myself to take what is offered, because if it isn't enough, it is I who wants too much. I am ashamed to be writing about this instead of writing about the whooping cranes, or literal famines, or any of the truer needs of the world.

But what I want to tell you is that I left my fiancé when it was almost too late. And I tell people the story of being cheated on because that story is simple. People know how it goes. But it's harder to tell the story of how I convinced myself I didn't need what was necessary to survive. How I convinced myself it was my lack of needs that made me worthy of love.

*

After cocktail hour one night, in the cabin's kitchen, I told Lindsay about how I'd blown up my life the week before. I told her because I'd just received a voice mail saying I could get a partial refund for my high-necked wedding gown. The refund would be partial because they had already made the base of the dress but had not done any of the beadwork yet. They said the pieces of the dress could still be unstitched and used for something else. I had caught them just in time.

I told Lindsay because she was beautiful and kind and patient and loved good things like birds and I wondered what she would say back to me. What would every good person I knew say to me when I told them that the wedding to which they'd RSVP'd was off and that the life I'd been building for three years was going to be unstitched and repurposed?

Lindsay said it was brave not to do a thing just because everyone expected you to do it.

Jeff was sitting outside in front of the cabin with Warren as Lindsay and I talked, tilting the sighting scope so it pointed toward the moon. The screen door was open and I knew he'd heard me, but he never said anything about my confession.

What he did do was let me drive the boat.

The next day it was just him and me and Lindsay on the water. We were cruising fast and loud. "You drive," Jeff shouted over the motor. Lindsay grinned and nodded. I had never driven a boat before. "What do I do?" I shouted. Jeff shrugged. I took the wheel. We cruised past small islands, families of pink roseate spoonbills, garbage tankers swarmed by seagulls, fields of grass and wolfberries, and I realized it was not that remarkable for a person to understand what another person needed.
teaches creative writing at Colgate University. Her novel, Family of Origin, is published by Doubleday.
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Ten days after calling off her engagement, CJ Hauser travels to the Gulf Coast to live among scientists and whooping cranes.

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nontoxicprint | Nontoxic Printmaking, Safe Painting & Printed Art

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nontoxicprint | Nontoxic Printmaking, Safe Painting & Printed Art

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There is a growing number of citrus-based solvents on the market. The key ingredient, This solvent is more powerful than mineral spirits, strong enough to dissolve hardened acrylics, oil paint, printing ink, (and even some plastics) , yet medical studies have found less carcinogenic or neurotoxin hazards to humans comparable to the petrochemical solvents. D-Limonene, also known as orange oil, the possibly safer and innovative solvent extracted from orange peel, can be purchased directly from the citrus industry. For example, see
www.citrusdepot.net.

Users should, nevertheless, handle the solvent with care: ensure good ventilation and take fire precautions when using the new orange oil solvents. Unlike oil-based products, orange oil is considered biodegradable. Concentrated orange oil is a very powerful - not a benign - chemical that dissolves plastic and fats, hence should be treated with respect, as misuse of the concentrated oil can cause harm to the body. Extreme exposures are known to have caused lung damage in users.

'CitraSolv', or 'De-Solv-it' are made for the DIY mass market and can be purchased in hardware and DIY super stores. A variety of citrus-based safe solvents are on the market (such as 'D*Solve', 'CitraSolv', or 'De-Solv-it'). These remove acrylics, etching grounds and hardened ink and paint.

Mark Zaffron's - ZAcryl 'D*Solve' - was sold trough printmaking and art materials suppliers. Products such as 'D*Solve' utilized D-Limonene sparingly and mixed with milder ingredients to avoid hazardous solvent concentrations, and to reduce any fire hazard. The product is no longer available, but other companies make similar products (see below). Make sure you read 'msds' safety information. Also something to watch out for: some of the bigger brands of 'citrus' solvent mix their plant derived solutions with conventional petroleum derived materials to cut cost (neurotoxins).

"This truly revolutionary solvent was formulated as an alternative to petroleum-based turpentines and thinners. It is made from 100% renewable agricultural resources of soy, corn, and citrus, and is non-polluting, non-carcinogenic, and bio-degradable. Less than a teaspoon will thoroughly clean a large plate. DSolve will even strip dried ink from etched lines." Dick Blick

below, a similar product, made for artist use: 'NaturalEarthPaint' (https://www.naturalearthpaint.com) . This website also contains a useful and informative 'how-to' page on making your own traditional painting mediums, using simple ingredients and recipes (Gouache, Egg Tempera, etc.)

Natural Paint Recipes

"Does not irritate the skin / Does not emit harmful vapors. / Soy-based" (company quote).

SAFETY NOTE: NEVER INHALE CONCENTRATED VOC's!

concentrated VOCs when inhaled (including plant-derived VOCs) may cause lung damage or even death by asphyxiation

D-Limonene Safety
The active ingredient in orange oil, D-Limonene is a natural yet very powerful solvent. In concentrated form and vaporized it may present a significant inhalation hazard; also it is highly flammable. If using substantial amounts of pure orange oil and over prolonged periods, work in a well ventilated area, and ideally also use an organic vapor mask. Most citrus based solvents utilize the power of this natural paint thinner in aqueous solutions, and accompanied by other ingredients such as soy oil and corn oil and detergents.

