A list of Cyberscribes' Favorite Unusual Tools | |
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Bagpipe chanter reeds, brand new, cost about $6.00 and up. Ask your local pipe band to save the bad and blown-out ones for you. Drone reeds are pretty similar to thin bamboo, so you might try a garden shop, where bamboo is a dollar or two for about six feet. Cheryl Adams hs done monoline writing with a tampon, a hot dog, and on one occasion, a ham. Recently I tried cutting a Tinker Toy piece into a pen. It almost worked. L'll try again when I'm not rushed. Feathers - the feathery part, not the quill - might do interesting things, trimmed straight or as is. They're used in scene painting and faux finishing. And for backgrounds, you might try a feather duster. In scene painting they're used for things like the foliage in Watteau-style paintings Corinna, Chicago ________________ An ice cream spoon that I received from a good mate from Down Under a while back. The "spoon end" is very pretty, shaped like a heart, But it's really the other end I use. It's made of wood, about 2-2 1/2 cm broad, and the letters look as if written with a flat brush. Quite fun! Ulla, Sweden ________________ A pipette, filled it with walnut ink. I got out some Arches hot press paper and wow! now the words came alive. Victoria, SW Florida ________________ I use the small, clear plastic cups that that my kids get on bottles of water and sports drinks (that cover the drinking spout)... I also save small amounts of inks and paints in the bottles that contact lenses come in. LeeAnne Mallonee ________________ Here in Calgary, we cut the feet off our holey socks, make a smaller hole in the side and use them to cover our sweaty palms when we are working. Peggy Robinson, Canada ________________ Another useful everyday item I have in my studio is a housebrick inside a plastic supermarket carrier bag with the handles tied across the top. This gives me an easily moveable weight for steadying the end of a long ruler when I'm cutting or just whenever I need a good weight for pressing purposes. BEWARE - this brick is VERY heavy when it tumbles off the worktop onto your toe! *Also the soapstone pencil - perfect for marking dark papers and easily removeable with a soft cloth. *T-pins are a must in my studio. I generally use them for pricking through measurements but also for holding signatures together through the holes in the centre fold while I stitch them together.(notions dept. again) Margaret Beeches ________________ Bricks covered with paper - mostly brown paper bags - are wonderful weights for books, cards, etc. These three bricks are in constant use. I think this was a Carol Pallesen tip. Small jewelry boxes filled with pennies are wonderful little weights for lots projects. I wrap them with clear plastic tape and they are easily wiped off should they get mixed up with your paint. I have many different sizes and couldn't operate without them. This idea was one I learned in a bookmaking class at Natl convention, taught by Sandy Tilcock, west coast bookbinder. Virginia in MT ________________ A tub of Babywipes. They can be used to clean just about everything (including bairns botties, if you must!) They do seem to take off most major stubborn inks/paints from almost everything. I must give credit for this tip to Cindy (a Cyberscribe) who posted it some years ago. Catherine/Tiggy, Scotland ________________ Favorite odd tool for backgrounds: I have some heat sensitive moldablef oam that I heat with one of those heat tools for rubber stamp embossing, and press the foam onto just about anything textured. This makes great stamps for backgrounds. I also made one by pressing a half circle shape into some pen nibs. I use a rainbow stamp pad and this becomes my "letterhead" for invoices. And I think I would have to add my computer. I do most of my layouts on my graphics program: i can move things around, change sizes and spacing...saves a huge amount of time. Once I've got the layout look I want, I mess with type styles until I find something close to my lettering style; print it all out, draw lines over the type and then work on my *slant board/light table*. I do much more centered lettering now--a breeze using this technique. Of course, the other great thing about the computer is cyberscribes, and the internet...ah, life is good! Katy in Seattle ________________ I now keep a strip of sandpaper taped to my drawing table. Each time I pick up an eraser, I first feel to make sure it's dry, then clean it on the sandpaper. Corinna
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