Research into Bio Solvents

The now established bio solvent industry conducts some of the research into safer solvent, paint and ink alternatives

not all their solutions are as safe as claimed!

Two companies supplying ingredients for bio-solvents and volume supplies for industrial use (for instance in the printing industry) are Citrus Depot and Vertec Biosolvents. Both of these firms conduct leading research and development into nontoxic solvent technologies.

Vertec claim to be 'the world's most innovative supplier of sustainable biobased solvents derived from corn, soybeans, citrus fruits and other renewable feedstocks', and the company also pursue a carbon-neutral policy. The company just announced a new product - its 'DLR blend', a cheaper and environmentally friendly alternative to d-limonene, which may have uses and applications in painting and printing.

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There is a growing number of citrus-based solvents on the market. The key ingredient, This solvent is more powerful than mineral spirits, strong enough to dissolve hardened acrylics, oil paint, printing ink, (and even some plastics) , yet medical studies have found less carcinogenic or neurotoxin hazards to humans comparable to the petrochemical solvents.

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nontoxicprint | Nontoxic Printmaking, Safe Painting & Printed Art

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nontoxicprint | Nontoxic Printmaking, Safe Painting & Printed Art

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by Friedhard Kiekeben | contributions by Donna Adams, Keith Howard, Anne VanOppen, G. Ferstman, and Annie Day

2019

Rembrandt: 'Self-Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill', 1639. The unique qualities of traditional line etching can easily be obtained through contemporary methods and materials...without exposure to neurotoxic and carcinogenic fumes.

In line etching a thin coating is applied to a metal plate. Once dry, the image is drawn into this corrosion resistant surface with a variety of tools, revealing the bare metal beneath.

The Etching Process cuts into the plate through chemical action (increasingly electro-chemically, rather than through acid corrosion) so that the incised intaglio plate can then be inked and printed as a crisp line etching.

Line etching was Rembrandt's preferred form of printing, and the vibrancy of his gestural line work remains unsurpassed. Many of the 17th century etching grounds are toxic, but new grounds finally allow for the medium to be mastered without exposing the artist or student to the health risks of old.

Innovative Hard Ground Solutions research into nontoxic' etching ground
materials, without the hazards

Curiously, some of the most practicable solutions are still put forward by private individuals who succeed in finding a specific printmaking purpose in products from other fields, rather than by the art materials industry. Perhaps, centuries of reliance on tar compositions for etching is hard to overcome? There is little doubt that the old resists and solvents carry high risks... evidence of sickness, nerve damage, and cancer in long term users is widely known in the profession, yet continues to be frequently ignored.

Keith Howard first pioneered what he called 'nontoxic' intaglio practice in the late 1980s when he started testing water based products from a hardware store as etching resists. Most recently, a safer waterproofing product from Australia (see below) became popular amongst printmakers as a near perfect hard ground; with less health risks and noxious fumes, giving great etched lines, and plate sanding is not a necessity.

There are / were several custom developed acrylic hard grounds on the market, for instance Mark Zaffron's original: . The suppliers' websites provide detailed specifications and usage instructions. Both products can be regarded as fairly safe to use, and deliver good results on all metals. These innovative acrylic grounds are recommended as a replacement for the traditional tar-based products (solutions and ball grounds) with their dizzying odors and carcinogenic potential. Z*ACRYL Hard Ground Solution (discontinued), and LASCAUX Hard Resist N o t e : Neither acrylic emulsions made by artists paint manufacturers, nor the ones made for domestic use as floor polish (KLEAR / SCJ Pledge / Future etc.) are completey 'safe' or risk free, and possibly require some respiratory protection, and require detailed process knowledge for safe use.

Acrylics, Polymer Paints and Polymerization:
Toxicity and Safety Considerations

For many acrylic hard grounds, plates should be finely abraded with sandpaper or fine steel wool, either by hand or using an electric sander. The fine tooth on the plate then allows the acrylic to bond with the surface without chipping.

Note: highly polished plates can be prone to chipping with some acrylics. Keith Howard recommends using a kind of flow coating approach where the emulsion is poured rather than brushed onto the plate. See: BEGINNERS COMPENDIUM. A good ground may also be laid by brushing on a thin coating with a flat-headed sponge brush, or by airbrushing.

Liz Chalfin, acrylic hard ground etching.

Zea Mays Printmaking is a studio, workshop, gallery, educational facility and research center

dedicated to sustainable printmaking practices.﻿﻿

Etching Depth

For deep etching use the acrylic ground 'as is'. For very fine, detailed work dilute the acrylic with 5% to 10% water to achieve a thin coating. The Lascaux Hard Ground Resist may be substituted with the cheaper Lascaux 2060 clear gloss varnish as a hard ground base. 2060 dries to a hard and mirror-like surface that accepts line work with great clarity and does not chip. Koh-i-Noor black ink is one of the best colourants to use to get a black hard ground. It can be added to any clear acrylic to make a black hard ground, aquatint, or stop out varnish.

brushing on an acrylic hard ground onto an etched zinc plate and its print. A variety of traditional etching and engraving tools: etching needle, scraper, burnisher, burin. Today, artists also use wire wool, sandpaper, Dremel tools, and power tool attachments as drawing and engraving implements for etching. See Intaglio Manual for details.

'Big' Etching Ground highly detailed line work, a versatile, 'traditional' feeling ground, now used by many printmakers,

nontoxic' if used with precautions, caution when heating the product,

"Did you know that a traditional etching ground contains arsenic, lead, mercury to name but a few toxic elements which can not only be breathed in through your air ways but also absorbed through your skin."
Trefeglwys Print Studios

BIG
Marnix Everaert, untitled etching, 1/1

The print was made on copper with BIG as a hard ground.

Etched in ferric. Inked with traditional Charbonnel oil-based ink

and a viscosity roll up to get the gradient.

Printed on Zerkall etching paper
www.marnix-everaert.be/

TIP: ACRYLIC HARD GROUND + KOH-NOOR 3080-4 BLACK INK = BLACK HARD GROUND

Cross hatching and loops drawn into an acrylic hard ground on copper, step-etched in Edinburgh Etch for 20 and 40 minutes, and printed using Charbonnel etching ink. Make sure you use a sharp etching tool to draw into the acrylic ground. Steel needles require frequent sharpening. Ideally use a hardened needle such as Blick's Carbide Point Scribe (left) or a diamond tip needle. For use in large printmaking classes a sharp chipboard screw with tape wrapped around the shank makes a surprisingly good etching and dry-pointing tool.

Acrylic hard grounds give crisp line reproduction and, unlike traditional grounds, are not prone to foul-biting or pitting. The tough acrylic surface can also act as the actual printing surface, allowing a white plate tone to be printed with ease.

The Lascaux Hard Resist can also be used on a previously etched plate for re-etching. For best results start by de-greasing and slightly roughening the plate surface - this helps the acrylic bond with the metal and actually aids the etching process. Previously etched copper plates require treatment with a salt and vinegar de-oxidizing solution. For fine detail to etch faithfully, apply the ground thinly and then dry the plate in warm air. Once dry, use a sharp etching needle or other 'improvised' implements such as wire brushes or coarse sand paper strips for drawing into the ground.

The world's oldest makers of etching ink Charbonnel / Lefranc have recently introduced their own line of water-miscible oil based etching inks (comparable to These inks and mediums promise the same aesthetic quality and richness of tone and line as the existing oil based products. Many art school print programs use both oil based inks and water based inks such as 'Caligo Safe Wash') which they call 'Aqua Wash'. Great news for lovers of traditional etching, using oil based inks. Akua Intaglio; both offer certain benefits and unique aesthetic qualities. There no longer is the need for solvent use other than water and detergents.

Friedhard Kiekeben: Shatter, etched intaglio print, 2004

I prefer using a mixture of 50% Akua ink

Many Printmakers and Studios use acrylic floor finish as a hard ground solution (Howard Ground). The product made by Johnson sells as SC Johnson 'Future/ now Pledge' in the US, 'Super Shine' in Australia, and 'Pronto Wax', 'Carefree', 'Klir', or 'KLEAR' in Europe. It is also very popular with model makers as a durable clear varnish, and I use it as a finishing coat on metal sculptures.

If 'KLEAR (SCJ) is locally unavailable (Europe), use alternative acrylic floor finish products, such as Diversey 'Carefree', or 'Bona Tech' gloss polish. During a recent course in Germany an acrylic floor care product by Melerud gave great results: use two thin coats in succession, applied with a sponge brush, for the best hard ground. A single coat gives great permeable effects.

https://www.janitorialsupplies.co.uk/carefree-emulsion-floor-polish.html

Bona Tech - Parkett Polish Glnzend
"nicht als gefhrlich eingestuft"

The Contemporary Printmaker Keith Howard

This widely available acrylic makes a very effective hard ground using a flow-coating approach. We would suggest also adding Koh-i-Noor drawing ink to get a good black, unless a clear ground is required. Donna Adams explains the application of this ground in her Beginners CompendiumLike many domestic products that are sold in supermarkets and hardware stores floor varnish may contain glycol ether, sometimes in significant quantities. Although the industry downplays this hidden solvent, it would seem sensible to always check the product's msds sheet and usage instructions before use. Long term exposure to glycol ether may lead to kidney damage and there is new evidence of reproductive toxicity, see: - click here for details. The Toxicity of Solvents. To be on the safe side, ensure good local ventilation and wear a mask during the use of these cheap and popular acrylic emulsions. Recent research carried out in the UK (house painter study) confirms that the kind of low-level glycol ether exposure produced by drying domestic floor polish carries significant health risks, and reproductive hazards.

MSDS comparison in pdf format: generic floor finish Johnson floor finish

Protection against low level VOC exposure Today there are many paint products that are marketed as safe, yet there may still be harmful low-level VOC emissions, such as glycol ether. Examples: many water-based paints, acrylic floor finish, some artist acrylics, low odor, low VOC solvents, and printmaking resists.

Although a full organic respirator may be impractical for a days work we would recommend wearing a disposable light weight mask that offers some organic vapor protection. Dispose of the mask after a days work (about $ 5 per mask).

3M Particulate Respirator 8514, N95, with Nuisance Level Organic Vapor Relief

Safe Stripping with Orange Zest Solvents - sample

An acrylic hard ground can be stripped off in a strong soda ash solution (1 part crystals to 3 parts warm water). Or use one of the excellent citrus-based solvents now on the market (such as 'D*Solve', 'CitraSolv', or 'De-Solv-it') which remove acrylics, etching grounds and hardened ink and paint with great ease.

'This truly revolutionary solvent was formulated as an alternative to petroleum-based turpentines and thinners. It is made from 100% renewable agricultural resources of soy, corn, and citrus, and is non-polluting, non-carcinogenic, and bio-degradable. Less than a teaspoon will thoroughly clean a large plate. DSolve will even strip dried ink from etched lines.'

There is a growing number of such citrus-based solvents on the market. The key ingredient, D-Limonene, also known as orange oil, the safe and innovative solvent extracted from orange peel, can be purchased directly from the citrus industry. For example, see www.citrusdepot.net. This solvent is more powerful than mineral spirits, strong enough to dissolve hardened acrylics, oil paint, printing ink, (and even some plastics) with ease, yet medical studies have found no carcinogenic or neurotoxin hazards comparable to the petrochemical solvents. Users should, nevertheless, still handle the solvent with care: ensure good ventilation/use vapor mask and take fire precautions when using the new orange oil solvents, and avoid prolonged direct inhalation. Unlike oil-based products, orange oil is considered biodegradable.

Some big brand 'orange' or 'citrus' solvents are mixed with traditional solvents, such as Naphtha or Glycol Ether, and cannot be considered a 'safer alternative'.

For more information click on our Safe Solvents page

below, a recent product, made for artist use: 'NaturalEarthPaint' ( https://www.naturalearthpaint.com)

Traditional Etching Grounds and their Health Hazards

'Breathing high vapor concentrations of this product may result in mild depression, convulsions, loss of consciousness, or lung damage.' (extract from MSDS). Traditional hard ground solutions often contain Naptha and Asphaltum. S uch products may also contain PAH, known carcinogens. Solid hard and soft ground compositions ('ball ground') for roll-on contain asphaltum and coal tar pitch. The cancer risk is exacerbated by heating on hot plates, by smoking with 'tapers' and by the use of mineral spirits for clean up.

(Left) A typical hard ground solution containing Naphtha and Asphaltum. (Right) A hard ground roller.

Involuntary exposure to the vapors of a naphta based hard ground solution gave me a headache, dizzyness, and asthma. Amongst German etchers such solutions are known as Abdecklack; the British Brunswick Black is similar. The inhalation risk of traditional stop-out is often underestimated. Direct and indirect exposure to toxic vapors is of serious concern in art schools, especially when spray aerosols and solvent fumes are emitted in the studios. Extraction systems are often insufficient, and often there is a reluctance to use safer products as an alternative.

For more information on solvent hazards click on the page The Toxicity of Solvents

Tar Products, Cancer, and Safeguards

There is overwhelming evidence that tar products cause cancer. See the following pdf fact sheet by the US National Toxicology Program.

'As a pollutant tar compounds have been identified as carcinogenic (causing cancer), mutagenic and teratogenic (causing birth defects)' Wikipedia.

Perhaps the prevalence of solvent based tar products represents the largest individual cause of cancer in the traditional print studio. This might go some way towards explaining why so many traditional print professionals contract cancer at some stage in their careers.

Tar products are traditionally utilized for their excellent water proofing (and etching resistant) properties. Through clever research, the Australian company Gripset recently developed a nontoxic kind of bitumen that may have many applications in printmaking, as a substitute for traditional grounds in etching or as a lithotine substitute in stone lithography. It is virtually free from harmful VOC's.

At the bottom of this page, the Australian printmaker Annie Day reports about the exciting mark-making possibilities of nontoxic bitumen.

petroleum-derived solvents when used indoors require the use of effective ventilation / local extraction and a personal respirator with organic vapor cartridge

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by Friedhard Kiekeben | contributions by Donna Adams, Keith Howard, Anne VanOppen, G. Ferstman, and Annie Day 2019 Rembrandt: 'Self-Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill', 1639. The unique qualities of traditional line etching can easily be obtained through contemporary methods and materials...without exposure to neurotoxic and carcinogenic fumes.

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Pantone Mixing Set IN200 in rubber base ink needed to mix the Pantone colors. Ink Knife shown made by Lamson is not included. And Victory Ink is no longer our house brand. Southern Ink has taken the place of the now defunct Victory Ink.
We carry a wide selection of rubber and oil based inks suitable for letterpress. At the end of this listing are the basic Pantone fan decks for color matching for coated and uncoated paper. We can also furnish Pantone ink books for Metallics and Pastels, and Tints and 4-color Process. These are all new and current books.
We are presently changing our ink supplier. Victory Ink in Birmingham announced over Christmas 2015 that they were closing the business. The announcement was rather abrupt, but they had recently lost two major printing accounts when those printing plants shut down. We have been working with Southern Ink in Austin, Texas as our new supplier. This is a small company but the family owning it has many years in the ink business, and understand what we need for letterpress. They have worked closely with local letterpress printers in Austin to provide suitable inks. We had excellent results with Victory and their products and so far have been very pleased with the new ink line. Southern produces all the normal range of inks, but importantly package in sizes useful for us starting with ink in 5 oz. tubes. The ink is all made in the U.S.A. which we strongly support.

Many ink makers have discontinued the one pound can in favor of the 2.2kg can that approximates the 5 pound can. That's a lot of ink to buy, but as offset printing continues to decline, the ink makers are focusing on the bottom line and what keeps them in business. The 2.2kg can is standard with most European ink makers, including Van Son, but since we don't carry those inks, we feel fortunate that our new supplier still supports the one pound can.

New Addition to our Ink Selection

We are pleased to add a new line of ink in tubes. These are packaged in 5 oz. tubes rather than our previous line that was packaged as 4 oz tubes. These offer controlled inking, lack of skinning over of ink as often happens in cans, and long term storage. The colors listed are standard PMS colors. Ink is packaged in aluminum tubes that are easy to roll up as the ink is used. These are soy and linseed oil base inks except for the metallics that are petroleum oil base inks. We have tried these inks in our own shop and find them very satisfactory. Custom colors are available based on using PMS color numbers. Until we reorganize this page, the tubes are listed at the bottom of this page.

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Pantone Mixing Set IN200 in rubber base ink needed to mix the Pantone colors. Ink Knife shown made by Lamson is not included. And Victory Ink is no longer our house brand. Southern Ink has taken the place of the now defunct Victory Ink.

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EVO Planner — The Most Funded Planner of All Time – Project EVO

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EVO Planner — The Most Funded Planner of All Time – Project EVO

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EVO Planner - The Most Funded Planner of All Time

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The Most Funded Planner of All Time - top 1% on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. A combination of a daily planner and intelligent mobile app. The system is personalized to YOU and specifically designed around how your Brain Type™ naturally works so you can achieve more flow and thrive.

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My sketchbooks - filled with dead insects, pasted plants, watercolor paintings, drawings, writings, coins, ticket stubs, and other assorted ephemera.

I kept these books for a number of years, but stopped abruptly when I was robbed at gunpoint in Central America in 2003. The robbers stole a bag containing a sketchbook with over nine months of work, and it was at that point that I stopped painting and started using code.

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My sketchbooks - filled with dead insects, pasted plants, watercolor paintings, drawings, writings, coins, ticket stubs, and other assorted ephemera. I kept these books for a number of years, but stopped abruptly when I was robbed at gunpoint in Central America in 2003.

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Sketchbooks Then and Now (Part 2) AND a NEW Giveaway! - Artists Network

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Sketchbooks Then and Now (Part 2) AND a NEW Giveaway! - Artists Network

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Editor's note: The following post is part 2 of a series from Drawing magazine's Material World column (Summer 2016) and features an article by Sherry Camhy on a timeless friend of the artist: the sketchbook.

In addition to this free article, Lucid Art is offering you the chance to win a FREE LUCY Camera Lucida drawing tool, just for commenting on this blog post! Simply tell us your favorite pencil or pen for sketching in the comments below, and you'll be automatically entered to win.

Come back soon for Part 3 of this article on sketchbooks from Drawing magazine and another chance to win more art swag!

Material World: Getting the Most out of Drawing Media (Part 2)
by Sherry Camhy, abridged from an earlier article Sketchbooks Today
The important thing about a sketchbook is not what it costs but whether it suits your individual artistic needs. It should be something you want to keep with you for drawing anywhere at any time.

Some artists use inexpensive sketchpads for practice. Others use bound sketchbooks for casual visual notations, for more serious studies or for completely finished images. Sketchbooks can also be private journals where artists maintain ongoing commentaries and visual diaries. Opening an old sketchbook of this type can be like remembering a long- forgotten dream.

You can turn anything you have on hand into a sketchbook if need be-why not? When I was 10 years old I turned my math textbook into my first sketchbook, unbeknown to my teacher. Much later I found an old French anatomy book in a thrift store and used it for a series of life drawings.

My first real sketchbook was a gift.

I was attending a sketch class, and the artist sitting next to me asked, "Why are you drawing in a newsprint pad?" I said that it didn't matter what I used, as I was just practicing. At our next class, he handed me an elegant leather-bound sketchbook. I was terrified to draw in it at first, but that fear forced me to pay serious attention to every line, figure and composition. It mattered. I loved the fine feel of the paper under my pencil. I kept that sketchbook snugly in my back pocket until it was full.
[Read Part 1: Sketchbooks Throughout History] Sketchbook Considerations
Here are a few things to keep in mind when shopping for and working in a new sketchbook:

* The papers used in different sketchbooks vary greatly in their color, thickness and texture, among other factors. Before purchasing a new sketchbook you want to determine whether the paper will suit your needs. Read the manufacturer's description carefully, then open up the book and feel the paper yourself. Check both sides of a sheet-they may feel different.

* Test the sturdiness of the front and back covers. Having a firm support behind your paper is important when working on location.

* Check whether pages can be re- moved neatly-you may want to be able to pull out individual drawings. On the contrary, you may prefer a permanently bound sketchbook from which it's difficult to remove pages. Note that with some books you may be able to remove a whole group of sheets, known as a signature, together in one piece, leaving no sign that pages are missing.

* You can make your own unique books from scratch using any kind of paper-lined, unlined, manufactured, handmade, printed, cut, torn, gesso-coated, painted or collaged. You can even create a small sketchbook with just an 8 1⁄2″-x-11″ sheet of paper. (Come back to ArtistsNetwork soon to see a demonstration in Part 3 of this series and learn how to make your own sketchbook.)

* Make your sketchbook your best friend. Don't leave home without it. And remember, if your sketchbook is just for you, spelling and drawing mistakes don't matter!

NOTE: Come back to ArtistsNetwork soon for Part 3: Sketchbooks Today (and another chance to win new drawing supplies!) And, remember to comment below with your favorite pencils/pens for your chance to win this LUCY Camera Lucida! Winner will be chosen February 28, 2017 (must be a US resident).

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Sketchbooks Then and Now (Part 2) AND a NEW Giveaway! - Artists Network

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Editor's note: The following post is part 2 of a series from Drawing magazine's Material World column (Summer 2016) and features an article by Sherry Camhy on a timeless friend of the artist: the sketchbook. In addition to this free article, Lucid Art is offering you the chance to win a FREE LUCY Camera Lucida drawing tool, just for commenting on this blog post!

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How to Use a Sketchbook | Art Prof: Create & Critique

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How to Use a Sketchbook | Art Prof: Create & Critique

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Partial Video Transcript, Julie Benbassat

"So, these are my sketchbooks. They're used for a variety of things. This is from my daily drawing assignment I did for myself 2 years ago in which I challenged myself to draw something everyday for a year. I called it the 'teadle' challenge because it was a combination of tea and doodle, and all the illustrations I did everyday were based on tea, which I love to drink. I am part tea.

It was a lot of fun, I have to say it was really hard though to keep myself motivated to keep trying something every single day. It also helped me a lot with conceptualizing ideas and thinking of themes. If you have one overarching idea but you don't know how to express it in only one way. I had Starbucks as an empress, an imperial empress, encouraging imperialism because Starbucks is imperialistic but has good tea sometimes.

So, this is my planner sketchbook. I use it for planning or working with paint. I'm someone who frequently uses pen and ink and that's really good, but sometimes learning how to paint and how to use value in color in a different way, not to define but rather to capture, is a really effective way of just trying to organize the world through your artistic vision.

You can also do some cute lil Pokemons, you don't have to, I love Pokemon. But, when you start working with nature you kind of learn the rules of how things work.

I also tend to really like working with green, so you'll see a lot of green sketches here just because it's my favorite color. You can also do really cute fantasy or planar studies of your breakfast. You know, what you eat may not look good but it will taste good visually to the people looking at your sketchbook.

This is what I call my mess up/shit notebook. I basically just take my notes in here, so I just put in the stuff that's happening every day. If there's a boring lecture I can just doodle it all away. it's just really good to have some loose paper to just express yourself in without worrying about what people think. I also put leaves in this one. I just tend to be happier when I mess up in it, I just think 'hmm... that's okay.'

I start my Sketchbook the opposite way and it's easier to just draw from the opposite side so I don't have smear marks as I do when I'm in this right handed world. I just go at it with a pen and have some fun. it also allows for great medium diversity so you can work with really really detailed ballpoint pen but then you could also work with very loose brushwork.

I really love nature so I end up taking a lot of notes about trees because they're amazing. if you mess up on a sketch I recommend putting another picture over the picture and taping it so noone will have to know, well other than you. You can just put stuff in from things you've done like this photo, or you can just really funny wacky things you see in the museum.

So, this is a sketchbook I did during the summer. it was a really good relaxing point of letting your mind unboggle all the ideas you wanted to do during the school year but you really couldn't because it's the school year. Summer allowed me to just kind of explore ideas with color pencil. Colored pencil is really good because it's very soft, but it also allows you to do a lot of shading. I think summer is a really good time for you to really explore some weird stuff, and you can also just write weird little notes you take about life.

I took a trip to Venice and I decided to bring my own sketchbook so I could really record my own finding some thoughts about the actual country in just one entity. Here's one entry and some sketchbooks come with these little pouches but you can honestly make it yourself. It kind of makes it a little bit of a scrapbook without actually having a scrapbook so, yeah, memories.

Sometimes, we go to these really cool art museums so I made little cute sketches of the glass and beads."

Partial Video Transcript, Julie Sharpe

"Hi, I'm Julie, and I'm a high school student from Missouri. My sketchbook has meant a lot of things to me; I write my personal thoughts in them, I write my comics in them, I also use them as observational sketching books. So, I just use them everyday to record my thoughts.

This is a pie chart I basically made to document how I spend my time with my sketchbook. So the majority of my time is spent flipping through old drawings, just trying to find ideas for what to draw next. The next part of my time I spend doing angry rants, and I actually do the large majority of my angry rants in, like, Spanish or Esperanto, and I also write them backwards because I don't want people to look over my shoulder and see what I'm drawing.

If I'm drawing my friends and I want them to see (the sketch), I'll just say, '"Hhey, look at this drawing,'" and then it'll just be another form of procrastination so I don't have to think about what else I should draw. I also feel kind of ashamed for just drawing the same thing. I feel like I draw way too many portraits a lot of the time.

I just spend time thinking about how I do that, but then I don't actually change what I draw...which is kind of bad. I also spend some time thinking about what I should actually draw, trying to break away from the habit of just drawing portraits, and then the small portion of time is actually spent drawing.

This sketchbook spread is a combination of my observational drawing and a comment that I made the other day. So the observational drawing was done in paint marker of the people on the Bboston subway, I think. I was trying to sketch them without making eye contact with them, which is kind of hard, because I was trying to focus on the facial features.

This one is a comic about how, whenever Ii have a lot of stuff, I'll procrastinate by just lying down on my bed and being on my phone.

This is a combination of observational sketches done at the airport. That was when I was travelling to Boston. I tried exaggerating lots of the facial features in this one. So, for example, this person has a huge nose, and like, a ridiculously big ball cap. But, that's not actually how they looked in real life; I tried to capture their figures.

This is just a comic about how whenever I'm sitting and just doing nothing in my room and my mom knocks on the door, I have to pull up my SAT math book and look like I'm actually doing something.

This is a gouache painting, -it's a self-portrait that I did from a mirror. I tried to capture my colours, -like, the colours on my face, -but also exaggerate them just slightly. Since it is a sketchbook, and I didn't want it to be a finished piece, I wrote some thoughts that I was having that day.

This page is just a collection of random scribbles that I think i did while I wasn't looking at the page. Sometimes I do that to get my mind flowing, and then I'll try to make shapes out of it.

I started a sketchbook I think on the first day of school. it's whenever I met one of my best friends and I just started off by drawing her, and she got really creeped out first, but then I don't know we just slowly became friends.

This is a little page or, like, a little portion of a page that my friend and I drew during psychology class. I think we were trying to capture our teacher's facial expression, 'cus she was very angry at the time, so we just drew a really, really angry person.

I always feel really awkward drawing people, especially my friends, but then I think they've gotten used to it, because I'll be known as the person who draws people during lunch. This sketchbook page was originally a colour study for a piece I was doing at the time, but i didn't exactly like it, so i covered it up with a brush pen I was using.

This was just my friend, and she's at the computers at the time. This page mostly consist of notes I was taking during portfolio class, but then my friend here was just sitting and looking at her phone or her Sketchbook, I think.

This is a spread of thumbnails that I did for my illustration class. Our assignment was to make fourty thumbnails based on an illustration prompt we were given, and so here I'm just testing out all the possibilities for the class.

This sketchbook is called 'Tthe "Dan Bible'", and it's basically a big comic book that my friend and I made over the course of a month. We illustrated two point five pages every single day. It's about this RA that we had during a camp, and his name was Dan. He looked like a heroic figure; we wanted the comic book series based on him.

This is the scene whenever the hero meets the villain in the story. So, you can see here that the villain is basically beheading a bunch of people and putting their heads on strings. That's supposed to be the height of the action, and in this scene, and then in this scene, they're supposed to look really terrifying while they hold the hero in their hand."

Partial Video Transcript, Catherine Huang

"A lot of the sketchbooks I keep are really small, just because I feel they're more convenient to put in my purse or my school bag or just carry around in my hand. I feel a sketchbook is a safe place. You don't have to show them to people. They're just for you sometimes. I start a sketchbook usually thinking 'oh it's going to be the best artwork in the whole world'. But, it's not going to be ever.

I first started out simple. I draw little trees, I draw a little things that are a little bit finished like that, or maybe I draw from observations such as these Rodin Sculptures I looked at. However, the longer I work in the sketchbook, the more these discrepancies started to pop up such as notes or just little doodles to help me think about my next project. And that's totally fine, I think it adds to the charm of this sketchbook. It's just what my brain thinks essentially.

For instance, this was also planning for a school assignment I had to do. You can't tell what it is in my sketchbook, but I understand what is going on so that's totally fine. Sometimes you can see some more finished things in my sketchbook. I know not everyone's sketchbook is like this and again, you do you.

Another thing I like to do is just work in different mediums in my sketchbook. These are pen and marker drawings. There was some pencil in there too and colored pencils. Sometimes I draw people, sometimes I draw places. Here is a place I drew and here is a person in comparison. These are also a bunch of notes I had to take in class. I didn't have a notebook so I just used my sketchbook. I also have a really bad habit of never finishing the last page of a sketchbook and I don't know why.

This is a more recent sketchbook I've been working on. When you first open it up, you can see somebody having a party and it's obligatory that you have to have fun with your sketchbook. Some notes in class. This is a very very boring class and I ended up drawing the classroom. It was a very fun class to be in, just because the teacher always talked and never gave us a chance to talk. If we did listen that would have been helpful, but it didn't make or break the class. You could do whatever you wanted in that class, so I just drew the classroom.

Sometimes things will come in the moment such as this parking lot. You might not think a parking lot is the best place to draw, but after I did the line drawing for the parking lot, I went back to my home and just colored it in and look what turned out. Sometimes I do more finished images, again this is something where I drew it in front of this building and then I took it back home and I colored it in.

There is some things that just aren't finished. If the feeling strikes you, you can just draw whatever you want. I tend to draw more realistically, but sometimes I like to draw cartoons."

Partial Video Transcript, Monika Hedman

"I have two different types of sketchbooks. The first one is the smaller sketchbook that I use for little doodles and then the bigger two, I use for planning school projects or bigger projects. I really like my small sketchbook because it allows me to just draw without thinking and let out a lot of different ideas that I have without having to create final pieces.

I like my bigger sketchbooks in a separate way because they allow me to plan out the composition and color scheme of my pieces and really think through all of my ideas so my final works are really strong and can stand on their own. These two pages in particular mean a lot to me because I was going through a lot of really stressful things in my life when I drew them. I felt like I was being pulled in a lot of different directions.

This one is a pretty stylized portrait with some hands coming at her, really sharp fingers because I felt like a lot of people were asking me to do a lot of different things. Then this one, the girl is dark but she's cut up in two different pieces because I really felt like I was in a lot of different places. Making these really helped me cope with this stress that was going on in my life at the time.

I actually drew this during English class in December because it was the first Christmas we had without my grandfather. It was a really tough time of year for a lot of people in my family. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of everything going on, I decided to draw a more whimsical portrait of him with Christmasy doodles coming out of the back to kind of make the season a little more cheery again and think about the good things going on.

Over the summer I made a life-size sea turtles out of plastic shopping bags to make a statement about plastic in our oceans. I used this sketchbook to plan out what to do for that project. So I learned about different types of knots and different ways to melt plastic bags in a safe way and then I also researched different artists, techniques to use in that project. So i used this sketchbook as a way to experiment so the final project looked good.

For my AP art concentration last year, I really wanted to look at other artists work to see what kind of style and what kind of work I wanted to create for my portfolio. So I took images from many different artists and glued them into my sketchbook and wrote about the work they were doing to see what kind of work I wanted to do and experiment with things I've never tried before."

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How to Use a Sketchbook | Art Prof: Create & Critique

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Partial Video Transcript, Julie Benbassat "So, these are my sketchbooks. They're used for a variety of things. This is from my daily drawing assignment I did for myself 2 years ago in which I challenged myself to draw something everyday for a year.

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use code: BACKTOSCHOOL for FREE SHIPPING on orders $24 or more! US ONLY.

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Unique and collectible merchandise, records, books, and more from some of your favorite artists and more!

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Unique and collectible merchandise, records, books, and more from some of your favorite artists and more!

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Paper Cutouts That Look Like Pen Drawings by Kanako Abe

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Paper Cutouts That Look Like Pen Drawings by Kanako Abe

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Impossibly Intricate Paper Cutouts Look Like They Were Created with a Pen

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When you have a keen attention to detail and a sharp X-Acto knife, a paper cutout can be as intricate as a drawing with a pen. Kanako Abe regularly demonstrates this via her Instagram, which is full of delicate creations inspired by the outdoors. From animal

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"Bitches Build Empires" Enamel Pin is available at the best price of 9.95 from Quirks! Handcrafted Goods & Unique Gifts | www.kinksandquirks.com

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"Bitches Build Empires" Enamel Pin is available at the best price of 9.95 from Quirks! Handcrafted Goods & Unique Gifts | www.kinksandquirks.com

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Quirks! Handcrafted Goods & Unique Gifts

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"Bitches Build Empires" Enamel Pin By Primitives by Kathy

A circular "Bitches Build Empires" high-quality hard enamel pin lending an arrow design and spiked trim with a butterfly clip closure. Comes packaged on a thoughtfully-coordinated vintage photograph card with "...And The Princess Lived Happily Ever After In Her Own Big Castle, With All Her Own Money And She Took Care Of Herself." sentiment with an intentional blank back space to personalize with a handwritten note for gifting.

Artist : Trash Talk by Annie

Materials : Enamel, Metal, Paper

Size : Pin: 1" Diameter, Card: 3" x 5"

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A circular "Bitches Build Empires" high-quality hard enamel pin lending an arrow design and spiked trim with a butterfly clip closure. Comes packaged on a thoughtfully-coordinated vintage photograph card with "...And The Princess Lived Happily Ever After In Her Own Big Castle, With All Her Own Money And She Took Care Of Herself."

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Fine Books, Personal Diaries, Journals & Stationery - Peter Pauper Press

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Fine Books, Personal Diaries, Journals & Stationery - Peter Pauper Press

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Fine Books, Personal Diaries, Journals & Stationery - Peter Pauper Press

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A publisher of fine books, personal diaries, journals & stationery, Peter Pauper Press offers a wide array of specialty gifts, books, boxed stationery sets, writing journals, kids activity books, daily planners and desk calendars. Free Shipping on all orders over $30.

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We make things for people who love books!

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Nintendo Super Mario Collector Enamel Pin Blind Box

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Nintendo Super Mario Collector Enamel Pin Blind Box

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nintendo super mario collector enamel pin blind box

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Nintendo Super Mario Collector Enamel Pin Blind Box

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Blind boxes meet enamel pins for the best mash-up ever! These blind boxes feature enamel pins of our favorite Super Mario characters! Which will you get? Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad? Good luck, it's a surprise! Sorry, no choice or returns. Approx 1 1/2" Metal Imported

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Pop-culture, gig and contemporary art print gallery in New York City

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Pop-culture, gig and contemporary art print gallery in New York City

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Pop-culture, gig and contemporary art print gallery in New York City

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Contemporary art space located in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn specializing in pop-culture, gig and alternative movie posters.